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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Marines Kick Butt in Ar Ramadi |
| 2004-07-20 |
| Sgt. John S. Anthony, section leader with 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, said the city of Ar Ramadi was like a ghost town July 14, and that's never a good sign. Anti-Iraqi fighters detonated an improvised explosive device near Saddam's Mosque in the city, hitting a convoy from Army's 1st Brigade Combat Team. Anthony and other Marines from 2nd Battalion's Mobile Assault Company and Company G were called to reinforce the soldiers. "Devil 6," the 1st BCT convoy carrying the brigade's commander, was attacked with the homemade bomb at about 12:30 p.m. Shortly after, anti-Iraqi forces opened up on the soldiers with rifles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other small arms. The attack occurred along main supply route Michigan, which is an important transportation route for Coalition Forces operating in and around Ar Ramadi. "We were escorting our battalion commander to the hospital when we heard on the radio that Devil 6 got hit," said Staff Sgt. Michael P. Drake, platoon sergeant for Mobile Assault Platoon 1. "The commander wanted to go over there and see what was going on." Drake and his 27-man platoon loaded up their vehicles and drove about a half mile toward the firefight, but they didn't make it to Devil 6 right away. "There was no traffic,' said Anthony from Roseburg, Ore. "There were no people. It was just dead." The lack of people in the city's busy industrial area was a telltale sign something was wrong. Drake knew something "very bad" was going to happen as they approached Devil 6's location because the road had been blocked off with concrete blocks and tires. "We knew we were about to get ambushed," the Charleston, Ill., Marine said. "We just didn't know where it was going to come from." The Marines could hear gunfire coming from a little further up Michigan, but they couldn't see any enemy activity. They continued to push forward and that's when Drake said all hell broke loose. Enemy fighters began firing at the platoon. "We couldn't tell where the firing was coming from because the sound ricocheted off the walls and buildings," Anthony said. "It was like it was coming from all around." Immediately, the Marines set up a 360-degree security perimeter and searched for enemy positions on the rooftops. "I pulled my vehicle off the road into a parking lot and about thirty seconds later, I saw seven or eight explosions where we had just been," Anthony explained. "That's when I saw two guys looking over a wall on a roof across the street." Anthony used the scope on his rifle to make sure the men were armed. The two men were ducking in and out of a bunker fortified by sandbags. The gunner on Anthony's vehicle aimed in with his .50-caliber machine gun and "lit up the building." As he sent a wall of lead to the rooftop fighters, the other Marines also laid down suppressive fire with their M-16A4 service rifles. |
| Posted by:Chuck Simmins |
| #4 Take down each & everyone of those jihad boys! |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-07-20 10:51:58 PM |
| #3 piss on those cockroaches graves. SEMPER FI!!!! |
| Posted by: anymouse 2004-07-20 4:03:13 PM |
| #2 "It’s cool to see things blow up and catch fire." Still, Hairston said great power comes with great responsibility. "When I sit behind the gun, that’s a lot of power," Hairston explained. "I can take a lot of lives, so I have to be careful because I don’t want to kill lots of innocent people." They ought to make that guy a recruiter and send him to speack in every junior high school in Indiana. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-07-20 2:07:05 PM |
| #1 As we used to say... "If you ain't 2/4... you ain't shit...." I know it's bad grammer... but... ya had to be there... Semper Fi |
| Posted by: Magnificant Bastard 2004-07-20 12:57:17 PM |