thedrifter
05-23-07, 07:05 AM
Corpsman receives medal for rescue effort
BY JEANNE KNIAZ
VOICE REPORTER
A former Memphis High School graduate, now a corpsman in the U.S. Navy, was awarded a medal for the rescue efforts he employed on Marines felled by an Improvised Explosive Device while on patrol in Al Kharma, Iraq.
Although Hospitalman Robert Clark, primary care branch medical clinic, contended his actions were all in the line of duty, the military saw fit to award him the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Valor and a citation affirming "heroic achievement in the superior performance of his duties."
Following his enlistment in fall 2004, Clark was deployed to Camp Fallujah on Jan. 19, 2006.
Like the others in his platoon, Clark had to quickly adjust to living each day inside a war zone.
"It's weird because you can walk into a neighborhood on a foot patrol and it looks like any other day," said Clark.
"I mean, people are working and they are waving at us all the time, all happy, and kids are playing soccer in the street - you know - just going about their day. Then all of a sudden you hear bop-bop-bop and somebody is shooting at us and then it just turns into chaos. We find the bad guys and we kill them and then everybody goes about their way. Kids go back to playing soccer, women go back to working in the field. It ... it is weird."
The young man, fresh out of high school, matured at a rapid rate.
"I was 19 when I went," said Clark, "and I turned 20 over there. If somebody talks about their birthday I say, 'You know what I got for my 20th birthday? I got shot at, that's what I got.' Well, you know, we did have some bad times but we also had some great times over there. This experience has really changed me."
In the predawn hours of June 20, Clark and several Marines went out on patrol in a convoy consisting of five vehicles.
"I remember everything about that day," said Clark. "We rode in gun trucks - armored Humvees with big guns mounted on top. We had a special team with us that we were escorting. The mission was to go to this one destination, take a survey and then go to another destination, take another survey and then head home. At this point we had already been in country for five or six months. It was a mission we had done several times before so we knew what we were doing. We were ready for it."
A routine patrol soon turned into every military man's worst nightmare.
After passing the first checkpoint, they crossed a bridge on a dirt road.
"We had five Humvees with us and I was in number four," said Clark. "As we got over this bridge, it turned into a dirt road and kind of curved around this big berm and you couldn't see around it. As my truck went around it, I heard a boom - an explosion. We looked around and couldn't find the truck behind us."
It was then they knew the last truck had been hit by an IED concealed by dirt.
Upon detonation the truck had flipped and rolled several times before coming to a stop.
The remaining members of the convoy turned around and stopped roughly 100 feet away from the exploded vehicle.
Clark immediately sprang into action.
"These were my buddies," he said. "I had been living with these guys every day for a long time and they are my best friends and when it happened I went right into corpsman mode. I wasn't thinking, I wasn't questioning myself ... I was just doing it."
Clark, the only corpsman on hand, and other Marines at the scene were responsible for saving two of the five Marines injured at the site.
"All in all, we lost three Marines that day but we saved two," said Clark. "One of the Marines ... he was still alive, he was talking. He had bi-lateral broken legs ... he had a broken neck, he had landed on his head. I patched him up as best I could. I put him on a spine board and moved him around and got him away from the scene."
Clark gave aid to each Marine and also assembled the casualty collection point, specified a landing zone for evacuating injured Marines and informed the air medical crew as to condition of the survivors, enabling the helicopter crew to execute a speedy evacuation.
A quick reaction force retrieved the casualties and another team swept the site for any remaining IEDs.
"When I finally got back to base and calmed down, I turned to my buddy and asked him how I did because I didn't exactly remember every detail right away," said Clark.
Six hours after returning to base, Clark was again sent out on patrol.
He stayed in Iraq for several more months before being transferred to a base in Barstow, California.
During a special formation last December, Clark was awarded his medal.
"I am very proud but I was just doing what I was trained to do," he said.
He has since been promoted to Hospital Corpsman Third Class and will soon be stationed on a ship based out of Norfolk, Virginia.
He also has a leave coming up next month at which time he will visit with family and friends.
While he looks forward to coming home, his heart will remain with those he left behind.
"It was heartbreaking for him," said Angie Clark of Memphis, Robert's mother.
"They were more like his brothers, you know? They watched over him. He had wrestled one of the guys in a challenge and about a month later he called me and you could tell he was really upset and angry. He said to me, "Mom, about that guy I had wrestled last month ... little did I know that I would be taking the arm that had been around my neck from wrestling and putting it into a body bag."
Ellie
BY JEANNE KNIAZ
VOICE REPORTER
A former Memphis High School graduate, now a corpsman in the U.S. Navy, was awarded a medal for the rescue efforts he employed on Marines felled by an Improvised Explosive Device while on patrol in Al Kharma, Iraq.
Although Hospitalman Robert Clark, primary care branch medical clinic, contended his actions were all in the line of duty, the military saw fit to award him the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Valor and a citation affirming "heroic achievement in the superior performance of his duties."
Following his enlistment in fall 2004, Clark was deployed to Camp Fallujah on Jan. 19, 2006.
Like the others in his platoon, Clark had to quickly adjust to living each day inside a war zone.
"It's weird because you can walk into a neighborhood on a foot patrol and it looks like any other day," said Clark.
"I mean, people are working and they are waving at us all the time, all happy, and kids are playing soccer in the street - you know - just going about their day. Then all of a sudden you hear bop-bop-bop and somebody is shooting at us and then it just turns into chaos. We find the bad guys and we kill them and then everybody goes about their way. Kids go back to playing soccer, women go back to working in the field. It ... it is weird."
The young man, fresh out of high school, matured at a rapid rate.
"I was 19 when I went," said Clark, "and I turned 20 over there. If somebody talks about their birthday I say, 'You know what I got for my 20th birthday? I got shot at, that's what I got.' Well, you know, we did have some bad times but we also had some great times over there. This experience has really changed me."
In the predawn hours of June 20, Clark and several Marines went out on patrol in a convoy consisting of five vehicles.
"I remember everything about that day," said Clark. "We rode in gun trucks - armored Humvees with big guns mounted on top. We had a special team with us that we were escorting. The mission was to go to this one destination, take a survey and then go to another destination, take another survey and then head home. At this point we had already been in country for five or six months. It was a mission we had done several times before so we knew what we were doing. We were ready for it."
A routine patrol soon turned into every military man's worst nightmare.
After passing the first checkpoint, they crossed a bridge on a dirt road.
"We had five Humvees with us and I was in number four," said Clark. "As we got over this bridge, it turned into a dirt road and kind of curved around this big berm and you couldn't see around it. As my truck went around it, I heard a boom - an explosion. We looked around and couldn't find the truck behind us."
It was then they knew the last truck had been hit by an IED concealed by dirt.
Upon detonation the truck had flipped and rolled several times before coming to a stop.
The remaining members of the convoy turned around and stopped roughly 100 feet away from the exploded vehicle.
Clark immediately sprang into action.
"These were my buddies," he said. "I had been living with these guys every day for a long time and they are my best friends and when it happened I went right into corpsman mode. I wasn't thinking, I wasn't questioning myself ... I was just doing it."
Clark, the only corpsman on hand, and other Marines at the scene were responsible for saving two of the five Marines injured at the site.
"All in all, we lost three Marines that day but we saved two," said Clark. "One of the Marines ... he was still alive, he was talking. He had bi-lateral broken legs ... he had a broken neck, he had landed on his head. I patched him up as best I could. I put him on a spine board and moved him around and got him away from the scene."
Clark gave aid to each Marine and also assembled the casualty collection point, specified a landing zone for evacuating injured Marines and informed the air medical crew as to condition of the survivors, enabling the helicopter crew to execute a speedy evacuation.
A quick reaction force retrieved the casualties and another team swept the site for any remaining IEDs.
"When I finally got back to base and calmed down, I turned to my buddy and asked him how I did because I didn't exactly remember every detail right away," said Clark.
Six hours after returning to base, Clark was again sent out on patrol.
He stayed in Iraq for several more months before being transferred to a base in Barstow, California.
During a special formation last December, Clark was awarded his medal.
"I am very proud but I was just doing what I was trained to do," he said.
He has since been promoted to Hospital Corpsman Third Class and will soon be stationed on a ship based out of Norfolk, Virginia.
He also has a leave coming up next month at which time he will visit with family and friends.
While he looks forward to coming home, his heart will remain with those he left behind.
"It was heartbreaking for him," said Angie Clark of Memphis, Robert's mother.
"They were more like his brothers, you know? They watched over him. He had wrestled one of the guys in a challenge and about a month later he called me and you could tell he was really upset and angry. He said to me, "Mom, about that guy I had wrestled last month ... little did I know that I would be taking the arm that had been around my neck from wrestling and putting it into a body bag."
Ellie