Cross award

[thedrifter]

Cross award

Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
Jun. 5, 2007 12:00 AM

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - More than 140,000 U.S. Marines have served in Iraq in a war that has lasted more than 1,500 days. Only 18 have received the Navy Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor for combat bravery.

On Monday, the family of the 18th recipient, Cpl. Jason S. Clairday, gathered to receive his posthumous award and to hear the young man, who was 21 when he died, remembered as one "who set the standard for others to follow."

Clairday was awarded the Navy Cross for leading Marines in storming an insurgent stronghold in Fallujah in December 2004 to support Marines pinned down inside the home. Already wounded in the first assault, he refused to leave the fight and insisted on leading a second assault.

"He was told to evacuate, he was supposed to evacuate," Col. Larry Nicholson said. "He did not. He rallied his Marines and said, 'We're going in strong.' "

With grenades and M-16 fire, Clairday and his fire-team members killed the insurgents inside the home and saved several Marines. But wounds he received during the second assault proved fatal.

Travis Icard, who served with Clairday in Fallujah, told Marines and others attending the ceremony that his former fire-team leader "guided me to be a better Marine and to be a better man. ... Cpl. Clairday taught me things you can't learn in a textbook. He was always hardworking but never hard to work with."

Nicholson, commander of the 5th Marine regiment, credited the bravery of Clairday and other Marines who "went into that city and took it away from the terrorists" with improvements in Fallujah, which is no longer controlled by insurgents.

Clairday, of Salem, Ark., played baseball in high school, sang in the church choir and went into the Marines looking for stability.

He married his high school sweetheart only weeks before he deployed to Iraq with the 3rd battalion, 5th Marine regiment in September 2004. The couple had dreamed of having seven children and living their lives in rural Arkansas. Sarah Clairday had a miscarriage shortly before her husband deployed, but both figured they would have plenty of time to try again.

Clairday was set to leave the Marines in 2005 and attend college, in hopes of becoming a counselor to troubled kids.

While in Iraq, he sent e-mails to his wife and other family members and made occasional phone calls. He was always upbeat and never let on that his battalion was involved in close combat.

"He didn't want us to worry," said Cindy McCullough, his mother-in-law. "He never told us about bad things. He told us never to turn on TV, but that was the first thing I did every morning. He always put on a brave front and said, 'Take care of my baby doll.' "

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Monday, June 4, 2007
Marine honored with Navy Cross
Cpl. Jason S. Clairday posthumously honored at Camp Pendleton for fight in Fallujah, Iraq, in late 2004.
By VIK JOLLY
The Orange County Register

CAMP PENDLETON – Even as U.S. Marine Cpl. Jason Clairday was hit in the legs with enemy AK-47 fire during the battle for Fallujah in late 2004, the Garden Grove native didn't back down.

Under heavy fire from the enemy, Clairday still fired back while moving away from the path of the barrage. Marines yelled he needed to be evacuated. Instead, Clairday joined another squad and reentered the house, leading the charge against the insurgent position.

Brenda Ingram knows why her foster son did that: He knew how to get even.

Ingram didn't have to be told the full story by Marine officials who came to tell his family after that Dec. 12, 2004, firefight, that he had been killed in the battle. She knew he was focused on one thing only: taking care of business.

"I knew he'd gotten mad," said Ingram of Clairday, a fire team leader with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, who was wounded while conducting a security sweep in the Askari District. "He knew that they hurt him and they were going to hurt his men. And it made him mad to the point that he wasn't going to let anybody else get hurt. That was what his core was like."

It was a childhood trait that Clairday carried with him to the Marine Corps. Growing up in Salem, Ark., when his brothers got him into trouble, they knew he'd get them back.

"They better look out because he was going to retaliate one way or another," said Ingram, following a 50-minute wind and sunswept ceremony at Camp Pendleton on Monday during which Clairday was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. "It was either that he was going to get them in trouble with me or take care of them outside – a little bit of ruckus in the front yard."

Ingram, office manager at her husband's Salem veterinary clinic, and his relatives wiped tears from their eyes before and after the ceremony during which Clairday, 21, was remembered as a fierce fighter who left his mark on the battle of Fallujah.

"I think when we, in five, 10, 20 years look back on Iraq, the name Fallujah will be synonymous with the Marine Corps because we have been the service that has been responsible for taking the city and keeping it safe," said Col. Larry Nicholson, the commander of the 5th Marines. "I think Fallujah will always have a special meaning for Marines."

The Navy Cross is the second highest medal a Marine can receive for valor in combat behind the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Clairday became the 18th Marine to receive the Navy Cross for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the sixth from the Darkhorse battalion, the 3rd Battalion of the 5th Marines. In all, seven of the crosses have gone to the 5th Marines, the most decorated Marine regiment in history.

Clairday, who was born in Garden Grove, but around 5 years of age moved to Salem, was on his first tour of duty to Iraq. He was looking forward to finishing his service in 2005 and possibly pursuing a teaching or a teen counseling career. He also was looking forward to becoming a father and continuing his life journey with his wife of nearly five months, Sarah.

After graduating from Salem High School, Clairday had joined the Corps a few months before 9/11. He knew there was a possibility that he could die in Iraq.

"He'd e-mail me and say 'Mom, I didn't know that there was so much work to liberating a country,' " Ingram said. "But he was so proud to be there to help. He was always proud to be a Marine."

The ceremony was hard for Sarah Clairday, who went to high school with her then husband-to-be.

"I know he was a great man. I am honored that everybody else also thinks he was a great person," said Clairday, 22, a substitute teacher from Salem who has a butterfly tattoo on her upper right back in memory of her husband.

About 200 Marines stood in formation during the ceremony. At times, the only sound that could be heard was the fluttering of the flags of all 50 states that ringed the parade deck at the home of the 5th Marines.

Contact the writer: 949-465-5424 or vjolly@ocregister.com

Ellie