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thedrifter
05-25-09, 07:29 AM
'And I wasn't going to leave my buddies': A veteran tells his story of friends, service and sacrifice
By Richard Chin
rchin@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 05/24/2009 10:55:43 PM CDT

Doc. Smith. Ricky. Gannon.

Those are just some of the men Pete Hanson will be thinking of today.

They were fellow Marines killed while Hanson was a lance corporal fighting in Iraq from the invasion in 2003 through his second tour of duty in 2004.

Hanson now is a 27-year-old steelworker living in Arden Hills.

But in March 2004, he was on a base in Iraq near the Syrian border being hit by mortars twice a day. On March 17 that year, he was part of a patrol trying to find the attackers. Here's what he remembers of what happened next:

"We had a general area where we thought they might be, and driving out there, I was the driver of the Humvee. It was dark out, and I don't remember much, but I remember going around this curve on this dirt road.

"I was the second Humvee, and I saw this bright flash. And I woke up outside of the Humvee, probably 20 or 30 feet from the Humvee, because I was thrown from the Humvee.

"I didn't hear it, but it hit my rear right side, and it killed Smith. Brandon Smith; he was from Arkansas. He was 19. He was sitting in the rear right seat. And our gunner, Ricky Morris, from Texas. He was killed as well. Robert Garza, sitting next to me, he broke his neck in three places. He is a recruiter now in Dallas, Texas. And then our corpsman, who was sitting behind me, Mark, he was the only one who stayed in the Humvee during the explosion, and nothing happened to him.

"Ricky died the next day. Smith died immediately.

"I severely dislocated my right shoulder and my right elbow. I was given the option to go back to my unit after a month of being down in al-Asad air base or go home, and I decided to go back to my unit. We were short on guys, and they needed another body, and I wasn't going to leave my buddies.

"My next time out was April 9th in 2004. That's when we had a three-day firefight in Husaybah, when Captain Gannon and three others had been killed in an ambush.

"And around that time as well, Jason Dunham. He was awarded the Medal of Honor two years ago, posthumously.

"He was in my unit. We used to do a lot of VCPs — vehicle check points — and search vehicles that came through. An Iraqi had gotten out of a vehicle, and him and his squad chased the guy down. Jason tackled the guy. The Iraqi dropped a grenade. Jason took his helmet off, put it on top of the grenade and then curled his body around his helmet. He took the whole blast.

"He died a couple weeks later in Bethesda, Md. His family took him off life support.

"I've always done things with my family on Memorial Day. My mom's father's brother was killed in Anzio, Italy, during World War II. I remember as a kid going down to Albert Lea where my parents both grew up, and going to see Buddy's grave on Memorial Day and putting a wreath out there for him.

"For me as a kid, it meant a lot, but since I've been out, and coming back from Iraq, Memorial Day's always been something real special for me. I've probably known 15 to 20 people off the top of my head that I can think of that were killed in Iraq.

"It's kind of a low-key day. I'll call up some of my buddies I still talk with. And we'll talk. We'll talk once in a while. We always talk about the good times we had with our friends that we lost. We don't ever bring up that, 'Damn, that it sucks that Doc's dead or Smith's dead.'

"We just talk about the good times."

Hanson, who received a Purple Heart, will get a $3,000 grant from the Minnesotans' Military Appreciation Fund next month.

Richard Chin can be reached at 651-228-5560.

Ellie