thedrifter
08-03-06, 03:17 AM
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Death catches up with a young Marine
Body armor once saved Forks soldier
By MIKE BARBER
P-I REPORTER
While walking as the point man leading a Marine Corps patrol in Iraq late last spring, 21- year-old Pfc. Jason Hanson was knocked to the ground when a sniper's bullet found his chest.
The 7.62-mm bullet might have ripped through Hanson's diaphragm. Instead, it lodged in his armored vest, leaving him only with bruises and a story he might one day have told his grandchildren.
Last Saturday, however, death caught up with the young Marine who called the Olympic Peninsula town of Forks his home.
The Defense Department confirmed Wednesday that Hanson was killed during combat in Al Anbar province. Details of his death were not disclosed. He was a scout with the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division from Twentynine Palms, Calif., which is responsible for one of the largest areas of Iraq.
Hanson, who had been in Iraq since March, leaves his wife, Maria Farias-Hanson, and his parents, Carol and Stephen Hanson of Forks.
The family Wednesday was busy with burial arrangements and could not comment, a relative said.
Hanson joined the Marines on May 31, 2005. He would have been 22 Oct. 10.
Hanson talked about his close call in an interview for a Marine Corps online news service in June and July. He had been one of several Marines struck by sniper fire who were saved by new protective armor plates, called small arms protective inserts, or SAPI.
Hanson had been one of about 100 Marines of D Company who returned to Al Anbar province in July after spending more than two months away.
The company had lived out of their eight-wheeled, light-armored vehicles while providing security, rooting out insurgents, searching for roadside bombs and conducting humanitarian missions in Kharma and Habbaniyah, two towns neighboring Fallujah.
While in Habbaniyah in early June, Hanson was the lead man on a patrol looking for roadside bombs along a main highway when the sniper targeted him.
"I was checking my side, and when I looked forward, I got shot -- it knocked me down," Hanson was quoted as saying.
Seaman Chard Kenyon, 20, a Navy corpsman on the scene, told the Marine Corps news service: "I saw him on the ground, ran up to him and rolled him over. I saw that the round had gone through the front of his flak, so I opened up his flak and saw no bleeding. Then he looked up at me and said 'I'm fine, Doc.' "
The 7.62-mm sniper bullet first had smashed through Hanson's rifle before it struck his SAPI plate, the corpsman observed.
Though the armored vests seem to weigh more in Iraq's searing heat, Hanson said he had a new perspective about them.
"I'm happy to carry the extra weight," he said.
The bodies of Marine fallen pass through Camp Taquaddum, a converted Iraqi Air Force hangar that is now the processing center for those killed in the region. Located between Fallujah and Ramadi in Iraq, It is the working place of the Personnel Retrieval and Processing unit, formerly known as mortuary affairs.
According to the Marine Corps news service, a large American flag visible from every corner inside the building hangs above the door through which Hanson and other deceased service members are brought.
P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or mikebarber@seattlepi.com.
Ellie
Death catches up with a young Marine
Body armor once saved Forks soldier
By MIKE BARBER
P-I REPORTER
While walking as the point man leading a Marine Corps patrol in Iraq late last spring, 21- year-old Pfc. Jason Hanson was knocked to the ground when a sniper's bullet found his chest.
The 7.62-mm bullet might have ripped through Hanson's diaphragm. Instead, it lodged in his armored vest, leaving him only with bruises and a story he might one day have told his grandchildren.
Last Saturday, however, death caught up with the young Marine who called the Olympic Peninsula town of Forks his home.
The Defense Department confirmed Wednesday that Hanson was killed during combat in Al Anbar province. Details of his death were not disclosed. He was a scout with the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division from Twentynine Palms, Calif., which is responsible for one of the largest areas of Iraq.
Hanson, who had been in Iraq since March, leaves his wife, Maria Farias-Hanson, and his parents, Carol and Stephen Hanson of Forks.
The family Wednesday was busy with burial arrangements and could not comment, a relative said.
Hanson joined the Marines on May 31, 2005. He would have been 22 Oct. 10.
Hanson talked about his close call in an interview for a Marine Corps online news service in June and July. He had been one of several Marines struck by sniper fire who were saved by new protective armor plates, called small arms protective inserts, or SAPI.
Hanson had been one of about 100 Marines of D Company who returned to Al Anbar province in July after spending more than two months away.
The company had lived out of their eight-wheeled, light-armored vehicles while providing security, rooting out insurgents, searching for roadside bombs and conducting humanitarian missions in Kharma and Habbaniyah, two towns neighboring Fallujah.
While in Habbaniyah in early June, Hanson was the lead man on a patrol looking for roadside bombs along a main highway when the sniper targeted him.
"I was checking my side, and when I looked forward, I got shot -- it knocked me down," Hanson was quoted as saying.
Seaman Chard Kenyon, 20, a Navy corpsman on the scene, told the Marine Corps news service: "I saw him on the ground, ran up to him and rolled him over. I saw that the round had gone through the front of his flak, so I opened up his flak and saw no bleeding. Then he looked up at me and said 'I'm fine, Doc.' "
The 7.62-mm sniper bullet first had smashed through Hanson's rifle before it struck his SAPI plate, the corpsman observed.
Though the armored vests seem to weigh more in Iraq's searing heat, Hanson said he had a new perspective about them.
"I'm happy to carry the extra weight," he said.
The bodies of Marine fallen pass through Camp Taquaddum, a converted Iraqi Air Force hangar that is now the processing center for those killed in the region. Located between Fallujah and Ramadi in Iraq, It is the working place of the Personnel Retrieval and Processing unit, formerly known as mortuary affairs.
According to the Marine Corps news service, a large American flag visible from every corner inside the building hangs above the door through which Hanson and other deceased service members are brought.
P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or mikebarber@seattlepi.com.
Ellie