Courtesy of Blackfive.
Probably one of the most heart warming and poignant, yet heart wrenching homecoming pics you’ll see. 3 Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment returns home and those who just got back get to see those who were wounded on their tour for the first time. If you’ve every wondered about the brotherhood and the bond combat infantrymen form, this picture tells you all you’ll ever need to know:
http://www.blackfive.net/.a/6a00d834...0fd3c6c970c-pi
Welcome home, Marines.
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The Dark Horse Marines and Their Corpsmen
Posted By Blackfive • [April 11, 2011]
Over 175 Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment (Dark Horse), were wounded and 24 killed in action in the last seven months in Afghanistan. They took more casualities than any other Marine unit in the almost 10 years the Marines have been fighting in Afghanistan.
The Dark Horse are ready to come home:
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There's been a few articles on the fighting that these men have seen - from the great Tony Perry of the LA Times comes this piece about the price being paid:Lance Cpl. Juan Dominguez, 26, of Deming, N.M., an infantry “grunt,” had dreamed of going into combat as a Marine since he was barely out of grade school.
What happened to him in Sangin shows the price being paid for a cam- paign to cripple the Taliban in a key stronghold and help extricate America from a war now in its 10th year.
The explosion could be heard for miles
When Dominguez slipped down a small embankment while out on patrol and landed on a buried bomb, the explosion could be heard for miles.
“It had to be a 30- to 40-pounder,” Dominguez said from his bed at the military hospital in Bethesda, Md. “I remember crying out for my mother and then crying out for morphine. I remember them putting my legs on top of me.”
His legs were severed above the knee, and his right arm was mangled and could not be saved. A Navy corpsman, risking sniper fire, rushed to Dominguez and stopped the bleeding. On the trip to the field hospital, Dominguez prayed.
“I figured this was God’s will, so I told him: ‘If you’re going to take me, take me now,’ “ he said.
His memories of Sangin are vivid. “The part we were in, it’s hell,” he said. “It makes your stomach turn. The poor families there, they get conned into helping the Taliban.”...
If you notice above, a Navy Corpsman risked his life to save Dominguez. To those of us that know a few Corpsmen, this is not a surprise. If it wasn't for them, the number of KIA (24) would have been much much higher.
So who was that brave Corpsman, doing his job, saving his Marines?
I'm not sure, but this Corpsman saved someone like Dominguez:One of the most recent of the regiment's wounded is Navy corpsman Stuart Fuke, 22, of Honolulu, wounded in the thigh during a foot patrol a week ago. A Marine buddy stopped Fuke's bleeding with rolls of gauze as sniper fire snapped overhead.
In six months of patrols, Fuke, who was on his second tour in Afghanistan, has provided emergency battlefield care to numerous Marines shot by Taliban snipers or wounded by buried bombs.
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In one skirmish, Fuke had a Marine buddy "die in my arms" after being hit; in another he was able to stem the bleeding and save the life of an agonized Marine who lost both legs and his right arm; and in yet another incident, he watched in horror as a Navy corpsman had his legs blown off...
Doc Fuke is exactly the reason why Corpsmen and Combat Medics don't pay for drinks around the grunts. They risk everything for the chance, however slim, to save your life.
I don't know how this country continues to produce men like Dominguez and Fuke, but I'm very thankful that we do.
