thedrifter
03-11-06, 07:55 AM
Tenacity wins Marine a medal
Platoon leader gets Silver Star
Jay Price, Staff Writer
It was 5 a.m. when 2nd Lt. Brian M. Stann got the word.
The other platoon hadn't reached a bridge just north of Karabilah, Iraq, near the Syrian border. But somebody had to get there fast or Operation Matador -- a major sweep by U.S. forces along the Euphrates -- would fail because enemy fighters could escape across the bridge.
It was just 2 1/2 miles, but dozens of insurgents were dug in, and men died in U.S. units that had tried to move through earlier. What the 42 Marines in Stann's platoon didn't know was that they'd have to run that gantlet six times over six days, braving rocket-propelled grenades, roadside bombs, mortars, machine guns, assault rifles and four suicide car bombs.
"I think they probably tried to spit on us, too, but we killed them first," Stann said Friday.
In a ceremony Friday, Stann -- a 25-year-old former linebacker for the U.S. Naval Academy who volunteered for Iraq -- received the Silver Star, the military's third-highest medal for valor.
The battle for Ramana Bridge started May 8, 2005. Stann, a native of Scranton, Pa., got a half-hour's notice that his 2nd Mobile Assault Platoon might have to fight, and he and his noncommissioned officers started telling the men about the mission.
They would be fighting mostly in town, with buildings at the road's edge giving the enemy cover. There was also a ravine where insurgents were likely to be dug in.
Outright battle
Sure enough, the platoon quickly found itself in 360-degree fighting, the kind of outright battle that the Iraq war has seldom produced. They fought to the bridge, secured the area and then were relieved by the platoon originally assigned the mission.
As they fought back out, a tank hit a roadside bomb, and three wounded had to be evacuated.
The next day, Stann's platoon was ordered to resupply the unit holding the bridge. They went in at night with little trouble but were hit again on the way out. Again, they fought their way clear.
On the third day, they were told that they needed to relieve the platoon guarding the bridge. They loaded up for another run.
It turned out to be the worst. The Marines weren't the only ones getting used to assaults through town; the insurgents had gathered for a huge ambush, one that Stann said was so well-organized that foreign fighters had surely planned it.
More rocket-propelled grenades, more incoming mortar fire. This time, though, the insurgents had devised not one but three suicide car bombs. The Marines killed the drivers of two before they could get close, but the other rammed a Marine vehicle. Five men were badly wounded.
They fought on, though, with Stann calling in air strikes and directing tank fire.
When they reached the bridge this time, they stayed for three days, calling in more air strikes to take out buildings from which the insurgents were shooting. By the sixth day, when Operation Matador was over, the Marines were taking only sniper fire.
Maj. Gen. Richard Huck, commander of the 2nd Marine Division, had been monitoring the operation and had heard about the fighting near the bridge.
On Friday, Huck pinned the medal on Stann and afterward called what the young lieutenant had done a tremendous accomplishment, particularly because the battle went on nearly a week.
The medal "speaks not just to his strength and character, but to the persistence and endurance of what he did," Huck said.
Stann, still built like a linebacker, removed the Silver Star as soon as he walked off the field where the ceremony was. The decoration was more for what his men had done than for him, he said.
"These guys are just 18, 19, 20 years old," he said. "But there's no sight like it when you see these Marines fight. They don't get scared, they get aggressive."
Three Marines earned the Bronze Star in Karabilah.
Among the eight wounded in the fight, one lost a leg, one was paralyzed, another's legs were shattered and another has had brain surgery.
None of Stann's Marines died.
"That means everything," he said. "The only medal I care about is bringing back 42 out of 42."
Now Stann has a bigger challenge. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant and commands a company of 182 Marines. They deploy to Iraq this summer.
Staff writer Jay Price can be reached at 829-4526 or jprice@newsobserver.com.
Ellie
Platoon leader gets Silver Star
Jay Price, Staff Writer
It was 5 a.m. when 2nd Lt. Brian M. Stann got the word.
The other platoon hadn't reached a bridge just north of Karabilah, Iraq, near the Syrian border. But somebody had to get there fast or Operation Matador -- a major sweep by U.S. forces along the Euphrates -- would fail because enemy fighters could escape across the bridge.
It was just 2 1/2 miles, but dozens of insurgents were dug in, and men died in U.S. units that had tried to move through earlier. What the 42 Marines in Stann's platoon didn't know was that they'd have to run that gantlet six times over six days, braving rocket-propelled grenades, roadside bombs, mortars, machine guns, assault rifles and four suicide car bombs.
"I think they probably tried to spit on us, too, but we killed them first," Stann said Friday.
In a ceremony Friday, Stann -- a 25-year-old former linebacker for the U.S. Naval Academy who volunteered for Iraq -- received the Silver Star, the military's third-highest medal for valor.
The battle for Ramana Bridge started May 8, 2005. Stann, a native of Scranton, Pa., got a half-hour's notice that his 2nd Mobile Assault Platoon might have to fight, and he and his noncommissioned officers started telling the men about the mission.
They would be fighting mostly in town, with buildings at the road's edge giving the enemy cover. There was also a ravine where insurgents were likely to be dug in.
Outright battle
Sure enough, the platoon quickly found itself in 360-degree fighting, the kind of outright battle that the Iraq war has seldom produced. They fought to the bridge, secured the area and then were relieved by the platoon originally assigned the mission.
As they fought back out, a tank hit a roadside bomb, and three wounded had to be evacuated.
The next day, Stann's platoon was ordered to resupply the unit holding the bridge. They went in at night with little trouble but were hit again on the way out. Again, they fought their way clear.
On the third day, they were told that they needed to relieve the platoon guarding the bridge. They loaded up for another run.
It turned out to be the worst. The Marines weren't the only ones getting used to assaults through town; the insurgents had gathered for a huge ambush, one that Stann said was so well-organized that foreign fighters had surely planned it.
More rocket-propelled grenades, more incoming mortar fire. This time, though, the insurgents had devised not one but three suicide car bombs. The Marines killed the drivers of two before they could get close, but the other rammed a Marine vehicle. Five men were badly wounded.
They fought on, though, with Stann calling in air strikes and directing tank fire.
When they reached the bridge this time, they stayed for three days, calling in more air strikes to take out buildings from which the insurgents were shooting. By the sixth day, when Operation Matador was over, the Marines were taking only sniper fire.
Maj. Gen. Richard Huck, commander of the 2nd Marine Division, had been monitoring the operation and had heard about the fighting near the bridge.
On Friday, Huck pinned the medal on Stann and afterward called what the young lieutenant had done a tremendous accomplishment, particularly because the battle went on nearly a week.
The medal "speaks not just to his strength and character, but to the persistence and endurance of what he did," Huck said.
Stann, still built like a linebacker, removed the Silver Star as soon as he walked off the field where the ceremony was. The decoration was more for what his men had done than for him, he said.
"These guys are just 18, 19, 20 years old," he said. "But there's no sight like it when you see these Marines fight. They don't get scared, they get aggressive."
Three Marines earned the Bronze Star in Karabilah.
Among the eight wounded in the fight, one lost a leg, one was paralyzed, another's legs were shattered and another has had brain surgery.
None of Stann's Marines died.
"That means everything," he said. "The only medal I care about is bringing back 42 out of 42."
Now Stann has a bigger challenge. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant and commands a company of 182 Marines. They deploy to Iraq this summer.
Staff writer Jay Price can be reached at 829-4526 or jprice@newsobserver.com.
Ellie