thedrifter
09-24-07, 08:01 AM
BEHIND THE MEDAL: THE BRONZE STAR
Call of duty came quickly
After the loss of his lieutenant in the first days of the war, Bradley Nerad assumed command and led his men to Baghdad
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Sept. 23, 2007
Second of three parts
Staff Sgt. Bradley Nerad's platoon has met little resistance while leading an assault on a pumping station at the Ramallah oil fields in the opening hours of the Iraq war.
The 36-man Marine unit had trained for seven months in 2002 and 2003 under the leadership of 2nd Lt. Shane Childers. They feel invincible.
"We were on foot going back to our vehicles because we had just cleared the area," Nerad says, "and some guys came through and shot at us."
***
The Marines run for their vehicles but see they won't make it, as Iraqi soldiers firing from Toyota pickups catch up to them. The Marines fan out and drop to the ground to return fire. Nerad gets off a few rounds.
Ten feet away from Nerad, Childers says, "I'm hit."
Nerad and other Marines carry Childers back to a vehicle. A Navy corpsman pulls off his gear and begins to work on the Mississippi native, who is wounded in the abdomen.
Nerad sees the tears roll down Childers' face and wonders how many more lives will be lost. He says a prayer and watches a helicopter take away his lieutenant, the first American to die from hostile fire in the war.
Then he gets back to business.
"You can never be prepared for something like that," says Nerad, 34, a Racine native who would later be promoted to gunnery sergeant and now serves as a Marine recruiter in Appleton.
After the battalion commander tells Nerad he is the new platoon leader, he gathers his men around.
"My younger Marines looked like they were destroyed," Nerad says. "I just said to them, 'You know what you need to do.' They said, 'Staff Sergeant, we back you.' I told them, 'Let's move out.' "
Nerad knows there is no time to mourn. He and his Marines grab their guns, get in their vehicles and take off north, toward Baghdad.
He remembers driving into the capital, clearing neighborhoods, capturing one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. He remembers bullets raining down from buildings, looking like small explosions next to them, and the bright muzzle flashes in the darkness.
One of his Marines is hit in the head by a rocket-propelled grenade that breaks his helmet, but doesn't explode. If it had, Nerad says, the Marines in the vehicle would have been blown apart.
On the day Nerad's platoon arrives in Baghdad, the unit, part of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, is sent to a mosque to search for Hussein. They fight their way in, killing a machine gunner at the door. One of Nerad's corporals is hit by shrapnel. After clearing the mosque, they find a stairway leading down to a dark basement.
In the basement, it turns out, are a dozen armed Baath Party members loyal to Hussein. The Marines capture them, tie them up with curtains and haul them away in the bucket of a bulldozer.
"That was a long day, a very long day," Nerad says during an interview in his recruiting office.
***
For assuming command, leading his men to Baghdad and making sure his platoon stayed focused on its mission, Nerad received the Bronze Star for valor.
His unit stayed in Baghdad for a month. Although some in his platoon were wounded, none died after Childers.
Nerad later returned to Iraq, where he earned another Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and a Navy and Marine Commendation Medal for valor during the battle for Fallujah in the fall of 2004.
Wayne Hertz also took part in the invasion of Iraq and remembers hearing about Childers' death. He's now the sergeant major at Marine Recruiting Station Milwaukee, which oversees Nerad's recruiting office.
Hertz recalls thinking about the guy, whoever it might be, who had to take over Childers' platoon. When he moved to Wisconsin this year, he was surprised to learn that the Marine was one of his recruiters.
"One of the toughest things in combat is overcoming a loss and doing it quickly and keeping up the rest of the platoon's morale," says Hertz, calling Nerad a "Marine's Marine."
"Especially in the infantry, if a man goes down or is wounded, that next man is ready to step up and take the lead," Hertz says. It's "very tough as a staff sergeant to step up and fill the bill of a commissioned officer and keep the men on their toes and keep their morale up."
Nerad, who carries two pieces of shrapnel in his chest, keeps his first Bronze Star in a shadow box at home. Noting that many Marines have earned Bronze Stars, he says his medals don't make a difference to the young men and women he recruits. Many don't notice the small red, white and blue commendation among all the other colored bars on his uniform.
And he doesn't see himself as special or as anyone who did anything heroic. He sees himself as just a Marine who stepped in to replace a fallen comrade.
But Hertz was not surprised to hear of his commendations.
"Some Marines just kind of stumble across being a hero. He was born to do what he does," Hertz says. "He didn't stumble across being a hero. It was his destiny to lead men into combat."
Ellie
Call of duty came quickly
After the loss of his lieutenant in the first days of the war, Bradley Nerad assumed command and led his men to Baghdad
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Sept. 23, 2007
Second of three parts
Staff Sgt. Bradley Nerad's platoon has met little resistance while leading an assault on a pumping station at the Ramallah oil fields in the opening hours of the Iraq war.
The 36-man Marine unit had trained for seven months in 2002 and 2003 under the leadership of 2nd Lt. Shane Childers. They feel invincible.
"We were on foot going back to our vehicles because we had just cleared the area," Nerad says, "and some guys came through and shot at us."
***
The Marines run for their vehicles but see they won't make it, as Iraqi soldiers firing from Toyota pickups catch up to them. The Marines fan out and drop to the ground to return fire. Nerad gets off a few rounds.
Ten feet away from Nerad, Childers says, "I'm hit."
Nerad and other Marines carry Childers back to a vehicle. A Navy corpsman pulls off his gear and begins to work on the Mississippi native, who is wounded in the abdomen.
Nerad sees the tears roll down Childers' face and wonders how many more lives will be lost. He says a prayer and watches a helicopter take away his lieutenant, the first American to die from hostile fire in the war.
Then he gets back to business.
"You can never be prepared for something like that," says Nerad, 34, a Racine native who would later be promoted to gunnery sergeant and now serves as a Marine recruiter in Appleton.
After the battalion commander tells Nerad he is the new platoon leader, he gathers his men around.
"My younger Marines looked like they were destroyed," Nerad says. "I just said to them, 'You know what you need to do.' They said, 'Staff Sergeant, we back you.' I told them, 'Let's move out.' "
Nerad knows there is no time to mourn. He and his Marines grab their guns, get in their vehicles and take off north, toward Baghdad.
He remembers driving into the capital, clearing neighborhoods, capturing one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. He remembers bullets raining down from buildings, looking like small explosions next to them, and the bright muzzle flashes in the darkness.
One of his Marines is hit in the head by a rocket-propelled grenade that breaks his helmet, but doesn't explode. If it had, Nerad says, the Marines in the vehicle would have been blown apart.
On the day Nerad's platoon arrives in Baghdad, the unit, part of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, is sent to a mosque to search for Hussein. They fight their way in, killing a machine gunner at the door. One of Nerad's corporals is hit by shrapnel. After clearing the mosque, they find a stairway leading down to a dark basement.
In the basement, it turns out, are a dozen armed Baath Party members loyal to Hussein. The Marines capture them, tie them up with curtains and haul them away in the bucket of a bulldozer.
"That was a long day, a very long day," Nerad says during an interview in his recruiting office.
***
For assuming command, leading his men to Baghdad and making sure his platoon stayed focused on its mission, Nerad received the Bronze Star for valor.
His unit stayed in Baghdad for a month. Although some in his platoon were wounded, none died after Childers.
Nerad later returned to Iraq, where he earned another Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and a Navy and Marine Commendation Medal for valor during the battle for Fallujah in the fall of 2004.
Wayne Hertz also took part in the invasion of Iraq and remembers hearing about Childers' death. He's now the sergeant major at Marine Recruiting Station Milwaukee, which oversees Nerad's recruiting office.
Hertz recalls thinking about the guy, whoever it might be, who had to take over Childers' platoon. When he moved to Wisconsin this year, he was surprised to learn that the Marine was one of his recruiters.
"One of the toughest things in combat is overcoming a loss and doing it quickly and keeping up the rest of the platoon's morale," says Hertz, calling Nerad a "Marine's Marine."
"Especially in the infantry, if a man goes down or is wounded, that next man is ready to step up and take the lead," Hertz says. It's "very tough as a staff sergeant to step up and fill the bill of a commissioned officer and keep the men on their toes and keep their morale up."
Nerad, who carries two pieces of shrapnel in his chest, keeps his first Bronze Star in a shadow box at home. Noting that many Marines have earned Bronze Stars, he says his medals don't make a difference to the young men and women he recruits. Many don't notice the small red, white and blue commendation among all the other colored bars on his uniform.
And he doesn't see himself as special or as anyone who did anything heroic. He sees himself as just a Marine who stepped in to replace a fallen comrade.
But Hertz was not surprised to hear of his commendations.
"Some Marines just kind of stumble across being a hero. He was born to do what he does," Hertz says. "He didn't stumble across being a hero. It was his destiny to lead men into combat."
Ellie