Shaffer
04-07-03, 07:18 AM
WITH ALPHA COMPANY, 1ST BATTALION, 5TH MARINES, IN IRAQ – Throughout the history of warfare, millions of soldiers have gone AWOL from the front lines. But Alpha Company's Cpl. Matthew Salazar is a Marine who went AWOL to the front lines.
"I couldn't leave my buddies up there without me," Salazar says.
Salazar, 26, of San Antonio, is a fire team leader with Alpha Company.
Like the other Marines in the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, Salazar went to Kuwait in early February in preparation for a possible war with Iraq. In early March, though, he got sad news from home: His father, Joe D. Salazar, 53, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, had died of liver cancer.
http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=32924§ion=NEWS&subsection=AMERICA_AT_WAR&year=2003&month=4&day=3
"I couldn't leave my buddies up there without me," Salazar says.
Salazar, 26, of San Antonio, is a fire team leader with Alpha Company.
Like the other Marines in the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, Salazar went to Kuwait in early February in preparation for a possible war with Iraq. In early March, though, he got sad news from home: His father, Joe D. Salazar, 53, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, had died of liver cancer.
http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=32924§ion=NEWS&subsection=AMERICA_AT_WAR&year=2003&month=4&day=3