thedrifter
09-20-06, 09:28 AM
Bloomington Marine returns home from Iraq combat
September 20, 2006 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
BY REBECCA HOLM
Since he was a little boy, Rene Rodriguez Jr. wanted to be a Marine. He's grown up now, a Corps veteran who has battled insurgents in an Iraqi cemetery and rounded up Arab guerillas bent on grabbing power in Iraq. And he's never regretted his early decision.
Cpl. Rodriguez came home to Bloomington this month, where he relaxed and talked about his deployment in Iraq and a tour through the Western Pacific Islands.
"Our first deployment was the initial push through to Iraq," said Rodriguez, who served with the Alpha Company Raiders. "When we finished that, that's when we started doing our raids, collecting all the Fedayeen and Baath Party members. We did that for the whole nine months."
Fedayeen are Arab guerillas and the Baath Party is the party of former Iraq leader Saddam Hussein's party.
"We came home. Then we started our work of training cycle again, which consisted of boat raid operations, 'cause that's what Alpha Company is, it's a boat company. Since there really wasn't a need for it out there in Iraq ... we still did them anyways, and it made a lot of camaraderie."
Rodriguez's second deployment was in the city of Najaf, where his company battled the "Mighty Militia." The militia is led by Muqtada al-Sadr, one of the most vocal opponents of the U.S. occupation of Iraqi, believing that Iraqis should be allowed to create their own Islamic state if they want it.
After leaving Najaf, Rodriguez's company moved to Karbala to work on training the Iraqi army and national guard.
"They were in the beginning stages of it," Rodriguez said. "Some would take it in, some wouldn't. Basically, we'd train them, but we could only do so much. If they didn't want to be there, they didn't have to be. Theirs was strictly on a volunteer basis, but for the most part they all stood by it and they want to see their country grow."
When Rodriguez's company deployed for the third time, he said his company went to Kuwait, thinking that they would be sent into Iraq again. Instead, the company was sent to Hawaii, Australia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand.
Rodriguez described a day of service in Iraq that stuck out in his mind. He got up to stand his post and was delivered breakfast. After eating, all the Marines were taken off duty and replaced with National Guard members. It was explained to his company that a helicopter had gone down in Najaf, and that troops would be sent to the area.
"Within a matter of 10 minutes, we were already on the road, geared up and ready to go. We went from guarding our base to 'OK, now we're doing combat operations.'"
When the company arrived in Najaf, they were stationed outside a cemetery, he said. Before nightfall the company was already pushing through the cemetery, fighting the enemy.
"That night there wasn't hardly any sleeping. They're playing their prayers in the mosques, calling us infidels and what-not. There are fires and explosions going off everywhere. It went from a normal morning where we're just sleeping and kind of just relaxing to, you know, all-out combat."
Rodriguez explained that the company stayed in an abandoned building for three days before securing the city of Najaf.
"The guys I served with, we're all about the same age: 18 through 28 in my platoon. Everybody did their job properly. Unfortunately we did lose two brothers in our company. Those were the only losses we took in our company, but throughout our battalion we lost quite a few men. But our training really kicked in and it showed out there because we didn't have as many casualties as some other units had. That night right there, that was one of our crazier nights."
"I think the skills that they taught me there were invaluable," Rodriguez said of his time training and serving overseas. "It was a great experience and I enjoyed serving my country."
Naomi Troncoso, Rodriguez's mother, said her son was about 5 when he showed signs of wanting to become a Marine. "I don't know what it was about the commercial for the Marines. And he was always telling me, 'I want to grow up to be a Marine.'"
By the time he was a junior in high school, Rodriguez began to consider seriously making his dream a reality. After graduating from Bloomington High School in 2002, he enlisted.
"I know that I totally did like a one-eighty from how I was in high school," he said. "My parents can vouch for that. I was something else in high school. The military really gave me some great values."
"I'm just real proud of him," Troncoso added. "He got out of being a hard-headed teenager." She noticed a change in her son's behavior from the day he returned from boot camp.
"I was wondering if he had been traded out," she joked.
Rodriguez said, "I was getting in trouble ... and came from going nowhere with my life to now I have lot of opportunities and a lot of directions I can go."
For the time being, though, he's "just relaxing and enjoying being home." He hopes to find a part-time job, and is considering the police academy in January.
If he's called back to service? "I will be more than willing to go," he said.
Ellie
September 20, 2006 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
BY REBECCA HOLM
Since he was a little boy, Rene Rodriguez Jr. wanted to be a Marine. He's grown up now, a Corps veteran who has battled insurgents in an Iraqi cemetery and rounded up Arab guerillas bent on grabbing power in Iraq. And he's never regretted his early decision.
Cpl. Rodriguez came home to Bloomington this month, where he relaxed and talked about his deployment in Iraq and a tour through the Western Pacific Islands.
"Our first deployment was the initial push through to Iraq," said Rodriguez, who served with the Alpha Company Raiders. "When we finished that, that's when we started doing our raids, collecting all the Fedayeen and Baath Party members. We did that for the whole nine months."
Fedayeen are Arab guerillas and the Baath Party is the party of former Iraq leader Saddam Hussein's party.
"We came home. Then we started our work of training cycle again, which consisted of boat raid operations, 'cause that's what Alpha Company is, it's a boat company. Since there really wasn't a need for it out there in Iraq ... we still did them anyways, and it made a lot of camaraderie."
Rodriguez's second deployment was in the city of Najaf, where his company battled the "Mighty Militia." The militia is led by Muqtada al-Sadr, one of the most vocal opponents of the U.S. occupation of Iraqi, believing that Iraqis should be allowed to create their own Islamic state if they want it.
After leaving Najaf, Rodriguez's company moved to Karbala to work on training the Iraqi army and national guard.
"They were in the beginning stages of it," Rodriguez said. "Some would take it in, some wouldn't. Basically, we'd train them, but we could only do so much. If they didn't want to be there, they didn't have to be. Theirs was strictly on a volunteer basis, but for the most part they all stood by it and they want to see their country grow."
When Rodriguez's company deployed for the third time, he said his company went to Kuwait, thinking that they would be sent into Iraq again. Instead, the company was sent to Hawaii, Australia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand.
Rodriguez described a day of service in Iraq that stuck out in his mind. He got up to stand his post and was delivered breakfast. After eating, all the Marines were taken off duty and replaced with National Guard members. It was explained to his company that a helicopter had gone down in Najaf, and that troops would be sent to the area.
"Within a matter of 10 minutes, we were already on the road, geared up and ready to go. We went from guarding our base to 'OK, now we're doing combat operations.'"
When the company arrived in Najaf, they were stationed outside a cemetery, he said. Before nightfall the company was already pushing through the cemetery, fighting the enemy.
"That night there wasn't hardly any sleeping. They're playing their prayers in the mosques, calling us infidels and what-not. There are fires and explosions going off everywhere. It went from a normal morning where we're just sleeping and kind of just relaxing to, you know, all-out combat."
Rodriguez explained that the company stayed in an abandoned building for three days before securing the city of Najaf.
"The guys I served with, we're all about the same age: 18 through 28 in my platoon. Everybody did their job properly. Unfortunately we did lose two brothers in our company. Those were the only losses we took in our company, but throughout our battalion we lost quite a few men. But our training really kicked in and it showed out there because we didn't have as many casualties as some other units had. That night right there, that was one of our crazier nights."
"I think the skills that they taught me there were invaluable," Rodriguez said of his time training and serving overseas. "It was a great experience and I enjoyed serving my country."
Naomi Troncoso, Rodriguez's mother, said her son was about 5 when he showed signs of wanting to become a Marine. "I don't know what it was about the commercial for the Marines. And he was always telling me, 'I want to grow up to be a Marine.'"
By the time he was a junior in high school, Rodriguez began to consider seriously making his dream a reality. After graduating from Bloomington High School in 2002, he enlisted.
"I know that I totally did like a one-eighty from how I was in high school," he said. "My parents can vouch for that. I was something else in high school. The military really gave me some great values."
"I'm just real proud of him," Troncoso added. "He got out of being a hard-headed teenager." She noticed a change in her son's behavior from the day he returned from boot camp.
"I was wondering if he had been traded out," she joked.
Rodriguez said, "I was getting in trouble ... and came from going nowhere with my life to now I have lot of opportunities and a lot of directions I can go."
For the time being, though, he's "just relaxing and enjoying being home." He hopes to find a part-time job, and is considering the police academy in January.
If he's called back to service? "I will be more than willing to go," he said.
Ellie