My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story

My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story as told to Nathaniel R. Helms (Meredith Books: Des Moines, Iowa, 2007)

For more about this riveting war memoir by a Marine awarded the Navy Cross for valor during the battle of Fallujah, go to

The day I was wounded I certainly didn't start out thinking I should kick in a door and engage practically hand-to-hand with the enemy However as I was with my Marines going street by street and house by house, upon learning that wounded Marines were trapped inside a building with terrorists, I knew every second counted. So several other Marines and I charged forward rather than waiting for someone else. To this day many consider it a miracle that I lived after the severe blood loss and trauma caused by seven gunshot wounds and several dozen shrapnel wounds. I simply see it as just the love for a fellow Marine and a little bit of toughness and stubbornness

Throughout this entire ordeal from the time of being wounded until I was medically evacuated close to an hour later, and despite the multiple wounds and loss of blood, I never lost consciousness or quit my post while guarding that doorway While some may call this heroic, I just call it loyalty It was because I loved the Marine next to me that I was determined to do anything it took to keep him alive, even at my own risk. He would have done the same for me. It's called being a Marine—we're all brothers and a family. Many times since my injuries occurred people have labeled me a hero. I beg to differ—I believe the true heroes that day were Sergeant Robert Mitchell, Corporal Schaeffer and Corporal Marquez, Private Justin Boswood, and the men of Kilo 3/1 and Weapons Co., 1st CAAT section, who fought to get us all out of the building now called the "House of Hell." I will be forever indebted to these fine professionals.

The word "valor" is often used to describe the actions of many of these Marines. And it is commonly understood to mean "extreme courage." But valor is more than the extreme courage of a single individual. It does take courage to do a valorous act, but that courage is made possible by camaraderie and esprit de corps—of not wanting to leave their fellow man behind. I watched young men do amazing things in order to protect the man next to them. For example, Sergeant Mitchell voluntarily trapped himself inside the same room as myself and Lance Corporal Nicoll. Lance Corporal Marquez and Lance Corporal Schaeffer, the two young Marines who carried me out of the house, ran into the room without their weapons, leaving themselves defenseless so they could have their hands free to carry me out. That showed how much trust they had in the Marines who were covering them.

After seeing many news reports on what is currently happening overseas, I decided to have this book written and tell this story. I remember once while out on patrol we had an embedded reporter from the New York Times along with us. I asked the reporter why his newspaper didn't report the complete story and all the positive things going on over there. And he replied, "I see it, but my editor only wants to hear about deaths and disasters. Helping the Iraqi people doesn't sell papers."

The biased media have made an impression on the American citizens and the terrorists themselves. Every time the media give airtime to a protestor, it gives another victory to the terrorists rather than to the protestors. And people believe what they read in the paper because it is all the information they have to go on. One time while I was at dinner with a few friends a lady approached me and asked what happened to my leg. At that point I looked like something out of a horror movie and was in a wheelchair. At first she was very concerned. But as soon as I told her I was in the military and injured overseas, she began to go into a long antimilitary tirade about how we don't need a military, and how there's never a reason for a war, and all the service members are dying unnecessarily. Biting back my anger for all the fine men who gave the ultimate sacrifice that she just dishonored, I simply replied with "Ma'am, you're very welcome; I'm sure what you meant to say was 'thank you' to myself and all the other service members who have made sacrifices to give you the freedom to openly make whatever statement you desire."

I'll be the first to say, as I've seen it numerous times firsthand, that war is an ugly thing. But sometimes you have to fight for what you believe in. We are facing a worldwide enemy who has only one agenda: the complete annihilation of the American way of life. And that enemy will stop at nothing short of that goal.

Freedom has never come free. Whatever your beliefs or political stance, our young service members of all branches are performing remarkably and making a difference. In Iraq combat was only a small part of our overall role. Military service members performed countless humanitarian projects ranging from large-scale items—such as building new schools, hospitals, and community services—to everyday things as small as handing out candy and pencils to children or helping a farmer with a flat tire.

These valiant young men are helping to bring freedom to a country that was previously without it. They are constantly facing the dangers of IEDs, suicide bombers, and ambushes while they capture or kill terrorists who have no regard for human life.

Many people are amazed that I wish to return overseas as soon as I'm healthy again. But serving my country is where my heart is. It is my wish that the American media would show the true and complete story of what is really going on overseas and tell the story of how our service members are performing selfless acts of heroism and helping to bring freedom and a better way of life to a country.

To: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
Harry Reid, U.S. Senate Democrat Leader
Congress has passed and President Bush has vetoed H.R. 1591, the Iraq Surrender Act of 2007.
This legislation, which you worked to pass, sets a timetable for surrender. It pulls the rug out from under our troops. That is shameful and wrong.
Your actions have already emboldened the enemy. Violent jihadists now know that the elected leadership of Congress would undermine the troops by holding their funding hostage to demands for surrender.
This Congress would bring us back to the dark days of the 1970s, when the world doubted our staying power. Except only much worse. Withdraw in April 2008, and on May 1, Iraq becomes an unchecked den of terrorism at the heart of the Middle East — a new base for the same people that struck our homeland on September 11th.
I stand with our troops. I stand for victory. I support the President’s veto and will urge my representatives to vote to sustain it.
There can be one and only one outcome in Iraq: We win, they lose.
http://www.wewintheylose.com/

Please sign petition.

I received this morning from BILL FRIST

I received a number of e-mails this morning asking for more information about Lois Romano’s piece in today’s Washington Post subtitled “Petraeus’s Lifesaver,” which describes emergency surgery I performed on Gen. David Petraeus (now leading our military’s operations in Iraq) for an M16 gunshot wound through his chest.

Three years ago I was standing with Gen. Petraeus on a hot, dusty compound in Iraq where he was leading exercises training young Iraqi soldiers. After observing the young recruits carry out their exercises, he gathered them around as he shared what happened on that fateful day in 1991.

Saturday, September 21, 1991, at “high noon,” as Gen. Petraeus recalls. Karyn and I were with Harrison at a sporting event when I got the trauma call.

“Dr. Frist, we have a Life Flight helicopter coming in from Ft. Campbell with a gunshot wound to the chest. A chest tube has been placed, but there’s continued hemorrhaging.” That meant get to the hospital . . . surgery would likely be necessary.

I rushed to Vanderbilt Hospital to be in the trauma unit before the helicopter arrived in the event we had to go straight to surgery. After quickly evaluating the soldier (who I learned had been accidentally shot in a training exercise), we went straight to the operating room to perform the thoracotomy and stop the hemorrhaging from the lung.

Gen. Petraeus – in his usual good humor – today describes the wound as “damage done by the M16 round that went right through my right chest — happily over the ‘A’ in PETRAEUS rather than over the ‘A’ in U.S. ARMY (as the latter is over my heart).”

Gunshot wounds to the chest are not at all uncommon at a busy trauma unit like Vanderbilt, but I knew this patient was a little different when he said so quickly, “If we’ve got a problem that needs to be fixed, let’s get on with it!”

Little did I know that same attitude would be at play in the world arena 16 years later. The straightforward decisiveness and call for action with results – traits we see from Gen. Petraeus so often today – reared their head in those few moments of conversation we had before I began to operate.

He talked me into discharging him early so he could return to Ft. Campbell to be with the soldiers he then led as Lieutenant Colonel (Commander of the 3d Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division, “Air Assault”). His soldiers were first and foremost in his mind.

In the post-operation period we learned that our pasts shared a common thread. He had done graduate work at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where I had also studied.

The next time I heard from him was a few years later when another trauma surgeon called asking exactly what surgical procedure I’d done. Then Brig. Gen. Petraeus was in his trauma unit having suffered a badly fractured pelvis when his skydiving canopy collapsed about a hundred feet off the ground due to a wind shear at a drop zone near Fort Bragg, N.C.

Over the years, we’ve stayed in close touch. Running the Army 10-miler in Washington, D.C., together (really only the first 100 yards . . . then he left me in the dust!). Karyn and I visiting his wife Holly at Ft. Campbell when her husband was conducting the assault on Baghdad. Visiting in the Capitol on military issues. And joining him in Iraq on two occasions as Majority Leader.

Another reflection of Gen. Petraeus is the perspective with which he views events. When asked what he appreciates most about the recovery from his 1991 injury, he goes straight to thanking the soldiers who cared for him in the minutes after he was shot. As always, his soldiers are first.

On a related note, I believe Gen. Petraeus’s dedication to success in Iraq should be matched by Congress. That’s why it’s unfortunate the Democrats’ leadership insisted upon a spending bill that established artificial timelines for withdrawing our troops.

The President was right to veto the bill because mandating withdrawal dates will only strengthen our enemy, and several bloggers have launched a new Internet campaign (www.wewintheylose.com) to make that point clear.

Ronald Reagan’s quote “We Win. They lose.” expressed our country’s determination to defeat the Soviet Union in the Cold War – the same determination we must maintain to achieve success in Iraq.

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