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thedrifter
11-07-05, 07:53 AM
Soldiers' Stories: Major Christopher Toland
Updated: 11/6/2005 9:08:42 PM
By: Allison Toepperwein | Williamson & Bell County Bureau Chief

Major Christopher Toland heads to Lost Creek Country Club in Austin to swing a club every Friday during fall. The golf course is worlds away from where Toland has been.

"My granddad used to tell me when I would play golf, 'Chris, they can't do this in Cuba.' And I've never been to Cuba, but I think he's right," he said.

Toland is a Marine who reenlisted after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He didn't deploy until four years later, when he went to Iraq as a platoon leader with the Third Battalion, 25th Regiment.

Toland came home to Austin just last month. He said he was impressed with the men who served under him from the first day of combat. Watching them seemed more like choreography than the chaos of war.

"Ramps go down on the Amtraks, Marines get out and again it was amazing to see, it was like poetry in motion to watch these Marines rushing right into all of this fire," he said.

During his seven months of combat, Toland and the men he often called "his Marines" became close.

"We'd talk about everything and nothing. We would talk about everything from college football, what we were going to do when we got home, girlfriends, to the operations that were going on," he said.

Toland chronicled their time together with pictures, snapshots of men on a mission who remained in good spirits despite fighting a war.

He captured their personalities in the photos he took. That's why, just like their memories, the day he lost so many of them will never leave him.

"One Marine got shot coming through the front door, and after he got shot they threw a grenade and blew him up also. But, he kept rushing into the house, and he held that position until Marines could come in there and clear the house," Toland said.

Seven of Toland's Marines died in combat on Aug. 3, 2005. Only two of the men in the photo made it back home. He would lose 11 men under his command during his seven months in Iraq.

"You think about every little thing that led up to that Marine's death. So you think about everything you could have changed," he said.

Now back at home, Toland struggles every day with those thoughts, wishing to go back in time.

"All the deaths that I witnessed, I can't say that all of them were worth it. I would have done anything to bring those boys home," he said.

One of his soldiers, Lance Corporal Graham, came up with the idea of black wristbands that say “Die Strong,” a play on Lance Armstrong’s popular yellow “Live Strong” phenomena.

Toland hopes others will recognize the sacrifice men like his Marines make during wartime.

"It's these young Marines, these Lance Corporals that are kicking in the doors and getting shot in these houses, but are continuing to push. It's these young Marines that are going out there that are getting shot that are winning this war and are doing the tough jobs," he said.

Now, the tough job for Toland is to get on with the business of living after watching so many of the men he came to care for die.

Ellie