thedrifter
01-02-07, 03:14 PM
Published: January 02, 2007 08:15 am
Bagpiping Marine headed to Iraq
Bill Robinson
Register News Writer
Jesse Short said he always wanted to be different, and he wanted to be the best at whatever he did.
That helps explain why he learned to play bagpipes as a teenager when others boys were playing drums or guitar.
That’s also why the 2004 Madison Central High School graduate joined the U.S. Marine Corps.
“Everybody I talked to, and everything I read, said the Marines were the best,” said Short, who will be heading to Iraq in January for his second, seven-month tour of duty there.
And he will be taking his bagpipes with him.
Short is not the only bagpiper in the Marine Corps, but still he’s a rarity.
After boot camp in Parris Island, S.C., Short entered machine-gunner training, his military occupational specialty. While still intense, MOS training allowed the Marines opportunities to get acquainted, he said. “During boot camp, we didn’t have time to think, much less get to know each other.”
As they cleaned their barracks and the grounds around them one evening, “the other guys kept asking if I did anything, like play a musical instrument,” said Short. After repeated questioning, reluctantly he said, “I play the bagpipes.”
The next question was: “Do you have (your bagpipes) here?”
When his fellow Marines discovered that they had a bagpiper with his pipes in their midst, they insisted on hearing him play immediately.
Short got out his bagpipes and played as about “1,000 of my fellow Marines listened,” he said.
Soon, a routine developed with Short playing his bagpipes for about an hour one evening every week. And since every Marine has a nickname, Short immediately became known as “Piper.”
As his unit prepared to ship out for Iraq, Short’s captain asked if he planned to take his bagpipes along. “I told him I didn’t know if I would be allowed to,” Short said.
The captain informed Short that he could and should take his bagpipes to Iraq.
“He pretty much ordered me to take them along,” Short said.
When Short and his unit got to Iraq, they were assigned to an area on the Syrian border near the strategic city of Husaybah. The city, also located on the Euphrates River, is home to a regional railroad terminal.
“One wall of the base we built was right on the border,” he said. “The other side of the wall was Syrian territory.”
The Marines’ fortified positions were “shot at nearly everyday,” Short said, and an occasional mortar round was fired at them. The insurgents’ mortars were wildly inaccurate, he said. Only one round fell inside Short’s base while one other round fell on the Syrian side of the border.
For nearly a month, the Marines in Short’s unit never went outside their base. Then his battalion was ordered to clear insurgents from the nearby city of Sada in a sweep code named Iron Fist.
Prior to the Marines’ entry into Sada, one of four towns with Husaybah near the border, insurgents roamed freely through it, intimidating citizens and local officials, according to a story in the Washington Post.
In a line nearly 1,000 yards wide, the Marines sweep through the city in a house-to-house search, Short said.
“For the first 30 minutes after we jumped out of our trucks, we were being shot at,” he said. “Then for two days, we didn’t see anybody.” Civilians had evacuated the city after the U.S. military spread flyers throughout Sada announcing the sweep.
“Is anything going to happen, we asked ourselves as we went through houses all day long,” Short said. At night the line would stop, and the Marines would take turns sleeping while others stood guard.
Things started to heat up on the third day as the sweep neared the opposite end of the city. “Insurgents with rifles would jump from around street corners or out of houses and start firing at us,” Short said.
“They liked to attack as the sun went down,” he said. “They’d fire their weapons and then dash into a dark area.”
The Marines also started drawing sniper fire.
A sniper firing from a tower held up the sweep for a time. After determining that the tower was not associated with a mosque, the Marines followed the Geneva Convention’s laws of war to take out the sniper, Short said.
“We began with rifle fire and then escalated in stages to heavy machine-gun fire,” he said.
When those tactics failed, a tank was ordered to attack the tower. “One tank round silenced the sniper,” Short said.
From time to time, Short saw Arwa Damon, a CNN reporter embedded with his force. Some fellow Marines received telephone calls from family in the States who said they had seen them on television news, he said.
On another sweep, named Steel Curtain, the Marines and Iraqi forces cleared insurgents from Husaybah, a place which Abu Musab al Zarqawi, then leader of Al Quada in Iraq, had called Iraq’s “last impenetrable city.”
During the sweeps, one of Short’s friends and an Iraqi soldier accompanying him were killed by a bomb hidden in street litter.
Whenever his battalion suffered a fatality, Short was asked to play his bagpipes during memorial services, he said. He performed the mournful duty eight times over seven months.
After Husaybah was cleared of insurgents, “things got quiet,” allowing Short and other Marines to mix with the local population. “We’d visit with people in their homes and have tea,” he said.
Among the population were students who attended universities in Baghdad and spoke good English. The Marines also had time to kick soccer balls around with local men and boys, he said.
Short also had opportunities to play his bagpipes. “Some Iraqis loved the bagpipes,” he said. “Others were scared to death of them.”
Short first got interested in the bagpipes as a pre-teen after watching the movie “Braveheart,” about Scottish national hero William Wallace. “I asked my stepdad what kind of instrument was playing that music,” he said. “I want to play music like that.”
Short’s stepfather, Richard Clayburn, who plays drums and guitar, used his connections among central Kentucky musicians to find him a bagpipe teacher.
“I kept nagging him about learning to play,” he said.
At age 14, Short began taking lessons from Malcolm McGregor in Lexington. He progressed quickly, and after a few month of lessons and practice Short joined the Williams-Sutherland-Reed band in Lexington. In 2003, he attended a week-long training session at Thomas More College taught by Alasdair Gillies, a world champion bagpiper who was once pipe major for the Queen’s Own Highlanders.
Short also has performed with Kentucky United, a band made up mostly of pipers from Louisville and Nashville. He has marched in parades and participated in the annual Highland Games festival in Glasgow.
Short is confident as he prepares to serve another seven months in Iraq. He described Iraqis as “good people who have been oppressed for way too long.” Training Iraqi troops to maintain security in their country “will take time,” said Short, who has been home on leave for the holidays. He expects the Iraqi forces he fought alongside and helped train on his previous tour will have achieved a working level of military competence when he returns.
“Many of the Iraqi soldiers wanted to learn as much as they could,” he said. “They were constantly asking questions.”
With as much effort and sacrifice as American forces have put into Iraq, Short said he believed “we should be allowed to finish the job.”
Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Exßt. 267.
Ellie
Bagpiping Marine headed to Iraq
Bill Robinson
Register News Writer
Jesse Short said he always wanted to be different, and he wanted to be the best at whatever he did.
That helps explain why he learned to play bagpipes as a teenager when others boys were playing drums or guitar.
That’s also why the 2004 Madison Central High School graduate joined the U.S. Marine Corps.
“Everybody I talked to, and everything I read, said the Marines were the best,” said Short, who will be heading to Iraq in January for his second, seven-month tour of duty there.
And he will be taking his bagpipes with him.
Short is not the only bagpiper in the Marine Corps, but still he’s a rarity.
After boot camp in Parris Island, S.C., Short entered machine-gunner training, his military occupational specialty. While still intense, MOS training allowed the Marines opportunities to get acquainted, he said. “During boot camp, we didn’t have time to think, much less get to know each other.”
As they cleaned their barracks and the grounds around them one evening, “the other guys kept asking if I did anything, like play a musical instrument,” said Short. After repeated questioning, reluctantly he said, “I play the bagpipes.”
The next question was: “Do you have (your bagpipes) here?”
When his fellow Marines discovered that they had a bagpiper with his pipes in their midst, they insisted on hearing him play immediately.
Short got out his bagpipes and played as about “1,000 of my fellow Marines listened,” he said.
Soon, a routine developed with Short playing his bagpipes for about an hour one evening every week. And since every Marine has a nickname, Short immediately became known as “Piper.”
As his unit prepared to ship out for Iraq, Short’s captain asked if he planned to take his bagpipes along. “I told him I didn’t know if I would be allowed to,” Short said.
The captain informed Short that he could and should take his bagpipes to Iraq.
“He pretty much ordered me to take them along,” Short said.
When Short and his unit got to Iraq, they were assigned to an area on the Syrian border near the strategic city of Husaybah. The city, also located on the Euphrates River, is home to a regional railroad terminal.
“One wall of the base we built was right on the border,” he said. “The other side of the wall was Syrian territory.”
The Marines’ fortified positions were “shot at nearly everyday,” Short said, and an occasional mortar round was fired at them. The insurgents’ mortars were wildly inaccurate, he said. Only one round fell inside Short’s base while one other round fell on the Syrian side of the border.
For nearly a month, the Marines in Short’s unit never went outside their base. Then his battalion was ordered to clear insurgents from the nearby city of Sada in a sweep code named Iron Fist.
Prior to the Marines’ entry into Sada, one of four towns with Husaybah near the border, insurgents roamed freely through it, intimidating citizens and local officials, according to a story in the Washington Post.
In a line nearly 1,000 yards wide, the Marines sweep through the city in a house-to-house search, Short said.
“For the first 30 minutes after we jumped out of our trucks, we were being shot at,” he said. “Then for two days, we didn’t see anybody.” Civilians had evacuated the city after the U.S. military spread flyers throughout Sada announcing the sweep.
“Is anything going to happen, we asked ourselves as we went through houses all day long,” Short said. At night the line would stop, and the Marines would take turns sleeping while others stood guard.
Things started to heat up on the third day as the sweep neared the opposite end of the city. “Insurgents with rifles would jump from around street corners or out of houses and start firing at us,” Short said.
“They liked to attack as the sun went down,” he said. “They’d fire their weapons and then dash into a dark area.”
The Marines also started drawing sniper fire.
A sniper firing from a tower held up the sweep for a time. After determining that the tower was not associated with a mosque, the Marines followed the Geneva Convention’s laws of war to take out the sniper, Short said.
“We began with rifle fire and then escalated in stages to heavy machine-gun fire,” he said.
When those tactics failed, a tank was ordered to attack the tower. “One tank round silenced the sniper,” Short said.
From time to time, Short saw Arwa Damon, a CNN reporter embedded with his force. Some fellow Marines received telephone calls from family in the States who said they had seen them on television news, he said.
On another sweep, named Steel Curtain, the Marines and Iraqi forces cleared insurgents from Husaybah, a place which Abu Musab al Zarqawi, then leader of Al Quada in Iraq, had called Iraq’s “last impenetrable city.”
During the sweeps, one of Short’s friends and an Iraqi soldier accompanying him were killed by a bomb hidden in street litter.
Whenever his battalion suffered a fatality, Short was asked to play his bagpipes during memorial services, he said. He performed the mournful duty eight times over seven months.
After Husaybah was cleared of insurgents, “things got quiet,” allowing Short and other Marines to mix with the local population. “We’d visit with people in their homes and have tea,” he said.
Among the population were students who attended universities in Baghdad and spoke good English. The Marines also had time to kick soccer balls around with local men and boys, he said.
Short also had opportunities to play his bagpipes. “Some Iraqis loved the bagpipes,” he said. “Others were scared to death of them.”
Short first got interested in the bagpipes as a pre-teen after watching the movie “Braveheart,” about Scottish national hero William Wallace. “I asked my stepdad what kind of instrument was playing that music,” he said. “I want to play music like that.”
Short’s stepfather, Richard Clayburn, who plays drums and guitar, used his connections among central Kentucky musicians to find him a bagpipe teacher.
“I kept nagging him about learning to play,” he said.
At age 14, Short began taking lessons from Malcolm McGregor in Lexington. He progressed quickly, and after a few month of lessons and practice Short joined the Williams-Sutherland-Reed band in Lexington. In 2003, he attended a week-long training session at Thomas More College taught by Alasdair Gillies, a world champion bagpiper who was once pipe major for the Queen’s Own Highlanders.
Short also has performed with Kentucky United, a band made up mostly of pipers from Louisville and Nashville. He has marched in parades and participated in the annual Highland Games festival in Glasgow.
Short is confident as he prepares to serve another seven months in Iraq. He described Iraqis as “good people who have been oppressed for way too long.” Training Iraqi troops to maintain security in their country “will take time,” said Short, who has been home on leave for the holidays. He expects the Iraqi forces he fought alongside and helped train on his previous tour will have achieved a working level of military competence when he returns.
“Many of the Iraqi soldiers wanted to learn as much as they could,” he said. “They were constantly asking questions.”
With as much effort and sacrifice as American forces have put into Iraq, Short said he believed “we should be allowed to finish the job.”
Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Exßt. 267.
Ellie