thedrifter
07-10-05, 04:35 PM
Sniper earns Silver Star, fellow Marines' respect
By Harry Levins
Of the Post-Dispatch
Saturday, Jul. 09 2005
Killed 32 in fight for Fallujah
At his family's kitchen table in Lake Saint Louis, Ethan Place comes across as
a squared-away 22-year-old. He speaks softly and modestly. He smiles easily. He
could be a college student, even a seminarian.
Instead, Place is a trained killer. He has a Silver Star to prove it.
Last year, Place spent seven months in Iraq, his second combat tour there as a
Marine. In the spring, he took part in the first battle for Fallujah.
Tony Perry of the Los Angeles Times was embedded with the Marines in Fallujah.
Last month, Perry was at Place's home station, Camp Pendleton, Calif., to watch
the Marine get his Silver Star. Perry wrote that Place "is a sniper, able to
kill an enemy at 1,000 yards or more with a single shot. ... In the battle for
Fallujah, Iraq, in April 2004, Place had 32 confirmed kills, from April 11 to
April 24."
Place's Silver Star citation speaks of the sergeant's "calm, collected demeanor
under intense combat conditions." Although the citation makes no mention of 32
kills, it says that on April 26, Place "disregarded his own safety and left the
cover of his defensive position to close with and destroy the enemy," in the
process killing five insurgents.
But at the kitchen table, Place shrugs off the statistics. "Numbers? I don't
want to get into the numbers game," he says. "It's not about numbers. It's
about saving other Marines."
Those other Marines had their own award for Place. Back at Camp Pendleton, the
unit to which Place had been attached gave him the unit guidon its Marines had
carried across Iraq.
The guidon is a small red flag with yellow letters that spell out the unit's
designation - Company E, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. The desert sun bleached
out much of the color from the guidon, which was modest to begin with.
But Place seems to value his war-weary guidon as much as he values his Silver
Star, the nation's third-highest decoration for valor.
Curiously, Place developed his marksman's eye with a bow, not a rifle.
As a boy, Place went hunting with his father - Richard Place, a professor of
education at Lindenwood University - and his brother Rich, now 24. "We mostly
used bows, not rifles," says Place. "There's more discipline in archery, and it
takes more skill."
Place's dad taught him a special skill he'd need as a sniper - how to hunker
down silently for hours at a time.
"To an 11-year-old, that's a nightmare - being stuck in a tree and told to keep
still," Place says. "But I got my first deer that first year."
He graduated from Wentzville High School in 2001 but figured he wasn't ready
for college. He joined the Marines and shipped out to San Diego for boot camp
shortly after 9/11. On the rifle range, he fell short by a single point of
winning an expert's badge. "But I got better as I learned to relax with it," he
says.
A fellow Marine talked Place into signing up for sniper school. On his first
tour in Iraq, in the invasion of 2003, Place was a spotter - the junior member
of a sniper-spotter team. The second time around, Place was very much the
senior partner.
But snipers have to live with a mixed image. Snipers are like mines and
submarines - silent killers whose victims never see death coming. U.S.
propagandists in World War II made much of the German submarine wolf packs,
even as U.S. submarines were disemboweling the Japanese merchant fleet.
Some military people dislike all snipers, no matter whose side
they're on. Place has felt that dislike. "I got a little bit of that - at least
before we went into combat," he says.
But after Fallujah? Place says, "I can guarantee you that after we went into
that city, every Marine was glad to have us along."
He has the guidon to prove it.
Reporter Harry Levins
E-mail: hlevins@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8144
Ellie
By Harry Levins
Of the Post-Dispatch
Saturday, Jul. 09 2005
Killed 32 in fight for Fallujah
At his family's kitchen table in Lake Saint Louis, Ethan Place comes across as
a squared-away 22-year-old. He speaks softly and modestly. He smiles easily. He
could be a college student, even a seminarian.
Instead, Place is a trained killer. He has a Silver Star to prove it.
Last year, Place spent seven months in Iraq, his second combat tour there as a
Marine. In the spring, he took part in the first battle for Fallujah.
Tony Perry of the Los Angeles Times was embedded with the Marines in Fallujah.
Last month, Perry was at Place's home station, Camp Pendleton, Calif., to watch
the Marine get his Silver Star. Perry wrote that Place "is a sniper, able to
kill an enemy at 1,000 yards or more with a single shot. ... In the battle for
Fallujah, Iraq, in April 2004, Place had 32 confirmed kills, from April 11 to
April 24."
Place's Silver Star citation speaks of the sergeant's "calm, collected demeanor
under intense combat conditions." Although the citation makes no mention of 32
kills, it says that on April 26, Place "disregarded his own safety and left the
cover of his defensive position to close with and destroy the enemy," in the
process killing five insurgents.
But at the kitchen table, Place shrugs off the statistics. "Numbers? I don't
want to get into the numbers game," he says. "It's not about numbers. It's
about saving other Marines."
Those other Marines had their own award for Place. Back at Camp Pendleton, the
unit to which Place had been attached gave him the unit guidon its Marines had
carried across Iraq.
The guidon is a small red flag with yellow letters that spell out the unit's
designation - Company E, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. The desert sun bleached
out much of the color from the guidon, which was modest to begin with.
But Place seems to value his war-weary guidon as much as he values his Silver
Star, the nation's third-highest decoration for valor.
Curiously, Place developed his marksman's eye with a bow, not a rifle.
As a boy, Place went hunting with his father - Richard Place, a professor of
education at Lindenwood University - and his brother Rich, now 24. "We mostly
used bows, not rifles," says Place. "There's more discipline in archery, and it
takes more skill."
Place's dad taught him a special skill he'd need as a sniper - how to hunker
down silently for hours at a time.
"To an 11-year-old, that's a nightmare - being stuck in a tree and told to keep
still," Place says. "But I got my first deer that first year."
He graduated from Wentzville High School in 2001 but figured he wasn't ready
for college. He joined the Marines and shipped out to San Diego for boot camp
shortly after 9/11. On the rifle range, he fell short by a single point of
winning an expert's badge. "But I got better as I learned to relax with it," he
says.
A fellow Marine talked Place into signing up for sniper school. On his first
tour in Iraq, in the invasion of 2003, Place was a spotter - the junior member
of a sniper-spotter team. The second time around, Place was very much the
senior partner.
But snipers have to live with a mixed image. Snipers are like mines and
submarines - silent killers whose victims never see death coming. U.S.
propagandists in World War II made much of the German submarine wolf packs,
even as U.S. submarines were disemboweling the Japanese merchant fleet.
Some military people dislike all snipers, no matter whose side
they're on. Place has felt that dislike. "I got a little bit of that - at least
before we went into combat," he says.
But after Fallujah? Place says, "I can guarantee you that after we went into
that city, every Marine was glad to have us along."
He has the guidon to prove it.
Reporter Harry Levins
E-mail: hlevins@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8144
Ellie