thedrifter
10-12-05, 12:16 PM
Lima Company's return a triumph
By Danielle Winters
COLUMNIST
October 11, 2005
Fall break was not just a much-needed return home to the Columbus area for me.
On Friday morning, the Lima Company of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines — or just “Lima Company” as they are usually called, finally returned home from Iraq.
But they are not just “Lima Company.” We think of them as our brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and friends.
As I drove past the Walgreen’s in my town on Saturday the marquis said, “Welcome Home Lima Company!” and the Columbus radio station, 97.9 WNCI even had an announcement welcoming them home. The Columbus Dispatch dedicated several days of issues to the Marines.
Sometimes when people are so normal, the way the Marines of Lima Company are, it makes their accomplishments in the arena of war so much greater.
Next time you casually walk to class, bleary eyed and thinking about nothing, consider that over half of Lima Company is made up of college students — who put their lives on hold and on the line to serve their country.
Or, consider what it would be like to leave an established career, as so many of Lima Company’s members decided to do.
At least five members are police officers, five are mechanics, two are grade-school teachers, one owns a construction business, one is a real-estate agent and one runs a farm.
In his book, Making the Corps, Thomas E. Ricks says that “the group is supreme” and that one of the first things a new Marine recruit learns is to remove “I” from their vocabulary.
The 160 members of Lima Company were listening during that lesson in boot camp.
The touching stories that come home with our troops from their trips overseas are in abundance; but when they come home to your city, they seem to hit home a little more.
Lima Company tragically lost 16 of its members, and 37 of them were wounded.
But consider the circumstances: they were patrolling the area right near the Syrian border, and remembering that lesson from boot camp, many of them sacrificed themselves to rescue their buddies.
Take one story from the Dispatch article, that of Corporal Scott Bunker.
He has actually been home for the past few months, having been injured in an attack where he was not only hit by three bullets, but shrapnel that ultimately cost him his eye.
Bunker entered a house with other Marines in the company, knowing there were still enemy combatants hiding in the building — but he forged ahead, to recover the body of another Marine. The only part of the event he remembers clearly is the fellow Marine that saved him — Lance Corporal Nicholas Erdy.
Erdy was killed three days later, and the part that hurts Bunker the most is not his injuries, or even the fear of being killed, but the sadness that comes with losing a friend.
My own personal experience with Lima Company came this past summer, as I was driving with my mom through town.
One entire side of the road was blocked off for funeral parking, and the traffic was enormous. I thought, “someone important must have died to warrant the town shutting down like this.”
It was a dreary day for the summertime, and I began to get impatient as we waited in traffic.
As we passed a police officer directing traffic, I said to him impatiently – an attitude I still regret almost every day, “Who died to have the town shut down like this?” and his answer made me choke up with tears.
“A boy from the high school was killed in Iraq.”
I have a poster in my room of a sailor returning home and kissing his girl. There were a lot of similar pictures during Lima Company’s homecoming celebration on Friday.
Parents anxiously awaited a glimpse of the face that had only been a voice on the other end of the phone for too long a time.
Forty volunteers decorated a road in Columbus – now the Avenue of Flags, with 89 flags affixed with black ribbons to pay homage to the lost from Ohio. In addition to those flags, there were 250 flags with yellow ribbons.
This homecoming of Lima Company, like many others of wars past, brings tears and joy. We honor and remember them all.
Send comments to Danielle at dwinter@bgsu.edu
Ellie
By Danielle Winters
COLUMNIST
October 11, 2005
Fall break was not just a much-needed return home to the Columbus area for me.
On Friday morning, the Lima Company of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines — or just “Lima Company” as they are usually called, finally returned home from Iraq.
But they are not just “Lima Company.” We think of them as our brothers, sisters, sons, daughters and friends.
As I drove past the Walgreen’s in my town on Saturday the marquis said, “Welcome Home Lima Company!” and the Columbus radio station, 97.9 WNCI even had an announcement welcoming them home. The Columbus Dispatch dedicated several days of issues to the Marines.
Sometimes when people are so normal, the way the Marines of Lima Company are, it makes their accomplishments in the arena of war so much greater.
Next time you casually walk to class, bleary eyed and thinking about nothing, consider that over half of Lima Company is made up of college students — who put their lives on hold and on the line to serve their country.
Or, consider what it would be like to leave an established career, as so many of Lima Company’s members decided to do.
At least five members are police officers, five are mechanics, two are grade-school teachers, one owns a construction business, one is a real-estate agent and one runs a farm.
In his book, Making the Corps, Thomas E. Ricks says that “the group is supreme” and that one of the first things a new Marine recruit learns is to remove “I” from their vocabulary.
The 160 members of Lima Company were listening during that lesson in boot camp.
The touching stories that come home with our troops from their trips overseas are in abundance; but when they come home to your city, they seem to hit home a little more.
Lima Company tragically lost 16 of its members, and 37 of them were wounded.
But consider the circumstances: they were patrolling the area right near the Syrian border, and remembering that lesson from boot camp, many of them sacrificed themselves to rescue their buddies.
Take one story from the Dispatch article, that of Corporal Scott Bunker.
He has actually been home for the past few months, having been injured in an attack where he was not only hit by three bullets, but shrapnel that ultimately cost him his eye.
Bunker entered a house with other Marines in the company, knowing there were still enemy combatants hiding in the building — but he forged ahead, to recover the body of another Marine. The only part of the event he remembers clearly is the fellow Marine that saved him — Lance Corporal Nicholas Erdy.
Erdy was killed three days later, and the part that hurts Bunker the most is not his injuries, or even the fear of being killed, but the sadness that comes with losing a friend.
My own personal experience with Lima Company came this past summer, as I was driving with my mom through town.
One entire side of the road was blocked off for funeral parking, and the traffic was enormous. I thought, “someone important must have died to warrant the town shutting down like this.”
It was a dreary day for the summertime, and I began to get impatient as we waited in traffic.
As we passed a police officer directing traffic, I said to him impatiently – an attitude I still regret almost every day, “Who died to have the town shut down like this?” and his answer made me choke up with tears.
“A boy from the high school was killed in Iraq.”
I have a poster in my room of a sailor returning home and kissing his girl. There were a lot of similar pictures during Lima Company’s homecoming celebration on Friday.
Parents anxiously awaited a glimpse of the face that had only been a voice on the other end of the phone for too long a time.
Forty volunteers decorated a road in Columbus – now the Avenue of Flags, with 89 flags affixed with black ribbons to pay homage to the lost from Ohio. In addition to those flags, there were 250 flags with yellow ribbons.
This homecoming of Lima Company, like many others of wars past, brings tears and joy. We honor and remember them all.
Send comments to Danielle at dwinter@bgsu.edu
Ellie