ariweiner
04-16-2004, 01:12 AM
What is the ROE of the Marines in Fallujah? Anyone knows?
Young US marines forge bonds, cope with death in war
Thu Apr 15,12:47 PM ET Add U.S. National - AFP to My Yahoo!
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - Marine Corporal Robert Long watched a white-tailed deer cross the no-man's land in the Sunni rebel bastion of Fallujah before sunrise.
The deer moved beyond the treacherous industrial wasteland where insurgents and US marines have hammmered each other for the past week.
"It was a real deer," Long, 26, said in disbelief, holed up in a dilapidated cinderblock attic, with peeling wall paper of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and a gallery of Walt Disney characters.
Long had been thinking of his friend Lance Corporal Blake Wofford, killed by a gunman last Wednesday. Now he hopes that every man he shoots is the one who killed his friend.
Hours later, on the same spot where the deer roamed, one of Long's men sees an Arab male walking with his hands in his pockets near their position. Long asks the marine to move out of the way. He wants this kill himself.
He aims his M-16 rifle through the thin wood boards and sandbags providing cover and shoots the man dead.
"I think Blake this is for you. I hope this is the ****er who got you," Long says.
He defends his actions.
After intense fighting and public announcements calling for women and children to leave the city, he believes the only military-age male who could be walking on the streets without a white surrender flag is an insurgent.
"It's been rough on us," Long says as the body, clad in a black shirt and grey pants, lays in the dirt.
Long refuses to be burnt by the enemy. His comrade, Lance Corporal Ryan Deady, 20, agrees.
"We thought it was going to be good guys and bad guys. We thought it would be clear who were the innocent people, but everybody is shooting rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs)," Deady says.
"I feel numb. I used to feel sorry for them," he says, reflecting about the people killed in the intense urban warfare over the past week in Fallujah.
"It's getting ridiculous. Without my guys, I'd be in a padded cell."
Iraq has affected them deeply. Deady and Long rely on their 13-man assault squad to get by. Along with Wofford, Deady's best friend is Corporal Anthony Dori.
"We've been tight. We had no choice because we were stuck together, but we grew to love each other. Of course, we would never tell each other that," Deady laughs, embarrassed by his powerful sentiments.
He remembers the good times with Wofford.
When Deady woke up in a Tijuana, Mexico jail after busting into a candy store drunk and passing out behind the cash register, Wofford came to bail him out.
"He never let me live that one down," Deady says.
Now he and the others try to cheer themselves up. Deady and Dori joke that Wofford is up in heaven arguing with God. They talk about visiting his family in Texas when they leave Iraq.
They remember an expensive meal at a Mexican restaurant last summer when they celebrated coming home from the first war. They spent 12 dollars on water and 14 dollars on a plate of iceburg lettuce.
Everyone was alive then and no one could imagine they would be back in Iraq fighting for their lives one year later.
"We have to be there for each other. If someone's feeling ****ty, you tell jokes. Dori was looking for nail clippers for a week. So I gave him mine. It made his day," Deady says.
"These guys are my new best friends. I'm still friends with the guys back home. But we go through the same things here."
Young US marines forge bonds, cope with death in war
Thu Apr 15,12:47 PM ET Add U.S. National - AFP to My Yahoo!
FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - Marine Corporal Robert Long watched a white-tailed deer cross the no-man's land in the Sunni rebel bastion of Fallujah before sunrise.
The deer moved beyond the treacherous industrial wasteland where insurgents and US marines have hammmered each other for the past week.
"It was a real deer," Long, 26, said in disbelief, holed up in a dilapidated cinderblock attic, with peeling wall paper of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and a gallery of Walt Disney characters.
Long had been thinking of his friend Lance Corporal Blake Wofford, killed by a gunman last Wednesday. Now he hopes that every man he shoots is the one who killed his friend.
Hours later, on the same spot where the deer roamed, one of Long's men sees an Arab male walking with his hands in his pockets near their position. Long asks the marine to move out of the way. He wants this kill himself.
He aims his M-16 rifle through the thin wood boards and sandbags providing cover and shoots the man dead.
"I think Blake this is for you. I hope this is the ****er who got you," Long says.
He defends his actions.
After intense fighting and public announcements calling for women and children to leave the city, he believes the only military-age male who could be walking on the streets without a white surrender flag is an insurgent.
"It's been rough on us," Long says as the body, clad in a black shirt and grey pants, lays in the dirt.
Long refuses to be burnt by the enemy. His comrade, Lance Corporal Ryan Deady, 20, agrees.
"We thought it was going to be good guys and bad guys. We thought it would be clear who were the innocent people, but everybody is shooting rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs)," Deady says.
"I feel numb. I used to feel sorry for them," he says, reflecting about the people killed in the intense urban warfare over the past week in Fallujah.
"It's getting ridiculous. Without my guys, I'd be in a padded cell."
Iraq has affected them deeply. Deady and Long rely on their 13-man assault squad to get by. Along with Wofford, Deady's best friend is Corporal Anthony Dori.
"We've been tight. We had no choice because we were stuck together, but we grew to love each other. Of course, we would never tell each other that," Deady laughs, embarrassed by his powerful sentiments.
He remembers the good times with Wofford.
When Deady woke up in a Tijuana, Mexico jail after busting into a candy store drunk and passing out behind the cash register, Wofford came to bail him out.
"He never let me live that one down," Deady says.
Now he and the others try to cheer themselves up. Deady and Dori joke that Wofford is up in heaven arguing with God. They talk about visiting his family in Texas when they leave Iraq.
They remember an expensive meal at a Mexican restaurant last summer when they celebrated coming home from the first war. They spent 12 dollars on water and 14 dollars on a plate of iceburg lettuce.
Everyone was alive then and no one could imagine they would be back in Iraq fighting for their lives one year later.
"We have to be there for each other. If someone's feeling ****ty, you tell jokes. Dori was looking for nail clippers for a week. So I gave him mine. It made his day," Deady says.
"These guys are my new best friends. I'm still friends with the guys back home. But we go through the same things here."