James N - OoCities
James N. McCutchen
Detachment # 603
Department of Tennessee
Marine Corps League
February, 2005 Edition
P. O. Box 30181, Clarksville, Tennessee 37040-0004
|Detachment Officers |
|Commandant – Terry Wilson |
|Senior Vice Commandant – Stacey Hopwood |Adjutant – Lois A. Dillree |
|Junior Vice Commandant – Kendall R. Dealy |Paymaster – Claire M. Minie, PDC |
|Judge Advocate – Franklin Wagner |Chaplain – J. Tom Coffman |
|Junior Past Commandant– Ralph W. Hesson |Sergeant-at-Arms – Ralph Klingensmith |
CALENDAR
• Feb. 17 – Detachment Meeting, VFW Post 4895, 7:00 pm
• Feb. 24 – Ladies Night Out, China King Buffet, 2088 Lowe’s Drive (next to Kroger), 6:30 pm
• Feb. 28 -- Cub Scout Pack 565 Blue & Gold Banquet, Hazelwood Elementary School, 6:00 pm
• Mar. 10-13 – Southeast Division MCL Convention, Atlanta GA
• Apr. 9 – Department of Tennessee MCL Staff Meeting, Cookeville, TN, 1:00-4:00 pm
• June 23-25 – Department of Tennessee MCL Convention, Johnson City, TN
THIS MONTH’S FEATURES
Back From Iraq And Out On The Streets
Christian Science Monitor
February 8, 2005
NEW YORK - Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are now showing up in the nation's homeless shelters. While the numbers are still small, they're steadily rising, and raising alarms in both the homeless and veterans' communities. The concern is that these returning veterans - some of whom can't find jobs after leaving the military, others of whom are still struggling psychologically with the war - may be just the beginning of an influx of new veterans in need. Currently, there are 150,000 troops in Iraq and 16,000 in Afghanistan. More than 130,000 have already served and have returned home.
So far, dozens of them, like Herold Noel, a married father of three, have found themselves sleeping on the streets, on friends' couches, or in their cars within weeks of returning home. Two years ago, Black Veterans for Social Justice (BVSJ) in the borough of Brooklyn, saw only a handful of recent returnees. Now the group is aiding more than 100 Iraq veterans, 30 of who are homeless.
"It's horrible to put your life on the line and then come back home to nothing, that's what I came home to: nothing. I didn't know where to go or where to turn," says Mr. Noel. "I thought I was alone, but I found out there are a whole lot of other soldiers in the same situation. Now I want people to know what's really going on."
After the Vietnam War, tens of thousands of veterans came home to a hostile culture that offered little gratitude and inadequate services, particularly to deal with the stresses of war. As a result, tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans still struggle with homelessness and drug addiction. Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are coming home to a very different America. While the Iraq war remains controversial, there is almost unanimous support for the soldiers overseas. And in the years since Vietnam, more than 250 nonprofit veterans' service organizations have sprouted up, many of them created by people like Peter Cameron, a Vietnam veteran who is determined that what happened to his fellow soldiers will not happen again.
But he and dozens of other veterans' service providers are concerned by the increasing numbers of new veterans ending up on streets and in shelters. Part of the reason for these new veterans' struggles is that housing costs have skyrocketed at the same time real wages have remained relatively stable, often putting rental prices out of reach. And for many, there is a gap of months, sometimes years, between when military benefits end and veterans benefits begin.
"We are very much committed to helping veterans coming back from this war," says Mr. Cameron, executive director of Vietnam Veterans of California. "But the [Department of Veterans Affairs] already has needs it can't meet and there's a lot of fear out there that programs are going to be cut even further."
Both the Veterans Administration and private veterans service organizations are already stretched, providing services for veterans of previous conflicts. For instance, while an estimated 500,000 veterans were homeless at some time during 2004, the VA had the resources to tend to only 100,000 of them.
"You can have all of the yellow ribbons on cars that say 'Support Our Troops' that you want, but it's when they take off the uniform and transition back to civilian life that they need support the most," says Linda Boone, executive director of The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.
After the Vietnam conflict, it was nine to 12 years before veterans began showing up at homeless shelters in large numbers. In part, that's because the trauma they experienced during combat took time to surface, according to one Vietnam veteran who's now a service provider. Doctors refer to the phenomenon as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A recent study published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that 15 to 17 percent of Iraq vets meet "the screening criteria for major depression, generalized anxiety, or PTSD." Of those, only 23 to 40 percent are seeking help - in part because so many others fear the stigma of having a mental disorder.
Many veterans' service providers say they're surprised to see so many Iraq veterans needing help so soon. "This kind of inner city, urban guerrilla warfare that these veterans are facing probably accelerates mental-health problems," says Yogin Ricardo Singh, director of the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program at BVSJ. "And then there's the soldier's mentality: Asking for help is like saying, 'I've failed a mission.' It's very hard for them to do."
Beyond PTSD and high housing costs, many veterans also face an income void, as they search for new jobs or wait for their veterans benefits to kick in. When Mr. Noel was discharged in December of 2003, he and his family had been living in base housing in Georgia. Since they were no longer eligible to live there, they began the search for a new home. But Noel had trouble landing a job and the family moved to New York, hoping for help from a family member. Eventually, they split up: Noel's wife and infant child moved in with his sister-in-law, and his twins were sent to relatives in Florida. Noel slept in his car, on the streets, and on friend's couches.
Last spring he was diagnosed with PTSD, and though he's currently in treatment, his disability claim is still being processed. Unable to keep a job so far, he's had no steady income, although an anonymous donor provided money for him to take an apartment last week. He expects his family to join him soon. “Nobody understood ... the way I was.”
Nicole Goodwin is another vet diagnosed with PTSD who has yet to receive disability benefits. Unable to stay with her mother, she soon found herself walking the streets of New York, with a backpack full of her belongings and her 1-year-old daughter held close. "When I first got back I just wanted to jump into a job and forget about Iraq, but the culture shock from the military to the civilian world hit me," she says. "I was depressed for months. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't eat. The worst thing wasn't the war, it was coming back, because nobody understood why I was the way I was."
Ms. Goodwin was determined not to sleep on the streets, and so eventually went into the New York City shelter system where, after being shuffled from shelter to shelter, she was told she was ineligible for help. But media attention changed that, and she was able to obtain a rent voucher. With others' generosity, she also found a job. She's now attending college and working with other veterans who are determined to go to Washington with their stories.
"When soldiers get back, they should still be considered military until they can get on their feet," she says. "It's a month-to-month process, trying to actually function again. It's not easy, it takes time."
MILITARY WIVES
By Paige Swiney
It was just another harried Wednesday afternoon trip to the commissary. My husband was off teaching young men to fly. My daughters were going about their daily activities knowing I would return to them at the appointed time, bearing, among other things, their favorite fruit snacks, frozen pizza, and all the little extras that never had to be written down on a grocery list.
My grocery list, by the way, was in my 16-month-old daughter's mouth, and I was lamenting the fact that the next four aisles of needed items would pass by while extracting the last of my list from my daughter’s mouth, when I nearly ran over an old man. This man clearly had no appreciation for the fact that I had 45 minutes left to finish the grocery shopping, pick up my 4-year old from tumbling class, and get to school where my 12-year-old and her car pool mates would be waiting.
I knew men didn't belong in a commissary, and this old guy was no exception. He stood in front of the soap selection staring blankly, as if he'd never had to choose a bar of soap in his life. I was ready to bark an order at him when l realized there was a tear on his face. Instantly, this grocery aisle roadblock transformed into a human. "Can I help you find something?" I asked.
He hesitated, and then told me he was looking for soap. "Any one in particular?" I continued. "Well, I'm trying to find my wife's brand of soap." I started to loan him my cell phone to call her when he said, "She died a year ago, and I just want to smell her again."
Chills ran down my spine. I don't think the 22,000-pound Mother of all Bombs could have had the same impact. As tears welled up in my eyes, my half-eaten grocery list didn't seem so important. Neither did fruit snacks or frozen pizza. I spent the remainder of my time in the commissary that day listening to a man tell the story of how important his wife was to him -- how she took care of their children while he served our country. A retired, decorated World War II pilot who flew over 50 missions to protect Americans still needed the protection of a woman who served him at home.
My life was forever changed that day. Every time my husband works too late or leaves before the crack of dawn, I try to remember the sense of importance I felt that day in the commissary. Some times the monotony of laundry, housecleaning, grocery shopping, and taxi driving leaves military wives feeling empty -- the kind of emptiness that is rarely fulfilled when our husbands come home and don't want to or can't talk about work. We need to be reminded, at times; of the important role we fill for our family and for our country.
Over the years, I've talked a lot about military spouses -- how special they are and the price they pay for freedom, too. The funny thing is, most military spouses don't consider themselves different from other spouses. They do what they have to do, bound together not by blood or merely friendship, but with a shared spirit whose origin is in the very essence of what love truly is.
Is there truly a difference? I think there is. You have to decide for yourself. Other spouses get married and look forward to building equity in a home and putting down family roots. Military spouses get married and know they'll live in base housing or rent, and their roots must be short so they can be transplanted frequently. Other spouses decorate a home with flair and personality that will last a lifetime. Military spouses decorate a home with flare tempered with the knowledge that no two base houses have the same size windows or same size rooms. Curtains have to be flexible and multiple sets are a plus. Furniture must fit like puzzle pieces.
Other spouses have living rooms that are immaculate and seldom used. Military spouses have immaculate living room/dining room combos. The coffee table got a scratch or two moving from Germany, but it still looks pretty good. Other spouses say good-bye to their spouse for a business trip and know they won't see them for a week. They are lonely, but can survive. Military spouses say good-bye to their deploying spouse and know they won't see them for months, or for a remote, a year. They are lonely, but will survive.
Other spouses, when a washer hose blows off, call Maytag and then write a check out for having the hose reconnected. Military spouses will cut the water off and fix it themselves. Other spouses get used to saying "hello" to friends they see all the time. Military spouses get used to saying "good-bye" to friends made the last two years. Other spouses worry about whether their child will be class president next year. Military spouses worry about whether their child will be accepted in yet another school next year or what course changes their children will face if the move is in the middle of the school year - again.
Other spouses can count on spouse participation in special events: birthdays, anniversaries, concerts, football games, graduation, and even the birth of a child. Military spouses only count on each other, because they realize that the flag has to come first if freedom is to survive. It has to be that way. Other spouses put up yellow ribbons when the troops are imperiled across the globe and take them down when the troops come home. Military spouses wear yellow ribbons around their hearts and they never go away. Other spouses worry about being late for Mom's Thanksgiving dinner. Military spouses worry about getting back from Japan in time for Dad's funeral.
The television program showing an elderly lady putting a card down in front of a long, black wall that has names on it touches other spouses. The card simply says, "Happy Birthday, Sweetheart. You would have been sixty today." A military spouse is the lady with the card, and the wall is the Vietnam Memorial.
I would never say military spouses are better than other spouses are. But I will say there is a difference. I will say, without hesitation, that military spouses pay just as high a price for freedom as do their active duty husbands and wives. Perhaps the price they pay is even higher.
Dying in service to our country isn't nearly as hard as loving someone who has died in service to our country, and having to live without them.
God bless our military spouses for all they freely give!
FEMALE MARINES PUT TRAINING TO THE TEST
LEATHERNECK MAGAZINE
By Mary D. Karcher
January 31, 2005
This month, female Marines celebrate 62 years of continuous service since they were allowed to join the Women's Reserve on Feb. 13, 1943, during World War II. When Congress passed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act in 1948, women were allowed to serve as permanent regular members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Today women are contributing significantly to the success of the Marine Corps through a variety of roles. This article introduces a few good Marines serving their country overseas.
Before Marines enter the labyrinthine alleys of Fallujah, Iraq, to root out insurgents in door-to-door searches, an intricate and carefully choreographed support system of Marines already has maximized their chances for a successful mission. In the global war on terror, unprecedented numbers of female Marines are part of that critical support to the Marines on the front lines.
Imagery analysts, topographical intelligence analysts, and tactical analysts acquire and review information to produce data critical to mission success. Military police protect the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams that mitigate the threats posed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Radio operators provide essential communication capability between the base camps and those who venture "outside the wire." Drivers in convoys deliver critical supplies by traveling long distances on hazardous routes, often in total darkness. Linguists enable Marines to communicate with those they must question to elicit valuable intelligence information. COBRA AH-1W pilots provide close air support, visual reconnaissance, and casualty escorts. Women enthusiastically serve in these and other military occupational specialties, because they want to serve their country and be among America's finest as United States Marines.
Patriotic and eager, many of these women have multiple family members who have served in the Marine Corps. Already aware of the Corps' high standards and strong sense of commitment, they chose to join the Marine Corps, where women currently represent only about 6 percent of the total Marine force.
One of these Marines is Corporal Margaret L. Everett from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, who is a topographic intelligence analyst serving with the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) in Iraq. This is her second deployment there, having previously served during Operation Iraqi Freedom I, with a detachment from 2d Intelligence Battalion in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) in Qalat Sukar. During the onset of OIF I, she became the first woman in her MOS to cross into a combat zone.
In OIF II, the maps that Cpl Everett produces enable Marines to navigate the hazards of an Iraqi neighborhood. "I can depict anything from school buildings and roads, to suspected enemy locations and the routes that are easiest to travel when going off road," she said. Her expertise benefits all Marines, from the commanding general to the grunts.
Like all Marines in her specialty, Cpl Everett received her training at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, during nine months of basic MOS training. She was subsequently selected to attend the Advanced Topographic Analysis course. As a Marine among Army soldiers, high performance was expected, but the bar was set even higher for Cpl Everett. All of the soldiers in the class were already staff sergeants or selected for that rank, but since Marines are permitted to attend the advanced training before attaining the rank of sergeant, newly promoted Cpl Everett was the most junior in rank and the youngest in age. The instructors put pressure on her to outperform her classmates to earn the privilege of attending the course.
Cpl Everett decided to join the Marine Corps "because I have a great deal of pride in my country, because I needed the challenge, and because someone had to do it. If I was unwilling, then how could I expect others to do it in my place?"
Her patriotic altruism is rooted in her family. Her father, Forrest R. Everett, served as a Marine during the Vietnam era. Her sister, Cpl Katie Everett, is an AV-8B Harrier mechanic with Marine Attack
Squadron 211 and also is stationed in Iraq. Her brother Joe's four years in the Marines included a deployment to Afghanistan at the Kandahar airport.
"All of our kids were taught to stand up for what they believe in and that they should follow as long as the person up front was leading. If that person lost their way, it was up to them to pick up the
banner and move forward," Forrest Everett said.
One of the weapons the insurgents have used effectively is the homemade, difficult-to-detect IED. Hidden along the roadways, these devices can be detonated remotely using a cell phone, telephone or handheld radio. When a convoy or a patrol spots an IED, the EOD team is called to destroy the device. Explosive ordnance technicians, their accompanying security team and a doctor are prepared day or night to roll out and diffuse IEDs.
SSgt Timberly L. Willoughby of Gresham, Oregon, is one of four female EOD technicians, MOS 2336, in the Marine Corps. SSgt Willoughby returned recently from Al Taqaddum, Iraq, where she experienced firsthand the threat of IEDs. Trained to operate the robots that are used to take the IEDs apart, Willoughby emphasizes that her job requires a clear head so that she can totally concentrate on the sensitive work she performs. In responding to a call, the IED techs assess the situation, send in the robot or search for secondary devices if the IED already has exploded, conduct post blast analysis, and conclude if the enemy has changed strategies.
"I love it!" was SSgt Willoughby's response to the question, "What do you think about your job?" She added, "It's scary, fast-paced, frustrating at times, and a complete adrenaline rush." Willoughby
believes she has earned the respect of her fellow Marines because she performs her job well and actions speak louder than words.
The EOD techs rely heavily on the military police security detail so they can concentrate on the task at hand regardless of the mayhem going on around them, such as the threat of an ambush. LCpl Jennifer R. Warner, from Red Lion, Pennsylvania, and LCpl Crystal J. Lawliss, from Florala, Alabama, were two of the female military police officers with Marine Wing Support Squadron 373 who served on the EOD security teams.
LCpl Warner described one foray into the Iraqi countryside where an IED had been detected. The security detail was disbursed around the EOD technicians at the IED site, in kneeling or prone position, to provide 360-degree security. In an e-mail from Iraq, Warner wrote about how the security force was hit by a mortar attack: "The first 12 or so were impacting about 200-300 meters from our position and it was exciting, but they were still 200-300 meters from us, so we did not really think anything of it. Moments later the mortars began again, only this time, the 'bad guys' were walking them into our position. (As the mortars fell, they began getting closer and closer after each one.) By number 20, they were impacting within 100 meters of my position, and I could hear the whistle from them as they fell from the sky. The last one landed about 10 meters from me, so close
that the Marines around me who received scratches from the shrapnel from the mortar told me they did not see how I did not lose my right leg."
Unfortunately, in a separate incident, LCpl Lawliss was not as lucky. On Sept. 29, 2004, about a month after she had arrived in country, Lawliss was out on a call with the security team. The EOD technicians had just disarmed an IED in the middle of the city of Caldia. While the convoy proceeded through city traffic, Iraqi vehicles were trying to merge into the Marine convoy. LCpl Lawliss, with the radio in her hand to report the intruding vehicles, suddenly saw a huge flash and ducked her head. She recalls lying on the road, checking her extremities and discovering that she could not lift one of her legs.
Lawliss was hit by shrapnel, injured her right hand and broke her leg so badly that she had to have a metal bar implanted. After two months of convalescent leave for physical therapy, she was able to return to Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton on light duty and has now set her sights on being able to run so she can pass the physical fitness test and return to Iraq.
COMMANDANT’S COMMENTS
Happy Valentine’s greetings to all of our Marines and families. In our daily hustle and bustle lifestyles I hope no one has forgotten to take care of that special person in your life. I am very pleased with our attendance and participation at our meetings. Our numbers are growing monthly and if you haven’t been in a while we definitely miss you. I would like to send all our thoughts and prayers to those recovering from illness or in distress. Your Marine family is thinking of you. Looking forward to seeing all of you at our next meeting.
Semper Fi
Terry Wilson—Commandant
ADJUTANT’S CALL
Habitat for Humanity sponsored a new home dedication on Sunday, February 13. As is our tradition, our Detachment donated a flag to the new homeowner. I presented the flag on behalf of the Detachment.
Women Veterans of America is sponsoring a Pancake/SOS breakfast in April. We will be selling tickets at the March meeting. Lois Dillree, Stacey Hopwood and Claire Minie are all members of this organization.
How many of you are Irish? On March 17th – it’s EVERYBODY!
‘Til next month, Semper Fi, Marines!
Lois A. Dillree, Adjutant
CHAPLAIN’S CORNER
The history of the Chaplain Corps traces its beginnings to 28 November 1775 when the second article of Navy Regulations was adopted. It stated that "the Commanders of the ships of the thirteen United Colonies are to take care that divine services be performed twice a day on board and a sermon preached on Sundays, unless bad weather or other extraordinary accidents prevent." Although chaplains were not specifically mentioned in this article, one can imply that
Congress intended that an ordained clergyman be part of ship's company. Later documents support that conclusion.
Reverend Benjamin Balch was the first chaplain known to have served in the Continental Navy, reporting aboard the frigate BOSTON in October 1778. The number of chaplains by the turn of the century only totaled six, and at that, only two were retained. A new edition of Naval Regulations dated 25 January 1802, included reference to the duties of a chaplain. "He is to read prayers at stated periods; perform all funeral ceremonies; perform the duty of schoolmaster instructing the midshipmen and volunteers in writing, arithmetic, navigation and whatever else they might need to make them proficient; and teach the other youths of the ship as the captain orders."
Because of their teaching skills, when various "academies" were established aboard the ships in central ports, the chaplains were called on to be the administrators. Their involvement in these early learning institutions prompted Chaplain George Jones to begin his campaign for the Naval Academy in 1839. The establishment of the Naval School at Annapolis (later the United States Naval Academy) in 1845 was due primarily to Chaplain Jones' efforts.
By October 1906, the Chaplain Corps began to come into its own. Steering away from the teaching function, a board of chaplains appointed by the Secretary of the Navy established guidelines which would require that all newly commissioned chaplains be graduated of both college and seminary and that such should receive the endorsement of their denominations; and that all candidates appear before a board of Navy chaplains for their endorsement as to health and other qualifications.
They also recommended that there should be a Chief of Chaplains. The board's recommendations gave birth to the Chaplain Corps as it is known today.
To recount the history of the Chaplain Corps and omit two of its most revered chaplains would be a grave mistake. The bravery of Chaplains Joseph T. O'Callahan and Vincent Capodanno gives credence to the faith by which we stand. Both were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their remarkable willingness to perform their duties in the face of the fiercest adversities. Their spirit is present in the daily contributions the men and women of the Chaplain Corps continue to make to the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard today.
Lieutenant Margaret G. Kibben, CHC, USNR
History Projects Officer, Chaplain Resource Board
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
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Veterans Service Organization
|[pic] | |
| |350 Pageant Lane, Suite 308 |
| |Montgomery County Plaza |
| |PO Box 306 |
| |Clarksville, TN 37040 |
| | |
| |Mon thru Fri 8:00 A.M. - 4:30 P.M. |
| | |
| |Phone: (931)-553-5173/5174 |
| |Fax: (931)-553-5176 |
| | |
| |L-R, David Ross, Claims Specialist, Patrick Rader, Assistant Director, |
| |Jerry Rivers, Director, Kelli Meseberg, Claims Specialist |
| | | | | | | | | |
MISSION
To advise veterans and their dependents of all rights, privileges, immunities, and benefits to which they may be entitled. The County Mayor, as authorized by T.C.A. 58-3-109, appoints County Service Officers. A County Service Officer is a county employee who works closely with Post Service Officers of the various Veterans Organizations, and with the Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Benefits Representatives, to provide the best possible services to veterans in Montgomery County. Training and Certification of County Service Officers is provided by the Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs as prescribed by T.C.A. 58-3-111.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
The Veterans Service Organization is involved in organizing the many veterans' community activities. With the cooperation of the local Veterans Organizations, we conduct numerous annual events and ceremonies, including the Veterans’ Day Parade, the Memorial Day Ceremony, the Flag Day Ceremony, WWI, WWII, and Korean War Commemorative Community Ceremonies. We recognize POW/MIA Day, V-J Day, and Pearl Harbor Day, and many other important veteran and military dates and events.
Please contact the Veterans Service Office with any questions you may have concerning veteran’s rights, benefits, entitlements, or any other issues. We are here to serve.
FROM OUR SCOUTS
I want to Thank You all for your support.
We have a few things coming up that we would like to tell you about.
Feb. 28th is our Blue and Gold Banquet. It is @ 6pm @ Hazelwood School. Your fellow Detachment member, J. R. Tate, will be the guest speaker at the banquet. Please come, and bring your spouses. Please RSVP to Cmdt Terry Wilson so we will know how many special guests to expect. We have our first 2 boys crossing over to Boy Scouts and we are very excited about it. It is a big day for us.
March 28th is our Pack Meeting. It is @ 6:30pm @ Hazelwood School.
Our camping season is upon us. We hope that you will come out and see what goes on. I will have dates and more information next time for you.
Thanks again for being our Sponsor. If it weren't for you, we would not be here. I look forward to meeting you all and getting to know you better.
Angie Burkhart, Cubmaster Pack 565, aburkhart@
MARINES: PAST AND PRESENT
From an Iowa Town to Marine Corps Legend
By Nathaniel R. Helms
U.S. Marine Corps First Sergeant Brad Kasal is an American hero. His story is a remarkable tale of bravery, sacrifice and savagery that adds another page to the great book of American military lore.
[pic]
Still holding his 9mm Beretta, a seriously injured First Sgt. Brad Kasal is helped from a Fallujah house on Nov. 13, 2004,
after killing several Iraqi insurgents and with his own body shielding a fellow Marine from a grenade blast.
Kasal may never join the pantheon of Marine Corps legends with colorful names like “Manila John” Basilone, or “Ol’ Gimlet Eye” Smedley Darlington Butler, who won two Medals of Honor, or Master Gunnery Sergeant Leland “Lou” Diamond, who sported a non-regulation goatee and once raised chickens behind his barracks. But he is every bit in their league.
During his three tours of duty in Iraq and Kuwait, Kasal has been wounded multiple times, including being shot seven times, peppered with grenade fragments on several occasions, and wounded by shrapnel during the Iraqi invasion in 2003 and again last August during the Marines’ deadly street fights against Iraqi insurgents in the Sunni Triangle.
According to highly placed Marine Corps sources, Kasal and another Marine who was killed in action at Fallujah, may become the first Marine Corps recipients of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. Kasal declined any comment on the report and Capt. Daniel J. McSweeney, a spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C., said the Corps’ policy is to not comment on such matters before they happen. The other potential recipient is the late Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who was killed after using his wounded body to shield his comrades from an exploding hand grenade thrown by an insurgent.
“I appreciate your interest in this issue and that the story and photo speak volumes about the courage and commitment of our deployed Marines,” McSweeney said Thursday. “I'm sorry to reinforce that CMC (Commandant, Marine Corps) and other members of HQMC do not offer comments of any kind on awards that are working their way through the system.”
Kasal joined the Marine Corps in 1984 from rural Afton, Iowa - population 941 - when he was fresh out of East Union High School and fresh off the family farm. Nineteen years later, he was a Marine first sergeant leading a hard-pressed company of infantrymen in a desperate fight for an Iraqi city named Fallujah, a place as foreign to most Americans as Iwo Jima was sixty years ago.
“I always wanted to be a Marine, to see the world and make a difference,” Kasal said in an interview this week.
Linda Haner, the deputy city clerk of Afton and someone who watched Kasal and his family grow up, remembers him as a nice boy who did well on the high school wrestling team. “He was quite athletic,” she said.
Haner said the whole town is proud of Kasal and all his brothers who served in the armed forces. Brother Jeff is a retired Army paratrooper who fought in Desert Storm with the 82nd Airborne and now works in Iraq for Halliburton; Kelly, who was in the Army four years and Kevin, who served four years as a Marine, are all known and respected around the Iowa town.
“If you could see all the yellow ribbons and all the red, white and blue ribbons you would understand about this place. People around here are proud of the boys in the service and what they are doing,” Haner added.
Currently Kasal isn’t doing too much except recovering. The 38-year-old bachelor is confined to a wheelchair while he endures a painful medical procedure to put his right leg back together. His lower leg is connected to a metal device called a halo brace that is full of pins and screws that doctors manipulate each day to stretch his battered lower leg a millimeter at a time, trying to extend it to the length it used to be before an insurgent blew it in half with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.
“They turn the screws so many notches a day,” he explained matter-of-factly from his home in Oceanside, Calif. “It would be easier if I had someone to take care of me, but I have lots of friends and they help.”
Despite his terrible wounds, Kasal has no regrets. He has seen plenty of the world and made a world of difference to a lot of young Marines placed in his charge during three combat tours in the Middle East as First Sergeant of Kilo Company, and then Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. If he has his way he will be doing it again as soon as he heals.
“I believe in leading from the front,” Kasal explained. “It eases their [young Marines] minds and concerns to see me up their with them. That is where I belong.”
His father Gerald, a retired farmer and six-year veteran of the Iowa Army National Guard in the 1950s and early 1960s, said Brad was a great kid who never posed any problems except his propensity for fighting the boys from an adjacent town who seemed to take a pleasure in beating up the boys from Afton – a practice that came to an abrupt end when Brad and his brothers beat the hell out of some of them.
“After Brad and his brothers showed up a few times, they quit thinking they could beat up the boys from Afton,” Gerald Kasal remembered. “Brad’s oldest brother used to be a bully and pick on his younger brothers and I guess Brad just decided nobody was going to pick on him anymore.”
Whatever the reason for his bravery and resolve, Kasal displayed it in the proudest tradition of the Marine Corps on Nov. 13, 2004 during Operation Phantom Fury, the American attack on Fallujah that began five days earlier with the mission of destroying the insurgents’ stronghold in what was considered the center of their territory in Iraq.
“We were moving down the street, clearing buildings,” Kasal recounted. “A Marine came out wounded from a building and said there were three more wounded Marines trapped in there with a bunch of bad guys (insurgents). As we entered, we noticed several dead Iraqis on the floor and one of our wounded.”
Kasal said there was no question of what to do. “If I was a general I would still think my job was to get the wounded Marines out of there,” he said. “So we went in to get them.”
As soon as he entered the two-story stucco and brick building, Kasal found himself in mortal combat. It was fighting to the death, and there was no quarter expected or given, Kasal said.
“An Iraqi pointed an AK-47 at me and I moved back. He fired and missed. I shot and killed him. I put my barrel up against his chest and pulled the trigger over and over until he went down. Then I looked around the wall and put two into his forehead to make sure he was dead.”
While Kasal and a young Pfc. Alexander Nicoll were taking out the insurgent behind the wall, another one with an AK hiding on the stairs to the second floor began firing at the Marines on full automatic. “That’s when I went down, along with one of my Marines (Nicoll). Then I noticed the hand grenade.”
It was a green pineapple grenade, Kasal said. It flew into the room out of nowhere and landed near the two downed men. Kasal now believes that other Marines who were watching their back left the room for reasons he still doesn’t know and an insurgent was able to somehow get behind him.
Kasal said his first instinct was to protect the young Marine lying bloody beside him. He covered the young man with his body and took the full brunt of shrapnel to his back when the grenade exploded. Kasal’s body armor and helmet protected his vital organs but the shrapnel penetrated the exposed portions of his shoulders, back, and legs, causing him to bleed profusely.
“I took my pressure bandage and put it on his leg,” Kasal remembered. “Then I tried to put Nicoll’s pressure bandage on a wound on his chest but it is very hard to get a flak jacket off a wounded man and I was bleeding and fading in and out.”
Nicoll survived the grenade blast and his previous bullet wounds but lost his right leg. “An artery was cut and they had to amputate his leg,” Kasal said. “I have seen him and talked to him several times since we got back to the States. He is doing OK.”
The grenade blast stunned Kasal. He floated in and out of consciousness. But in the back of his mind a voice kept telling him he had to stay alert or the Iraqis were going to come back and finish him and Nicoll off. “They weren’t going to let us live if they knew we were alive. It was kill or be killed,” he said.
Kasal wrestled his 9mm automatic out of its holster and lay on the floor waiting for help. It was thirty or forty minutes before other Marines arrived.
“That’s when I got shot in the butt,” Kasal recalled. “It was the shootout at the OK Corral – point-blank range. I was lying there shooting and somebody shot me through both cheeks. It smarted a bit.”
Kasal did not know the exact extent of his wounds until much later; all he knew was that he was badly hurt. He was floating in and out of consciousness, ultimately losing 60 percent of his blood before he was rescued. After first aid, Kasal and Nicoll were transported to a field hospital in Iraq, and then flown to Landstuhl, Germany, where Kasal was hospitalized for a week before arriving at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
“I took seven rounds; five in my right leg, one in my foot and one to the buttocks area. When the grenade went off I got 30 to 40 pieces of shrapnel in my back,” Kasal said he later discovered.
Doctors are still fighting to save his leg, Kasal said. By the time this story appears, he will be back at Bethesda for more treatment, but the doctors won’t know for six months whether the Marine will every be 100 percent again. “I know I will walk again, but I don’t know if I will fully recover.”
Meanwhile Kasal experiences almost constant pain.
“I'm missing four and a half inches of the fibula and tibia bones,” he said. “They put that halo brace on my leg to try and make the bone grow together. But there’s no guarantee that will work.”
Despite everything that has happened to him, Kasal still believes America’s mission is Iraq is both important and terribly misconstrued. He harbors special venom for the so-called “mainstream” media reporters who portray the war as a failure and American policy as a gross mistake. He says he has heard reporters say their job is to make President George W. Bush and his policies seem a failure.
“The insurgents are oppressing normal people,” Kasal said. “The press never reports the good things. When we open a school or fix a sewer, the things that make normal Iraqis happy, they never report it. There are plenty of Iraqis, thousands of them, who want to live normal lives. If we can help them it will be all right. The people just want peace and freedom.”
Contributing Editor Nathaniel R. “Nat” Helms is a Vietnam veteran, former police officer, long-time journalist and war correspondent living in Missouri. He is the author of two books, Numba One – Numba Ten and Journey Into Madness: A Hitchhiker’s Account of the Bosnian Civil War.
TOP COVER
Capt. Richard Allen Warner, USMC (Ret)
Maj. John J. Miles’ excellent article, “A Legacy of Leadership” (MCG, Sep04), has a sentence worth repeating - “Subordinates must know that you will provide top cover for them.” This brings to mind when I was a very senior first lieutenant on temporary assignment as a flight duty officer at the Marine Corps Air Facility at New River, NC. One morning the Commandant’s personal aircraft touched down to make a ”15-minute passenger stop.” Everything was going smoothly until the pilot taxied the plane in front of station operations and refused to shut down the portside engine. He had been advised to do this by the control tower as a safety requirement on this model aircraft. As duty officer I told the tower operator to advise the pilot of this aircraft to shut the engine down immediately. He refused, and luckily the passenger got off without a scratch, although I was pretty tense watching the suitpack the Marine had over his shoulder swing out to within inches of being being sucked into the rotating propeller. At the time I was both scared and perhaps a little angry that my direct order relayed to the pilot was ignored. So in an effort to display leadership to the many Marines working for me in the station operations building, I ordered the field closed.
Now the story heats up a little for me. The pilot, a major returned to station operations. In a booming voice, as he slammed his fist down on the plexiglass counter - splitting it from front to back - he demanded to see the duty officer. I came out, and before I could say anything he let me know that he would have my “bars” before the sun went down, and demanded I take him to see the base commander. The base commander was a grandfatherly type unflappable old bull colonel, Thomas Noonan. As the major related what had happened, the colonel listened very quietly and then he said, “Major, anything Lt Warner says is the same thing as if I had said it. Now I suggest you get out of here before I have your ‘bars’ [really gold oak leaves] before the sun goes down!” Needless to say I quietly breathed a sigh of relief, but it took several hours for my knees to quit banging together. At the time I wasn’t sure that “top cover” would be forthcoming, but as Marines say, ”I would have gone to hell and back” for Col Thomas Noonan-and he knew it. – Marine Corps Gazette
PARTING SHOT
"They're on our right, they're on our left, they're in front of us, they're behind us;
they can't get away from us this time."
- Chesty Puller, USMC, Chosin Reservoir, Korean War
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James N. McCutchen
Detachment # 603
Department of Tennessee
Marine Corps League
APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP
INCORPORATED BY AN ACT OF CONGRESS ON 4 AUGUST 1937
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