Following your dream shouldn’t cost you your life. But for many of the members of First Platoon, that’s exactly what happened.
This week marks the seventh anniversary of the Battle of Fallujah. During the battle, I was embedded as a combat historian with the Marine First Platoon, Lima Company, 3/1, as they fought house-to-house. First Platoon suffered some of the highest casualties in Fallujah: four killed in action — Lance Cpl. Nick Larson, Lance Cpl. Nathan Wood, Lance Cpl. Mike Hanks, and Lance Cpl. Benjamin Bryan — and 31 wounded, many more than once.
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But in many ways, what happened in Fallujah paled in comparison with the sacrifices the men have made since. Several have deployed back to Iraq and Afghanistan multiple times. Others have been wounded in action so many times it’s hard to keep track, or have suffered hardships related to their time at war. A few come to mind.
The lowest-ranking member of First Platoon was Sean Stokes. Following an AWOL charge he incurred when he left his duty station to save a family member from domestic violence, Stokes was given a choice: demotion to private (the lowest rank in the Marine Corps) and a trip to Iraq, or leaving the Marine Corps. Having wanted to be a Marine his entire life, Stokes gladly chose the demotion.
In Fallujah, Stokes became one of First Platoon’s finest. “Stokes was always the first into the house for my team. I cannot say for sure the number of enemy combatants Stokes eliminated, but there were many,” recalled Lance Cpl. Heath Kramer, Stokes’s fireteam leader.
On November 17, Stokes, along with most of First Platoon and me, encountered a sophisticated ambush. Inside a house, an enemy fragmentation grenade threw Stokes back six feet. “As I got up, rounds started impacting near me down the hall. The fighters kept coming closer, closer . . . ” he said afterward. “Then my magazine went dry! Everything I did was by instinct, so I pulled out a grenade to frag the Chechens. I thought I was going to die; I was out of mags, and they were just about to peek around the corner.”
Thank you for this incredible story. These kind of men humble me for their courageous service to this Republic. Why can't Hollywood depict this kind of heroism? The number of stories out of Iraq and Afghanistan should be shown to the American people. What fine men we have!
The answer is a resounding "No!" No country is entitled to the kinds of sacrifices that its soldiers make in a time of war. The level of personal pain and suffering that troops endure cannot be "deserved" by a nation or its people.
These men and women offer their blood, their limbs, and their lives, for many reasons--for their squadmates; for their families; for their country. But none of us has a claim on this offering. We accept it with gratitude and with deep sadness every day we live free, vote without risking our lives to do it, and go to sleep at night.
Our greatest American president knew what the relationship was between a Nation and its soldiers, and he spoke it clearly at Gettysburg and then at his Second Inaugural:
"It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations."
I agree. Whenever I get the chance, I show my younger kids photos of the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us without even personally knowing us. The question we should ask ourselves is, "are we leading lives worthy of their sacrifice?" My oldest son is in the military. He can't openly criticize his boss, but I know that the current commander in chief is a strain on morale.
The Americans who have served, and who are willing to serve or let their kids serve deserve it. They have paid or will pay the price. A lot of other people do not.
Thanks to the sacrifices of a small number of Americans, however, typically clustered in small towns and in a relative handful of families, generation after generation, America may not deserve men like these but it gets them. At least for now, until our cultural elites can manage to finally demoralize those who do serve sufficiently to discourage them from doing so.
in the greater context of American Society, you all are NOT us and we ARE NOT you all.
fewer than 1% of our population serves in the military and we are growing more and more distanced from civilian society. Civilian society espects to be pampered, sacrifice a virutually unknown ideal. OWS is far closer to representing the main stream of America than are those of us who serve. And that is truly tragic for this nation.
Where do you think those that serve come from? And I do think you are wrong about civilians wanting to be pampered. No doubt about it, there are some, and those are the ones we hear about, but I believe a great many more Americans with the right leadership will, and can stand up and do their duty.
Even many in the OWS crowd if drafted and forced to serve would come around and see the light. Once they got to fire a 50 caliber, M-60, ride in a tank, stand on the deck of a ship, or drop a round down an 81 mm mortar tube many would love it. Once they experienced the comradeship of shared sacrifice with their fellow soldiers, marines, airmen, or sailors they would understand and appreciate what we have.
This is a great country and it will take a long time for what we are to decay and disappear into the dustbin of history (I don’t think the real decay has even begun). There are elements now who are trying to send us down the tubes but it won’t happen (keep the faith baby).
Years ago, I think in 2003, VDH wrote a column about how this was the greatest or could be the greatest generation based on what we can and do militarily. I agree with that, the patriotism, loyalty, and devotion is always present in us; it only takes the right leader to bring it out.
From your description of how the USMC essentially forced Turpen to choose between necessary treatment and his career, one has to wonder if the Marine Corps deserves such men either.
That we would lose good Marines for such poor excuses has bothered me for the past 10 years. It appears that PC/bureaucratic attention to details has appeared in the combat units.
The company commander of these Marines could have stopped either action. The UCMJ allows for suspensions, adjudications, and other methods so that a single incident will not destroy a good Marine/soldier/airman/coastie. All it requires was a commander with a modicum of compassion and an over-riding sense of duty to his Marines, and not to a rule book. But that takes a form of courage that appears to have been driven out of our military.
It indicates that the captain or captains who were in command sacrificed these 2 without using any logic, or compassion.
I spent 30+ years in uniform, and this continues to sicken me. That their chain of command would not stand up and say "BS" bothers me greatly.
"The American Platoon" is a riveting article, unbeknown to many of the sacrifices young Marines have made in the Battle of Fallujah. Motivated by their love of country and “esprit de corps” this undying loyalty to serve as Marines stumps the readers to question “Does America deserve men such as these?” Although unworthy I can humbly answer that for this reader it deepens my appreciation for the Corps that my own son now serves in and it heightens my respect of your work Mr. O’Donnell! Thanks for sharing it!
FOR WHAT ?
Just another poisonous legacy of Bush Jr. Add it to the debt, the TSA, Torture and vast expansion of the Government.
All this heroism and dedication wasted by a fool. FOR WHAT ?
The only positive part of this story is the answer to those who believe this generation of young Americans are somehow inferior to their elders. These marines are no different from their counterparts I commanded 25 years ago.
Thankyou Pat for being with us to tell the story of Falluja. To my squad leader Jason Kyle and my fire team Rocky Damico, Marshall Kennedy, Sean Stokes, and their families, I am forever in debt.
Heath Kramer
Heath, After our discussion on the night of the ambush on Nov 17th, 2004, you never spoke to me or anyone about your service in Fallujah that is until our tradgic gathering at Dustin's funeral last year. Like so many who served, you are a quiet hero. We all respect and admire you.
Semper Fi, brother,
Pat
p.s. Glad to see Ohio still produces great h.s. wrestlers like you.:)
"in the greater context of American Society, you all are NOT us and we ARE NOT you all."
Tristan is right; we (the military) are better educated, better physically, and more conservative than the US public. We demonstrate out commitment every day with sweat, and sometimes blood. And yes, the gap is growing.
As far Ned goes, he is overly optimistic about American youth. And I can speak from personal experience because, guess what?
I'm old enough to have served with the last of the draftees in the '70s in an infantry unit. They got to shoot the mortars, and the machine guns and the pistols and they..... still went AWOL, still got stoned, still refused orders. Did not change them.
So, I'm sorry but we who volunteered are vastly different from the other inhabitants of this country. And I use that wording deliberately.
“Does America deserve men such as these?” It’s an interesting question. But it’s not America or Americans, deserving or not, that we swore to support and defend.
It’s THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES that we swore to support and defend against all enemies, FOREIGN and DOMESTIC.
If the Constitution is what it plainly reads as… a framework for a federation under which government power is limited and individual freedoms and rights are protected… then yes, it is worthy of service and sacrifice.
If the Constitution is a “living document” to be “interpreted” with generous plasticity by the judges to whom it’s authoritative (for now anyway) interpretation falls, the legislators who ought to be considering the constitutionality of what they legislate, and the executive who should always have support and defense of the Constitution foremost on his agenda… if it’s just some words over which they have broad license to “intrepret” as needed to suit their preferences, then no, it may not be worth sacrificing much for.
Is what we accomplished in Iraq worth sacrificing for? This takes us right to Bulldog 82’s question earlier in this discussion… "Do these men deserve the "leadership" they are getting from Washington?"
That leadership also swears to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Do the people who elected that leadership support and defend the Constitution of the United States?
