Posted on 09/26/2004 2:13:28 AM PDT by Nepalis
Submitted by: MCB Camp Pendleton Story Identification #: 2004923193850 Story by Lance Cpl. Samuel B. Valliere
MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Sept. 23, 2004) -- One Marine carried on a relentless, one-armed fight. Another is credited with spearheading a counterattack that left an estimated 30 insurgents dead.
Their tenacious response to an enemy ambush last spring near Fallujah, Iraq, earned them the Bronze Star Medal, awarded Friday in a ceremony at Camp Margarita.
According to command accounts, Sgt. Eric Kocher and Staff Sgt. Dan Lalota fought valiantly enough to merit the U.S. military's fourth-highest award for combat valor.
Brig. Gen. James C. Williams, I Marine Expeditionary Force's acting commanding general, presented the awards.
"What the Bronze Stars exemplify are Marines who are committed when they are engaged in combat," Williams said. "They have made a commitment to complete their mission, save their fellow Marines and take actions that would defeat the enemy."
The ambush occurred April 7. Lalota and Kocher, along with about 23 additional Marines, set out on a patrol to root out enemy mortar positions.
Kocher was out front, riding in the lead vehicle. An eerie emptiness at a gas station normally bustling with motorists tipped him off to impending danger, he said.
Several cars closed in on the Marines as they drew nearer to the fueling station. That's when Kocher's worst fears were realized.
"We expected to get hit out there, but we didn't expect it to be as bad as it was," said Kocher, 25, from Northampton, Pa.
Two rocket-propelled-grenades struck Kocher's humvee, sending shrapnel tearing through every Marine in the vehicle. Three more RPGs sailed wildly past them. The blasts left the humvee smoldering and nearly inoperable.
"At first I thought, 'if we get hit again, none of us are going to make it,'" Kocher said.
Kocher's Marines didn't think the vehicle would move. All four tires were destroyed and the explosion forced shards of metal into the engine block.
Kocher's arm was mangled. He tightened a tourniquet around it before pouring fire back at enemy positions. His driver jumped into the turret, the machine gun belching bullets at the enemy positions.
Meanwhile, Marines in the other four vehicles launched a counterattack of their own.
Lalota and his crew maneuvered around Kocher's vehicle to bear down on the enemy. They rushed across 100 yards of open terrain, climbing berms and crossing a canal. They silenced numerous enemy machine gun and rocket positions, according to command accounts of the battle.
Tragedy struck, though, as they scaled the final berm
A bullet hit Capt. Brent L. Morel, a team leader, who later died of his wounds.
"He fell right next to me," explained Lalota, 27, from Bay Shore, N.Y.
Two Marines pulled Morel to safety and worked frantically to save his life, Lalota said. Meanwhile, Lalota and his crew killed the remaining terrorists and provided suppressive fire so Morel could be evacuated.
The gun battle left 30 enemy dead and an unknown number wounded. Best estimates say 40 to 60 attackers mounted the ambush.
Kocher is still recovering from his wounds. He's almost back to full duty after nine surgeries.
"I went to physical therapy for a week and it wasn't fast-paced enough for me, so I just started going to the gym," he explained. "I lost about 50 pounds after I got hit, and I have about 10 more pounds to go to get back to where I was."
Lalota, a sergeant at the time of the attack, received a combat meritorious promotion at the ceremony as well as gold jump wings for his participation in combat parachute operations.
Ping !
I thank these brave Marines, Sgt Kocher and Staff Sgt Lalota, for their service..Well Done!
God bless our armed forces and all who wait for them at home.
WOW. We have a few great men in the Marines.
OoooohRaaaaah!
These guys are good but they are no John Kerry. Only kidding of course. I love hearing about these brave young men. The world needs more like them.
Just the Bronze? Sheesh, should have been the Silver, but there CO probably got that instead.
there=their
These are the stories that should be on the news at night for regular Americans to take pride in. These are the true events from ground zero in the war on terrorism. But then these stories would foster more patriotism. It's sad and sick that are news media is so screwed to the left. It's stories like this that should be told over and over...God bless you all.
Far more than John Kerry has done in the past, is doing in the present, or will do in the future. And that SOB has the audacity to tout himself as a "war hero" while ads from his party run which depict demoralized U.S. soldiers surrendering.
God help this country if that communist/terrorist sympathizer gets elected.
Rather than a Bronze or Silver Star, Benedict Kerry should have gotten a hemp rope.
I bear no ill will toward the man apart from wishing him out of power. Indeed, it's my sincere hope that, after this election's loss to GWB, Kerry lives the remainder of his days in mute obscurity punctuated only by the taunts of children who gleefully point and shreik, "There goes the traitor!!" as he walks by.
That would be a fitting punishment for the likes of Kerry.
Marine Bump!
The CO was killed in action in that fight - or didn't you read the story?
LOL! For which we may all thank God!
WHY SQUANDER AMERICAN LIVES ON THIS VERMIN?
LEVEL ONE TOWN AT A TIME UNTIL THE INSURGENTS SURRENDER ARMS RAISED
I was going to say something but you said it for me. God Bless these Marines for what they do for us.
What?!
USMC. MIL refers to these vermin as "terrorists" and not "freedom fighters" or "minutemen".
The editor must have taken the day off because surely someone would have caught an error as blatant as this.
We don't fight because we like to, we fight because there comes a time where one must fight for the freedoms one holds dear. France, Germany, Spain, et al have never known a cause worth fighting for. THAT is their weakness.
Some say we're the most powerful country the world has ever known because of the technology advantages we have over our enemies. I say you could give the terrorists bazookas and arm our men with water-pistols and I'd still put my money on the Good Guys.
Duty . . . Honor . . . Country. Reflected everyday on the Iraqi and Afghanistan battlefields, ignored every day on the political trail. THAT is why Lurch will lose the election and WE WILL WIN THE WAR.
The liberals no longer have a monopoly on the disseminating of news and the American Public at large will not allow the traitors in our midst to stab our warriors in the back again. There will be no more Vietnams.
The MSM'ers still only report the bleakest of news from Iraq . . . but stories about the bravest of us, like this story, somehow manage to be told now. I salute these brave soldiers, just as I salute those organizations who manage to tell us their stories.
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