Posted on 06/23/2004 4:08:28 AM PDT by kattracks
Please bump this thread..
I bet there's been a change of tactics by the enemy. This is the second 4 man team to go down recently.
Sounds like the tangos got somebody inside.
Heroic to the very end.
God bless them. Prayers for their families.
Radcliff Marine among 4 killed in Iraq (Radcliff is in Hardin County)
A Radcliff man was one of four Marines killed in an ambush Monday in Iraq's Al Anbar Province, the Marine Corps said yesterday.
Lance Cpl. Deshon E. Otey, 24, was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Otey had transferred to Iraq in February, said his mother, Robin Mays of Radcliff, who works for the Army at Fort Knox.
Otey was single and had no children. His brother, Ronald Otey, also is in the Marine Corps and is in California, Mays said.
Deshon Otey joined the Marines in 2001 after graduating from North Hardin High School, Mays said. The family had moved to Radcliff from Louisville in 1980.
The Marines offered her no information about how her son died, Mays said, and told her that it would be two or three weeks before his body is shipped home. She said her first reaction was to ask what happened.
"Then it hit me and I got upset and cried," she said.
Otey often called home from Iraq, his mother said. "When I talked to him, his spirits were up," she said. "He never was down or nothing."
Mays said she often prayed for her son's safety and knew there was little else she could do. Working for the Army, Mays said she knew the dangers her son faced. "You just have to accept a lot of things, ... and you know what goes along with the Marines," she said.
"It's not like you're looking for it to happen, but it's possible things can happen. It's happened to a lot of families and now it's hit my home."
Mays said she's worried that her other son might be shipped to Iraq. Ronald Otey "is in shock" about the loss of his brother, she said.
Deshon Otey was unsure if he would make a career of the Marine Corps but was considering transferring to the Army for special operations or possibly law enforcement, Mays said. She also said he did not want his brother to come to Iraq.
"He said it was not safe enough for him," she said.
God bless them and keep them. Prayers for them and their families.
God bless them.
My prayers go out for our fallen warriors and their kin.
Can you expand on this? Thoughts?
Article here several weeks ago stated an "Iraqi or foreign sniper was responsible for a significant number of Marine deaths in/near Falluja." Some may recall the sniper in Israel that killed several and exfiltrated. Sounds like an import to me...
I agree...there is a lot missing from this story.....
life/freedom bump
We cannot sustain the losses we have taken at middle NCO indefinitely, takes too long to make new ones.
It was a miracle, not "buts" about it. Only God knows how many terrorists are no longer walking around because of this brave Marine and therefore how many lives he saved in between the ambush and his death.
Oh brother. Hey Unc, I think our military somehow managed to survive such losses during WWI and WWII, Korea and Vietnam, so they just might manage to make it through this campaign as well.
Go look at our losses broken down by rank. I doubt any force in history has ever taken casualties this rank-heavy over an extended period. It's amazing.
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