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thedrifter
01-30-07, 03:27 PM
Marine honored for valor in Iraq
By EARL KELLY, Staff Writer
HometownAnnapolis.com
Jan. 28, 2007

It's hard to imagine a man jumping on top of the parapets to draw enemy rocket, grenade and machine gun fire away from his buddies. But Marine 1st Sgt. Donnie Brazeal did just that in 2005 during what many say was one of the largest fire fights of the Iraq War.

In a private ceremony at the Naval Academy yesterday, the Severna Park resident received a Bronze Star Medal with "V" for his valor.

Sgt. Brazeal, now 41, retired about a year ago, after serving 22 years in the Marine Corps.

A graduate of Anne Arundel Community College, he served at then-Naval Station Annapolis from 1999 to 2003, and most recently, he served four back-to-back deployments around the globe.

He didn't expect the surprise ceremony his wife, Carole Ann Diggs Brazeal, organized.

Sgt. Brazeal said his reason for risking life and limb during the April 11, 2005, battle was simple:

"Those are my sons," he said pointing to a group of sergeants and corporals who attended the ceremony. "I was bringing young Marines home.

"My father taught me never to run away from a fight, and my mother taught me to help my fellow man," Sgt. Brazeal, who was raised in Council Bluffs, Iowa, told the group of about 60 family members, friends and comrades in arms.

Sgt. Brazeal said he retired from the Marines so he would have more time with his family. He has two stepchildren, Joseph Diggs, 17, and Rebecca Diggs, 15, and a daughter, Elizebeth Brazeal, 8.

Brought to the academy's Memorial Hall yesterday under false pretenses, Sgt. Brazeal looked stunned as he entered the vast ceremonial chamber and saw roughly a dozen Marines who had traveled from various places, including Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Some of these men were his subordinates during the well-organized attack insurgents launched against American forces on that April day.

Sgt. Brazeal said that his unit, I Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, Combat Team 2, had 272 engagements with the enemy during a seven-month deployment.

"We fought every day," said Sgt. Brazeal, who pointed to the assembled group of young sergeants and corporals and added, "They are the real heroes."

While the attacks were endless, one stands out from all the rest.

Insurgents hit India Company, stationed at a combat outpost on the Iraqi-Syrian border, on the morning of April 11.

Mortar rounds were hitting within 5 to 10 yards of each other, witnesses said, which meant the attack was well planned.

As the mortar shells, rockets and grenades rained down, the Marines found themselves being hit directly with machine gun and small arms fire.

Sgt. Brazeal saw one group of Marines that was pinned down, and he and another Marine pulled out two anti-tank missiles and mounted the wall they had been using for a barrier.

That maneuver drew fire on Sgt. Brazeal, but allowed the other Marines to regroup and return fire.

In the process, Sgt. Brazeal got a direct hit on the enemy's fortifications, killing six insurgents, witnesses said.

Conventional weapons weren't the only dangers in that pitched fight that lasted seven hours.

At one point, a dump truck headed straight for the compound, and the Marines knew they were about to be hit by a suicide bomber. They killed the driver and stopped the truck, which exploded within 40 yards of their camp.

Then came another vehicle, an ambulance loaded with explosives. And after that, a fire truck.

The Marines killed the drivers, but none too soon.

"They detonated a fire truck-full of explosives 75 meters away; it is a miracle it didn't blow out our insides," said Maj. Frank Diorio, who was a captain at the time and commander of India Company.

The explosions flattened all of the buildings, Maj. Diorio said, and wounded some Marines, but they suffered no fatalities.

Perhaps the best testament to what Sgt. Brazeal's men thought of him was the fact that two of the Marines in the April 11 attack, Gunnery Sgt. John M. Harman and Cpl. Josh Hopper, returned just this week from a subsequent combat tour in Iraq.

To honor Sgt. Brazeal, they gladly gave up their first weekend at home to travel from Jacksonville to Annapolis.

"It was leadership from the front," Sgt. Harman said admiringly of Sgt. Brazeal's style. "That's why the whole company loved him and Capt. Diorio."

Cpl. Hopper called Sgt. Brazeal "the best first sergeant I have ever had."

"The Marines he had under his command still talk about him today; he is still talked about in Iraq today," Cpl. Hopper said.

Another of Sgt. Brazeal's Marines, Lance Cpl. Steven White, said: "The man never slept. We'd come under attack at night, and he'd come running out, wearing nothing but his shorts and flip flops and a flak jacket."

While Sgt. Brazeal was always ready for a fire fight, he wasn't prepared for what happened yesterday.

When he entered Memorial Hall, and saw his old commander standing at attention beneath the "Don't Give Up the Ship" flag from the War of 1812, Sgt. Brazeal looked completely stunned.

It took a few moments, but he regained his composure and, just as first sergeants do at every formation, he marched smartly to front and center, and stood before his officer.

The citation, read by another Marine, noted that during one of India Company's many fire fights, Sgt. Brazeal knocked Maj. Diorio to the grown and threw his body over his commander to protect him from enemy mortar fire.

"What you heard today doesn't even come close to what that man did in Iraq," Maj. Diorio, now an instructor at Virginia Military Institute, said of Sgt. Brazeal's repeated acts of heroism.

At the end of the brief ceremony, Maj. Diorio and Sgt. Brazeal grabbed each other and hugged like long-lost brothers.

Maj. Diorio said that he and Sgt. Brazeal would often pray together while in Iraq, which Maj. Diorio said gave them the strength needed to lead India Company.

"First Sgt. Brazeal is a Marine's Marine; he is Gunny Highway times 10," Maj. Diorio said referring to a Clint Eastwood character who fought at Heartbreak Ridge. "He feared his God, but that's about it."

Ellie