Marine vet's pride rolled into Harley's design
TINLEY PARK | Vet tricks out bike honoring Iraq tours


April 25, 2009
BY MIKE THOMAS Staff Reporter/mthomas@suntimes.com

Less than a week after returning from his final tour in Iraq, 29-year-old war hero and retired Marine Staff Sgt. Mike Mendoza picked up a sweet homecoming gift Friday: a Harley-Davidson Road King Classic.

The "recon sniper" and team leader, who hails from Tinley Park, bought it last November while he was still stationed overseas.

But it's more than just a tricked-out toy -- it's a constant reminder of his often-harrowing days in battle before he was honorably discharged.

During one of several tours in Iraq that stretched from 2004 to 2009, Mendoza created the $17,000 hog's unique detailing with the help of a pal's computer program.

On the left side of the gas tank, protruding tongue-like from a skull's mouth, is a depiction of the Purple Heart Mendoza was awarded in 2006 when he took a grenade hit to the chest that injured his diaphragm, stomach, small intestine and both lungs -- and required removal of his spleen.

On the tank's right side, nestled in an eye socket, is the Silver Star Mendoza earned in 2004 for valor.

During the early stages of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Mendoza's 25-man platoon, the First Reconnaissance Battalion, Bravo Company, was moving in a convoy through the city of Fallujah in Al Anbar Province when they were ambushed by as many as 60 insurgents. Although the men fought fiercely against their attackers -- "we eliminated well over 30 of them and captured two," Mendoza said -- five Marines died instantly. Other U.S. casualties and fatalities followed, he said.

One of them was his captain, 27-year-old Brent Morel of Tennessee.

"[He] fell down in the open, and I had to go out there -- well, I didn't have to -- [but] he got shot in the chest, and I went out and retrieved him, I got him," Mendoza recalled. "It was in an open field. There was a couple of canals we had to cross and I ran across. I think they said it was over 80 meters. But I don't even remember that."

Despite Mendoza's actions, Morel died from his wounds. Morel was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his bravery and service.

Nonetheless, Mendoza said he's heartened and not haunted by the memories that might surface every time he revs up his Road King now that he's back for good.

"It's not bad memories," said Mendoza, who will start working for Pipefitters Local Union 597 next month and will enroll in a master's program in special education at St. Xavier University. "It's stuff I'm proud to have done."

Ellie