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thedrifter
04-15-07, 05:28 PM
Brad Kasal Story’ on shelves May 1
By Beth Zimmerman - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Apr 15, 2007 16:22:44 EDT

The story of a Marine who survived being shot seven times and earned the Navy Cross for his actions during a November 2004 firefight in Fallujah, Iraq, will hit bookshelves May 1.

“My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story,” by Nathaniel R. Helms, details the sergeant major’s career “and culminates with the hard-fought battle” that earned him the nation’s second-highest valor award, according to a Marine Corps Association release.

Kasal, a first sergeant with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, at the time of the firefight, also took as many as 40 pieces of shrapnel when he shielded a wounded Marine from a grenade blast with his own body. Lucian Read, a World Picture News photographer, captured the bloodied Kasal’s exit from the house after the fight in a photograph that circulated heavily throughout the Web.

Helms, a Vietnam-era Army veteran, first heard of Kasal when he saw Read’s photograph. A reporter for DefenseWatch at the time, he tracked Kasal to Bethesda, Md., where he was recovering from his injuries. “He wasn’t friendly or cooperative for a long time, and then I guess he got tired of me bugging him,” said Helms, who started writing the book in 2005.

“Getting Sgt. Maj. Kasal to talk about himself is like pulling out the back teeth of a grizzly,” Helms said.

“He is a quintessential, hard-core, lean, mean, green fighting machine ... and he is the finest example of a warrior I have ever encountered,” he added.

The 288-page book is listed as available for pre-order at Amazon.com

Ellie