A Navy Corpman who wishes to remain anonymous, wants to remember some of the Marines in his unit who died eight years ago in the assault on Baghdad;<\/p>\n
On 4 April 2003, 2nd Tank Battalion, attached to RCT 5, 1st MarDiv was racing toward Baghdad, as were most Units in Iraq at that time. Up to that point, direct enemy engagement had been light and we had lost only one Marine due to fratricide and one wounded in action. That ended in Tuwallyhah.<\/p>\n
I was not there that day. The logpack was located more than 20 miles away waiting for the tanks to secure the objective, which was the HQ of the
Republican Guard<\/del> Al Nida Division. The first casualty of the battle was LCPL Gooden, gunner of the lead tank, killed when an RPG hit the hatch of his tank. The blast was deflected into the tank which knocked out comms and the GPS. The tank continued on and others soon radioed that they had missed the turn and were only 4 clicks from Baghdad. The battalion then had to double back under fire during the ensuing chaos, 1LT Brian McPhillips and Sgt Duane Rios were killed. Fox 2\/5 1st Sgt Ed “Horsehead” Smith was mortally wounded, hit by a piece of secondary shrapnel. <\/p>\nI didn’t know any of them well. That is to say that I had done medical coverage for Lt. Mcphillips and knew him enough to joke with him at chow time. I knew Gooden enough to say, “hey.” The others, I didn’t know at all. I learned of them only after their death. Yet, each year I think of them and wonder where they would be now if they had lived. I have no doubt they were extraordinary men. Mcphillips was awarded a posthumous Bronze Star for the manner in which he lead his platoon up to the moment of his death. Gooden was awarded the Navy Marine Corps Medal. <\/p>\n
I am honored to have served with these extraordinary men. I am humbled by their sacrifices and in some strange way, I miss them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"