War Stories (54 page)

One evening earlier in the week, just after 2100 hours, the Marines responded when Iraqi police called in a suspected VBIED. The Iraqi officers pulled up to a vehicle parked in the middle of a six-lane highway, inspected it, and quickly realized it was a car bomb. Though the Iraqi police are training to deal with IEDs, they don't yet have the kind of equipment that the Marines do to neutralize them. So the Marine Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team was dispatched with a security force from Weapons Company.

While the engineers and EOD specialists attached to the Weapons Company prepared to deploy a robot to detonate the bomb, insurgent mortars attacked us. Since speed was now a necessity, the Marines decided instead to use a TOW, a wire-guided anti-tank missile, to destroy the VBIED. Mal James's camera caught the dramatic effect of Sgt. Jeremiah Randall, the TOW section leader, firing his weapon and eliminating the IED before it had the chance to do any harm.

Here in Ramadi, the Iraqi national police and national guard are now out in force. It's noticeable how much they have progressed since I was here in April. They now patrol streets, guard checkpoints, and search neighborhoods, helping to root out terrorists. As one Marine put it, “The Iraqi police realize it is up to them to provide safety and security for their fellow citizens,” so it gives them incentive.

When I interviewed Gen. Michael Hagee, the commandant of the Marine Corps, during his visit to Ramadi, he acknowledged the complexity of the task—as well as the progress. In speaking of his Marines, he said their job “is difficult. But, are they making a difference? Are they helping the Iraqis to help themselves? Absolutely. And, if you call that winning, then we probably are.”

   
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM SIT REP #50

      
Ramadi, Iraq

      
Thursday, 18 August 2004

      
1925 Hours Local

There is little doubt that the violence is escalating as the U.S. and Iraqi elections approach. An insurgent missile killed six Iraqis and wounded twenty-one others in Mosul today. In a central Baghdad neighborhood, a mortar round killed seven and injured another forty-seven.

Here in Ramadi, an Iraqi male suspected of hijacking vehicles to be used for car bombings was hauled into police headquarters. We were granted unprecedented access to watch and listen while the chief of police interrogated the suspect, who confessed to hijacking two cars and four trucks. Without coercion or humiliation, he also confessed to being “a soldier of God” and of killing a police officer.

Yesterday we were embedded with the Marine Weapons Company when an IED was detonated beside the convoy nearly killing the 2nd Brigade commander, Col. “Buck” Conner. Staff Sgt. Michael Drake, a Weapons Company platoon sergeant, described the attack this way: “We received a call while we were at the hospital with the battalion commander that the brigade commander had been hit by an IED and was taking fire, and they were forced to respond. We hurried to their location, became engaged behind the mall, and took heavy fire for over four hours.”

In fact, it was an amazing demonstration of Marine and Army firepower. Though they had Cobra gunships and two fixed-wing aircraft overhead, the close urban streets had to be secured building by building, using firepower from Marine infantrymen, armored Humvees, and a platoon of Army Bradley fighting vehicles. When it was over, twelve enemy combatants were dead, four were wounded, and fifteen others were detained. During the fight, eleven Marines were wounded—including Cpt. Mark Carlton, the Fox Company commander, who suffered dozens of shrapnel holes in his body from an enemy RPG.

In the aftermath of the battle I asked Lt. J. D. Stevens, who has been here since March, if democracy could work. His response: “If given enough time, yes.”

That's the key. Democracy in Iraq is taking root, but it won't be built overnight.

   
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM SIT REP #51

      
Fallujah, Iraq

      
Friday, 17 December 2004

      
2200 Hours Local

“It's stuff you hear about in boot camp, about World War II and Tarawa Marines who won the Medal of Honor,” said Lance Cpl. Rob Rogers of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines in the aftermath of the seven-day battle for Fallujah. Rogers was describing the actions of his fellow Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, a Mexican immigrant who enlisted in the Marine Corps the day he received his green card.

Most Americans haven't heard about Rafael Peralta. With few exceptions, most of our mainstream media haven't bothered to write about him. The next time you log onto the Internet, do a Google search on Rafael Peralta. As of this writing, the Internet's most used search engine will provide you with only forty-nine citations from news sources that have bothered to write about this heroic young man.

Then, just for laughs, do a Google search on Pablo Paredes.
Hundreds
of media outlets have written about him. The wire services have blasted his story to thousands of newspapers. Television and radio debate programs gladly provide the public with talking heads who can speak eloquently on the actions of Pablo Paredes.

You see, Pablo Paredes, a Navy petty officer third class, did something the liberal elites consider “heroic” and the media consider “newsworthy” He defied a military order. Last week, Paredes refused to board his ship bound for Iraq along with 5,000 other sailors and Marines. He showed up on the pier wearing a black t-shirt that read, “Like a Cabinet member, I resign.”

We know this because Paredes had the courtesy and forethought to notify the local media that he would commit an act of cowardice
the following day. Perhaps he hoped to follow the lead of another famous war protester who went on to become a U.S. senator and his party's presidential nominee by throwing away his military medals.

Paredes stopped short of trashing his military ID in front of the cameras because he said he didn't want to be charged with the destruction of government property. The media, we are promised, will continue to follow this story intently.

But it's a shame that the media focus on such cynical acts of cowardice when they could tell stories about
real
heroes like Peralta, who “saved the life of my son and every Marine in that room,” according to Garry Morrison, the father of a Marine in Peralta's unit—Lance Cpl. Adam Morrison.

On the morning of 15 November 2004, the men of 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines awoke before sunrise and continued what they'd been doing for seven days previously—cleansing the city of Fallujah of terrorists, house by house.

At the fourth house they encountered that morning, the Marines kicked in the door and “cleared” the front rooms, but then noticed a locked door off to the side that required inspection. Peralta threw open the closed door, but behind it were three terrorists with AK-47s. Peralta was hit in the head and chest with multiple shots at close range.

Peralta's fellow Marines had to step over his body to continue the shootout with the terrorists. As the firefight raged on, a “yellow, foreign-made, oval-shaped grenade,” as Lance Cpl. Travis Kaemmerer described it, rolled into the room where they were all standing and came to a stop near Peralta's body.

But Sgt. Rafael Peralta wasn't dead—yet. This twenty-five-year-old immigrant, who enlisted in the Marines as soon as he was eligible, and who volunteered for front line duty in Fallujah, had just
saved the lives of his buddies by taking the first bullets from that room full of terrorists. But he still had one last act of heroism in him.

Peralta was the polar opposite of Paredes, the petty officer who turned his back on his shipmates and mocked his commander in chief. Peralta was proud to serve his adopted country. On his bedroom walls in his parents' home hung only three items—a copy of the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and his boot camp graduation certificate. Before he set out for Fallujah, Sgt. Rafael Peralta wrote to his fourteen-year-old brother, “Be proud of me, bro. . . and be proud of being an American.”

Not only can Peralta's family be proud of him, but his fellow Marines are alive because of him. As Peralta lay near death on the floor of a Fallujah terrorist hideout, he spotted that yellow grenade, which had rolled across the floor next to his near-lifeless body. He realized that when it detonated it would take out the rest of his squad.

To save his fellow Marines, Peralta reached out, grabbed the grenade, and tucked it under his abdomen, where it exploded.

“Most of the Marines in the house were in the immediate area of the grenade,” Lance Cpl. Kaemmerer said sadly. “We will never forget the second chance at life that Sgt. Peralta gave us.” Each of the Marines in that house knows that Sgt. Peralta is a
real hero
.

Unfortunately, unlike Paredes, Peralta got little media coverage. He's unlikely to have books written about him or movies made about his extraordinarily selfless sacrifice. He may receive the Medal of Honor. And if he does, that Medal of Honor is likely to be displayed next to the only items that hung on his bedroom wall—the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and his boot camp graduation certificate.

Yes, there are still heroes in America, and Sgt. Rafael Peralta was one of them. It's just too bad that the media continually fails to recognize them.

   
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM SIT REP #52