PDA

View Full Version : Ammo dash earns lieutenant a Silver Star



thedrifter
05-02-06, 12:04 PM
May 08, 2006
Ammo dash earns lieutenant a Silver Star

By Beth Zimmerman
Times staff writer

First Lt. Dave Russell was in the middle of his morning shave May 3, 2005, when a squad of enemy fighters attacked the North Bridge Traffic Control Point at the edge of Ramadi, Iraq.

What the 25-year-old platoon commander did during the ensuing battle earned him the Silver Star, which he received during a ceremony March 31 at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

On that day almost a year ago, Russell, commander of 1st Platoon, Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, dropped his shaving gear and grabbed his war gear. He rushed to the second deck of the building, where his Marines were set up to fire at the attackers.

The 13 enemy fighters opened up with small-arms and machine-gun fire, and a barrage of grenades.

Russell “quickly identified an insurgent with a machine gun hiding behind a barrier and killed him with one shot [from his M4 rifle],” the citation said.

“He probably would have been OK,” Russell said of the enemy gunner, “but then he basically had the muzzle of the machine gun up and over the barrier, kind of skylined. That’s a target for you if there ever is one.”

Months before the attack, Weapons Company Marines spent countless hours installing chain-link fencing over the building’s windows, said Staff Sgt. Tim Cyparski, a sergeant and a section leader in Russell’s platoon.

Cyparski was inside the building when the enemy launched a hail of grenades.

“I used to hate putting that fence up,” said Cyparski, who said Russell worked alongside his Marines to fortify the windows. But, as he saw the enemy grenades bounce off the fence above him, Cyparski said, he realized “it definitely saved my life and many others that day.”

As Russell’s platoon repelled the enemy assault, Cyparski told Russell that Lance Cpl. Juan Reyes was running out of ammunition. Reyes, a rifleman, was supervising Iraqi soldiers and was isolated from the platoon by 75 meters of open ground and “not [in] a good position for him to be out of ammo,” Cyparski said.

Russell raced across the opening while under fire to resupply Reyes, his citation said.

“Cyparski said I got lucky, because as soon as I started making the run, there was a guy who wasn’t as distracted by the front of the building, and he trained his AK47 on us, and — thank God for bad weapons maintenance — it jammed when he pulled the trigger,” Russell said.

Cyparski followed Russell, and the two planned to draw the insurgents away from their covered positions.

“They’re an insurgent force, but they don’t have [a noncommissioned officer] down there [leading them],” Russell said.

“We thought we’d try to draw them into the open and let the Marines on top take care of the rest,” he said.

“Russell purposefully subjected himself to enemy fire” in his attempt to expose the enemy, the citation said, and he took shrapnel to his face and arm in the process. Russell brushed it off.

Minutes later, an enemy round smacked his helmet.

“When he got shot, he just dropped right in front of me,” Cyparski said. “He looked up at me; the look in his eyes was like ‘they got me, and now I’m dying.’

“There was blood coming out of his tear ducts,” Cyparski said. “His Kevlar was all frayed — I definitely thought he got shot in the head.”

Cyparski said it all happened in a split second. Russell looked up at him, realized he was alive, got back up and continued fighting.

Meanwhile, the Marines back on the second deck of the building had made short work of the enemy fighters, who had turned their attention to Russell and Cyparski and wandered out of cover.

“You give a Marine a nice, clear target … and it’s not going to take them long to get rid of them,” Russell said.

Cyparski said Russell refused his efforts to give him medical care.

While “suffering from a concussion and bleeding profusely from wounds to his face and his arms,” the citation said, Russell then rushed back to the building to direct the fight.

After hours of fighting, the battalion commander finally ordered the lieutenant to get medical treatment.

Russell gave his Marines most of the credit for his award and the firefight, which killed 12 enemy fighters.

“They knew what they were supposed to do, and they did it well,” Russell said.

But Cyparski pointed out that the Marines in the platoon followed their commander’s example.

“He’s a great leader,” said Cyparski, 28, who received a Bronze Star for his actions during the battle. “I’d definitely follow him into another 75 meters of enemy fire again.”

Ellie

rb1651
05-02-06, 08:30 PM
Well done, 1st Lieutenant Russell. Leadership thru example That's what my Marine Corps is all about!!