thedrifter
01-21-06, 07:22 AM
Marine gets Bronze Star for heroism
Veteran of fierce Iraq battle also receives a promotion to colonel
BY BILL GEROUX
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Saturday, January 21, 2006
SUFFOLK -- Marine Lt. Col. Rickey L. Grabowski got his first surprise even before his mechanized infantry battalion reached the Iraqi city of An Nasiriya on the morning of March 23, 2003.
Sixteen desperate soldiers from the Army's 507th Maintenance Company, lost and under heavy Iraqi fire, straggled out of the city and into the safety of Grabowski's forces rumbling up from the south. Other members of the 507th, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, were still trapped somewhere in the city.
Next, Grabowski's battalion encountered a railroad bridge that did not appear on the map. On the bridge waited nine Iraqi tanks. The Marines destroyed them with missiles and machine guns, and the battalion -- 1,200 men with tanks, Humvees and armored assault vehicles called amtraks advanced across a long bridge that arched high over the Euphrates River into the city.
"The memory that is most seared into my mind," Grabowski recalled yesterday, at a ceremony to award him the Bronze Star for heroism and a promotion to colonel, "is seeing our lead tank heading over the bridge, with a staggered line of amtraks behind it, and Marines looking out of all those amtraks, with their rifles up. I remember saying to myself, 'This is it. Ain't no turning back now.'"
"Then, as we were getting across the bridge, all our communications went down."
Grabowski's 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, Regimental Combat Team-2, Task Force Tarawa, I Martine Expeditionary Force plunged into one of the more ferocious battles of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Its mission was to seize the heavily defended bridges south and north of An Nasiriya, a gritty industrial city of 300,000; and to keep open the bridges and the highway through town as a supply route for the I Marine Expeditionary Force barreling north toward Baghdad. The highway through town quickly acquired the nickname, "Ambush Alley," and the mission cost 18 Marines their lives.
The battle has yielded a harvest of medals for valor, including two Silver Stars, two Navy Crosses and other Bronze Stars. Several veterans of the fight turned out yesterday at the U.S. Joint Forces Command in Suffolk for the ceremony simultaneously awarding Grabowski a medal and a promotion. The 48-year-old colonel now works at the Joint Forces Command, developing computer models to help simulate combat situations for military officers in training.
Grabowski, a native of Louisiana, joked that he "would rather have gone back to Nasiriya" than endure a public awards ceremony and media interviews. He said the real credit belonged to the men who stormed the bridges and later fought house-to-house on his orders. He recalled diving behind an amtrak at one point under heavy fire, then getting back up after seeing one of his gunnery sergeants still standing. But several men who fought under him at Nasiriya disputed his modest assessment of himself.
Col. Ronald Bailey, Grabowski's commanding officer at Nasiriya, recalled a moment when part of the advance had stalled and he told then-Lt. Col. Grabowski, "Rick, we've got to push." Grabowski "was standing in the road, with bombs, mortars, live fire all around, and nothing good up north," Bailey said, "and without hesitation he told me, 'Got it, sir, we'll make it happen.'"
Bailey said the battle often was chaotic, with Iraqi troops and Saddam's loyal fedayeen darting in and out of cover, firing AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. At night, Iraqi civilians clashed with Iraqi soldiers.
Retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jason Doran of Dallas, who won a Silver Star for his actions at Nasiriya, recalled Grabowski operating out of a makeshift command post between two amtraks, calling in airstrikes and scrambling to obtain supplies, fuel and ammunition. Among Grabowski's grim duties, Doran said, was recovering the bodies of two Marines, one of which had been cleaned respectfully by friendly Iraqi civilians, the other of which had been dragged through the streets by Iraqi soldiers.
A week after the battle began, Grabowski sent some of his tanks to help U.S. Special Forces raid a hospital in the city where Pfc. Lynch and four other members of the 507th had been held. The Pentagon subsequently was accused of grossly exaggerating Lynch's exploits before her capture, as well as the drama of the rescue.
But there was never any question about the ferocity of the fighting for control of the bridges and of "Ambush Alley." For those who took part, Grabowski said, the fighting "changed our lives forever."
Contact staff writer Bill Geroux at wgeroux@timesdispatch.com or (757) 625-1358.
Ellie
Veteran of fierce Iraq battle also receives a promotion to colonel
BY BILL GEROUX
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Saturday, January 21, 2006
SUFFOLK -- Marine Lt. Col. Rickey L. Grabowski got his first surprise even before his mechanized infantry battalion reached the Iraqi city of An Nasiriya on the morning of March 23, 2003.
Sixteen desperate soldiers from the Army's 507th Maintenance Company, lost and under heavy Iraqi fire, straggled out of the city and into the safety of Grabowski's forces rumbling up from the south. Other members of the 507th, including Pfc. Jessica Lynch, were still trapped somewhere in the city.
Next, Grabowski's battalion encountered a railroad bridge that did not appear on the map. On the bridge waited nine Iraqi tanks. The Marines destroyed them with missiles and machine guns, and the battalion -- 1,200 men with tanks, Humvees and armored assault vehicles called amtraks advanced across a long bridge that arched high over the Euphrates River into the city.
"The memory that is most seared into my mind," Grabowski recalled yesterday, at a ceremony to award him the Bronze Star for heroism and a promotion to colonel, "is seeing our lead tank heading over the bridge, with a staggered line of amtraks behind it, and Marines looking out of all those amtraks, with their rifles up. I remember saying to myself, 'This is it. Ain't no turning back now.'"
"Then, as we were getting across the bridge, all our communications went down."
Grabowski's 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, Regimental Combat Team-2, Task Force Tarawa, I Martine Expeditionary Force plunged into one of the more ferocious battles of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Its mission was to seize the heavily defended bridges south and north of An Nasiriya, a gritty industrial city of 300,000; and to keep open the bridges and the highway through town as a supply route for the I Marine Expeditionary Force barreling north toward Baghdad. The highway through town quickly acquired the nickname, "Ambush Alley," and the mission cost 18 Marines their lives.
The battle has yielded a harvest of medals for valor, including two Silver Stars, two Navy Crosses and other Bronze Stars. Several veterans of the fight turned out yesterday at the U.S. Joint Forces Command in Suffolk for the ceremony simultaneously awarding Grabowski a medal and a promotion. The 48-year-old colonel now works at the Joint Forces Command, developing computer models to help simulate combat situations for military officers in training.
Grabowski, a native of Louisiana, joked that he "would rather have gone back to Nasiriya" than endure a public awards ceremony and media interviews. He said the real credit belonged to the men who stormed the bridges and later fought house-to-house on his orders. He recalled diving behind an amtrak at one point under heavy fire, then getting back up after seeing one of his gunnery sergeants still standing. But several men who fought under him at Nasiriya disputed his modest assessment of himself.
Col. Ronald Bailey, Grabowski's commanding officer at Nasiriya, recalled a moment when part of the advance had stalled and he told then-Lt. Col. Grabowski, "Rick, we've got to push." Grabowski "was standing in the road, with bombs, mortars, live fire all around, and nothing good up north," Bailey said, "and without hesitation he told me, 'Got it, sir, we'll make it happen.'"
Bailey said the battle often was chaotic, with Iraqi troops and Saddam's loyal fedayeen darting in and out of cover, firing AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades. At night, Iraqi civilians clashed with Iraqi soldiers.
Retired Marine Gunnery Sgt. Jason Doran of Dallas, who won a Silver Star for his actions at Nasiriya, recalled Grabowski operating out of a makeshift command post between two amtraks, calling in airstrikes and scrambling to obtain supplies, fuel and ammunition. Among Grabowski's grim duties, Doran said, was recovering the bodies of two Marines, one of which had been cleaned respectfully by friendly Iraqi civilians, the other of which had been dragged through the streets by Iraqi soldiers.
A week after the battle began, Grabowski sent some of his tanks to help U.S. Special Forces raid a hospital in the city where Pfc. Lynch and four other members of the 507th had been held. The Pentagon subsequently was accused of grossly exaggerating Lynch's exploits before her capture, as well as the drama of the rescue.
But there was never any question about the ferocity of the fighting for control of the bridges and of "Ambush Alley." For those who took part, Grabowski said, the fighting "changed our lives forever."
Contact staff writer Bill Geroux at wgeroux@timesdispatch.com or (757) 625-1358.
Ellie