Twelve months in Iraq
War exposes human nature; Marine learns lessons of life, humanity
Aaron Hummel
Issue date: 10/11/07 Section: Sports
A shooting war is one of the most educational places on earth.
It offers a terrible insight into the nature of man for those willing to dig beneath the obvious lessons of tactical movement and fire superiority.
Its intensity condenses the whole spectrum of emotion and behavior, simultaneously forcing all of it to surface.
This strips away the disguising pretenses and excuses U.S. life so comfortably provides, making human character easy to observe.
Last year I had the privilege of witnessing a wide spectrum of human nature during a 12-month deployment with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, that began in California and landed us in Fallujah, Iraq, lasting from September to April.
We were in a rare circumstance - urban infantry operations against terrorists shielding themselves with civilians - that has suddenly become the norm in Iraq, and its intensity opened a unique window into the worst and best of mankind.
Some men choose to be cowards
Late one night, we raided the house of a terrorist who had killed Marines in our battalion with an Improvised Explosive Device a few weeks earlier. Almost immediately after we entered, he began shaking in fear. As we searched his house and pulled out one piece of convicting evidence after another - a bomb disguised as a block of concrete, IED components, a piece of a motorcycle that had been used in a recent bombing - he burst into tears and collapsed on the floor, sobbing like a child.
He wasn't the only guerilla who couldn't handle getting caught.
Even worse, terrorists frequently manipulated or paid children to throw grenades at our patrols. It's a cowardly man who uses a child to fight his battles, no matter how much political advantage he might gain from the publicity of Marines killing a child.
The issue of cravenness became personal when one of our squad leaders refused to leave the base after a number of his patrols had been attacked. We were all dealing with the stress of a high operations tempo and mounting casualties, but he let his fear master him.
It was not acceptable conduct for a Marine, and the rest of us were better than that.
Others choose courage
One late January day my squad was patrolling a neighborhood street when we were ambushed from the front and back. Two Marines were hit as we scrambled for cover.
We returned fire while our squad leader and another Marine rushed back into the street to drag the wounded Marines to safety.
This wasn't the first time some of us risked our lives to save others and accomplish the mission, nor was it the last.
Courage requires self-sacrifice
To be misunderstood by the people we were protecting was frustrating. Although our primary reason for holding the city was to protect U.S. citizens, we also protected the people of Fallujah.
During a December raid in the heart of the city, one of its misinformed citizens repeatedly called us terrorists because we had broken the window in his front door.
If we had knocked, we would have given any terrorist in the house a chance to run or fight, so we had to break in. But he didn't understand our reasoning.
In this and all the frustrating situations we encountered, the Marines around me responded with professionalism and courtesy, hiding their tremendous personal sacrefice.
Self-sacrifice does what is right
Amid these and other on-the-job lessons in human character that surfaced through the melee of emotions and physical fatigue, it was difficult to maintain a sense of ourselves and the purpose of what we were doing in Fallujah. But ours was not the first difficult task that had ever been undertaken.
From Odysseus to the Founding Fathers to Thomas Edison, men have been changing the world because they started something worth doing and persevered when everything became doubtful, uncomfortable and discouraging.
Somewhere in the midst of their strivings, they must have realized what I learned in Iraq.
Although we had become so entrenched in the gritty details the big picture of the war had blurred, the reasons for holding Fallujah were still true while we were there.
So we persevered and kept patrolling, fighting and protecting.
Eventually, we emerged from the woods and realized that all along the thing we had been striving for was worth the fight.
We had made a safer Fallujah for the Marines who relieved us there.
It offers a terrible insight into the nature of man for those willing to dig beneath the obvious lessons of tactical movement and fire superiority.
Its intensity condenses the whole spectrum of emotion and behavior, simultaneously forcing all of it to surface.
This strips away the disguising pretenses and excuses U.S. life so comfortably provides, making human character easy to observe.
Last year I had the privilege of witnessing a wide spectrum of human nature during a 12-month deployment with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, that began in California and landed us in Fallujah, Iraq, lasting from September to April.
We were in a rare circumstance - urban infantry operations against terrorists shielding themselves with civilians - that has suddenly become the norm in Iraq, and its intensity opened a unique window into the worst and best of mankind.
Some men choose to be cowards
Late one night, we raided the house of a terrorist who had killed Marines in our battalion with an Improvised Explosive Device a few weeks earlier. Almost immediately after we entered, he began shaking in fear. As we searched his house and pulled out one piece of convicting evidence after another - a bomb disguised as a block of concrete, IED components, a piece of a motorcycle that had been used in a recent bombing - he burst into tears and collapsed on the floor, sobbing like a child.
He wasn't the only guerilla who couldn't handle getting caught.
Even worse, terrorists frequently manipulated or paid children to throw grenades at our patrols. It's a cowardly man who uses a child to fight his battles, no matter how much political advantage he might gain from the publicity of Marines killing a child.
The issue of cravenness became personal when one of our squad leaders refused to leave the base after a number of his patrols had been attacked. We were all dealing with the stress of a high operations tempo and mounting casualties, but he let his fear master him.
It was not acceptable conduct for a Marine, and the rest of us were better than that.
Others choose courage
One late January day my squad was patrolling a neighborhood street when we were ambushed from the front and back. Two Marines were hit as we scrambled for cover.
We returned fire while our squad leader and another Marine rushed back into the street to drag the wounded Marines to safety.
This wasn't the first time some of us risked our lives to save others and accomplish the mission, nor was it the last.
Courage requires self-sacrifice
To be misunderstood by the people we were protecting was frustrating. Although our primary reason for holding the city was to protect U.S. citizens, we also protected the people of Fallujah.
During a December raid in the heart of the city, one of its misinformed citizens repeatedly called us terrorists because we had broken the window in his front door.
If we had knocked, we would have given any terrorist in the house a chance to run or fight, so we had to break in. But he didn't understand our reasoning.
In this and all the frustrating situations we encountered, the Marines around me responded with professionalism and courtesy, hiding their tremendous personal sacrefice.
Self-sacrifice does what is right
Amid these and other on-the-job lessons in human character that surfaced through the melee of emotions and physical fatigue, it was difficult to maintain a sense of ourselves and the purpose of what we were doing in Fallujah. But ours was not the first difficult task that had ever been undertaken.
From Odysseus to the Founding Fathers to Thomas Edison, men have been changing the world because they started something worth doing and persevered when everything became doubtful, uncomfortable and discouraging.
Somewhere in the midst of their strivings, they must have realized what I learned in Iraq.
Although we had become so entrenched in the gritty details the big picture of the war had blurred, the reasons for holding Fallujah were still true while we were there.
So we persevered and kept patrolling, fighting and protecting.
Eventually, we emerged from the woods and realized that all along the thing we had been striving for was worth the fight.
We had made a safer Fallujah for the Marines who relieved us there.
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Dwight Silva
posted 11/17/07 @ 11:26 AM EST
Glad to have you back safely Brother! Thanks for the insight into your experience. God bless you and your band of brothers for your service!
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