Marine from Clarence saves an officer in Iraq twice
Corporal performs heroically after recovering from an injury
By Lou MichelNEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 08/11/08 9:57 AM


Douglas J. Chadwick wanted to be a Marine in Iraq.

His ambition turned out to be fortunate for one of his commanding officers.

But the Clarence High School graduate almost didn’t make it to Iraq.

Four years ago, he suffered a broken left wrist at Parris Island boot camp in South Carolina and was sent home. Refusing to give up on his dream, he underwent surgery and was given a second chance.

Two years later, he was in Iraq, where he ended up playing a critical role in saving the life of a major, not once but twice.

Now recovering at Camp Lejeune,

N. C., from a traumatic brain injury, Chadwick will be coming home next spring, though he would rather go to Iraq or Afghanistan and “help finish the job.”

Yet the 23-year-old lance corporal will return here with a deep sense of satisfaction.

That, in part, is because he was able to save the life of an Army major who had been wounded in the leg by a sniper. It happened the morning of Nov. 18, 2006, during a raid on a market in Karmah, a village outside Fallujah, where Army and Marine units were searching for a bomb factory.

Chadwick dashed into the line of fire, he said, to save Maj. Christopher Talley and dragged the wounded officer behind a concrete

barrier as the sniper continued shooting.

Other Marines drove a Humvee in front of the two men to provide more cover. Chadwick realized that the major would soon bleed to death, so he applied a tourniquet. Talley was then placed in the Humvee and driven to Camp Fallujah, where he underwent emergency surgery.

That was not the first time Chadwick had made a difference in Talley’s life.

Two months earlier, Chadwick was driving a Humvee with Talley and a lieutenant when a roadside bomb exploded, blowing off the back doors of the vehicle and shredding its tires.

Despite suffering a concussion and bleeding eardrums, Chadwick said, he managed to drive the Humvee, leaking fuel, two miles back to camp.

The lieutenant, who was in the gun turret and dazed from the blast’s impact, also suffered a head injury and bleeding eardrums. Chadwick said he and the lieutenant were given a week to recuperate before returning to combat.

Though he never saw Talley again after the rescue from the sniper, Chadwick eventually received an e-mail from the major, telling him that his actions had helped save his leg from amputation.

“The doctors told me that my injury has about a 95 percent amputation rate with no chance of a prosthesis. I beat the odds, it was a good day,” Talley wrote. “You got me out of the line of fire, . . . and you performed your job superbly. Be proud of yourself. I am.”

The Navy and Marine Commendation Medal for valor was awarded to Chadwick, and he also was recommended for a Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

Chadwick, who was raised in Cheektowaga before moving to Clarence in his late teens, says he hopes to visit Talley, explaining that he feels a bond with the major, who lives near Nashville, Tenn. The major has given Chadwick a standing invitation to visit his home.

With a sense of accomplishment, Chadwick says saving the major’s life was all in a day’s work.

“I was doing my job,” he said.

Next June, when he and his wife, Chiah, return to the Buffalo area, he says he hopes to attend college or find work in personal security, perhaps protecting VIPs.

If he ever needs a job reference, Maj. Christopher Talley, no doubt, could provide one.

lmichel@buffnews.com

Ellie