PDA

View Full Version : A young Marines Letter to the Editor



dnelson
06-01-03, 05:29 PM
By Danny Young



AD DIWANIAH, Iraq - I am in the U.S. Marine Corps serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I'm sure that many stories have been published in The Register-Guard about the conflict over here, and about the supporters and opponents of the war. Here's my story.

I belong to the 6th Engineer Support Battalion, Company A. It's a reserve unit in our hometown of Eugene. I thought it would be nice for people to hear from a hometown boy who could share some of my company's journeys through the war.

When we arrived in Kuwait on Feb. 9, we left our parent reserve battalion (the 6th) and joined an active duty battalion (the 7th Engineers) out of Camp Pendleton, Calif. The 7th Engineers played a vital role in the initial breach of the berms and minefields on the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border, allowing the 1st Marine Division to pass into Iraq. Our missions have taken us all the way to Baghdad.

Our first large-scale mission was to set up a camp called Camp Anderson. We used bulldozers to flatten the ground and push up large perimeter berms for security, providing a staging area for the 1st Marine Division and support companies. We worked long days and nights, bulldozing with night-vision goggles to get the camp finished. Day and night we could see and hear large explosions and gunfire just miles to the north.

Camp Anderson provided a place for the 1st Division to fall back to for fuel, ammo, chow, medical attention and rest. Many of us got the opportunity to work in the medical facility, carrying the stretchers off the medical choppers and then holding enemy prisoners of war at gunpoint as the Navy docs tried to patch them up. Most of the wounded were enemy soldiers - very few Americans.

One of the saddest sights was a small boy, maybe 6 years old, who had gunshot wounds to the face. He was in a car with seven other people disguised as a "family" that was trying to drive explosives (a car bomb) into a Marine camp. The gate guards had to fire at the vehicle, and the small child was unfortunately in the car. That Marine did his job, but will now have to live with the memories of the incident.

The majority of Iraqi people are very happy to have us here. There is no greater feeling than hearing them say, "Thank you" and "Yes Bush, no Saddam." They are very grateful. I have heard stories of them inviting Marines over to have tea and offering tokens, gifts, even livestock as a form of gratitude.

After Anderson we moved forward to a camp called Viper. Viper was a staging area for our next mission. While at Viper we all got the news that Baghdad had fallen to the Marines. We all celebrated as best we could in the desert.

A few days later, we were ordered to help out an explosives ordnance disposal unit. Our first job took us back south toward Anderson, where we disposed of two el-Salaam II missiles, then the next day we went north into Baghdad.

The camp in Baghdad was an Iraqi Republican Guard training base (like boot camp). We set up camp in the middle of their obstacle and ropes course. For the next four days we collected unexploded ordnance from the base as well as the nearby town.

The Iraqi army had kicked people out of their homes and turned them into fighting positions and ordnance storage sites. For days we cleared out people's homes in what one Iraqi boy told me was one of the nicest, newly developed areas of Iraqi housing. They treated us like family.

We formed chains of people all through the houses, moving out boxes of ammo, rocket-propelled grenades, artillery rounds, mortars and mines. The great thing was that the chain was made up of Marines and Iraqi civilians, who were happy to lend a hand and help out their neighbors. We didn't speak a word of each others' language, with the exception of a few bilingual people, but we laughed together, worked together and sweated together. When we left, many people showed their appreciation with a hug or a small kiss on the cheek.

We left Baghdad to head south to the small town of Ad Diwaniah, a university town. This place was trashed when we got there. The Iraqi government had taken over the university before the war. They took everything of worth, broke all the windows, set some buildings on fire and used it as a military staging area.

We met up with the rest of the 7th Engineer Support Battalion here and are doing our best to help pick the place up and do minor repairs. This university has provided a staging area for many Marine units over the past few weeks. Tomorrow some of our Marines will be headed back to an area southwest of Baghdad to assist the explosives ordnance disposal unit with another mission.

Things have slowed down quite a bit. Many of the Marines are getting long-awaited mail and packages from family members, which we were unable to receive near Baghdad. They say that our return to the United States is in the not-too-distant future, which has some of the Marines in high hopes of seeing family members soon. We all know that the missions come first, and we know that no dates are ever set in stone.

I was a senior at the University of Oregon, majoring in business administration. I was due to graduate at the end of March, then take a job in Oakland, Calif. My job still waits for me, as does the university and my education.

Sure, the war in Iraq may have put a small speed bump in what I thought was a flat paved highway, but to tell you the truth, this is what I signed up for. Both my grandfathers were World War II vets - one has gone to be with the angels, the other works in the Reedsport-Winchester Bay area. My father and brother are both police officers in North Bend, and my mom is a first-grade teacher. They have all done their part to serve their country; some of them are still serving.

Nothing is free in life - someone always pays for it. Others might enjoy things for free, like "their" freedom, but they seem to think it's their God-given right as a U.S. citizen. People take their freedom for granted unless they've been to a country that has no freedom. Then they can fully understand how lucky they are. Iraq had no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion - a cross used to be a forbidden symbol in this country.

On the morning of Easter Sunday I sat and looked at a cross made of wood, with a crown of barbed wire wrapped around the top. The Navy chaplain told us that if we were Iraqis and it was last Easter, we would have all been arrested or killed.

Not only did I fight to preserve the freedoms in America and protect our country from what could have been future terrorist attacks, but now I have the satisfaction of knowing that the little boys and girls I see every day will grow up in a country with the same freedoms I've had.

This past fall term at the UO there was an anti-war protest on campus. I'm happy to see people protest, even though I'm not always thrilled with what they're protesting about - but they are expressing their freedoms, their rights. Yet sometimes I wonder how far they'd go to protect these rights.

At the anti-war protest they had small gravestones cut from cardboard. A sign said, "These people will die if we go to war." As I scrolled the names, I couldn't help but notice mine. I was upset - first at how they got information about my service in the armed forces, and second that they were deciding my fate before the war even happened.

Well, I have news for them. I am alive and well, as is everyone in my unit. And if I would have died, it would not have been in vain. I would love to ask each one of them: When was the last time you did something for your country? When was the last time you paid for your freedom?

The number of my brothers and sisters who gave their lives over here is not even a fraction of the estimates made before the start of the war - there have been fewer than 200. But do not blemish their names by saying their cause was unjust or unnecessary. If they are anything like the Marines of the 6th Engineer Support Battalion, Company A, they were proud to fight, proud to serve and proud to die for their country and for the preservation of freedom.

Don't mourn them - they wouldn't want that, either. They would want us all to hit home runs, score touchdowns, pick up a musical instrument, have a barbecue, go fishing, go hunting, go camping, do a kind deed for someone, tell someone how much you love them, write a book, get an education, sing, dance, fall in love, thank a veteran for all he has done for you and find a way to give something back to a country that has given you so much to be thankful for.

When I get home, I hope that I experience a patriotism stronger than when I left, one comparable to Sept. 11. The way some Americans treated our brothers and sisters after Vietnam was wrong. I hope there is never a crowd like that to come home to again.

As for me, my homecoming will be spent with my family in Coos Bay, the town I grew up in. It's a day I look forward to very much. I am grateful to the people of Oregon for their support and prayers for our unit; we have truly been blessed by the amount of mail and support we are getting from fellow Oregonians who we don't even know.

Marine Sgt. Danny Young's parents live in Coos Bay.

thedrifter
06-01-03, 08:49 PM
Great Read......

Thanks for sharing.......


Sempers,

Roger

Devildogg4ever
06-02-03, 04:32 AM
Semper Fi!! :marine: