Marine Sniper Staff Sgt. Steve Reichert Receives Bronze Star Medal for Valor (OoRah and SALUTE!!!)

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C.(Feb. 03, 2005) -- In the early morning hours of April 9, 2004, a Marine sniper and his spotter crawled on top of an abandoned oil storage tank in Lutafiyah, Iraq. Their mission was routine as they covered their squad’s patrol movement through the small town during the Arba’een pilgrimage. As it turned out, it was also a mission that will go down in the volumes of Marine Corps history.

Staff Sgt. Steve Reichert, a 25-year-old scout sniper with Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, and Medfield, Mass., native, was recently awarded one of the Corps’ top medals, the Bronze Star with a combat ‘V’ for valorous action.

The 1998 Medfield High School graduate spends his off hours firing at targets with his M82A3 .50-caliber special application scoped rifle (SASR).

During this particular mission atop the oil tank, Reichert settled himself in a very exposed position -- though he was able to prop up a few steel plates on some sand bags. He and his spotter occupied that position knowing they were extremely vulnerable to enemy fire.

“I didn’t really think about it at the time,” said Reichert. “But when we heard the fifty cal rounds impacting the oil tank we took what little cover there was.”

As the patrol moved toward the town, Reichert observed a dead animal located in the patrol’s path. It was then when he recalled his training in enemy tactics, techniques and procedures for improvised explosive devices (IED) and made radio contact with the patrol leader to redirect. The patrol leader radioed back to Reichert and confirmed his suspicion that two wires were leading out of the dog carcass.

“We encountered IEDs daily,” said Reichert. “The IED that the squad came up on was in a dead animal, and with my spotting scope I could see the slight reflection of the wires coming out of the animal.

But despite the squad’s preventive measures, a routine situation turned treacherous.

A rocket-propelled grenade, or RPG, was fired at the Marine patrol and seconds later enemy machine gun and small-arms fire pinned them down, according to Reichert. The Marines couldn’t effectively engage the enemy machine gunner on the rooftop of a nearby building so they radioed to Reichert on the oil storage tank. He took one shot and missed, then made the proper wind and elevation calculations to make his mark. A moment and a trigger pull later, Reichert took out the gunner.

In the after action report, the platoon leader made a remarkable account, that Reichert made the shot from 1,614 meters – approximately a mile away. His accuracy was the deciding factor in the outcome of the firefight.

Soon after, a few insurgents began to climb a set of stairs on the backside of the building where the firefight was taking place. Reichert aimed into the brick wall where he thought the men were and fired.

All three of the men dropped. Reichert’s armor-piercing round penetrated the wall and killed one man -- possibly wounding the other two with bullet and brick fragmentation.

“I was concerned about my Marines making it out of there in one piece,” said Reichert. “And at the same time I was loving life. I was outside of the gunmen’s range, but they were within my weapon’s range. I guess I could compare it to shooting ducks in a barrel.”

But the parlor game atmosphere proved to be more difficult than he may have expected.

“I could see that the two Marines got separated (from the platoon) and saw that a small group of insurgents were maneuvering into position to ambush the Marines. Once they stopped moving I shot one; the other two ran.”

Reichert looks back at his mission as a learning experience – not only for him, but for others who follow in his footsteps.

“I’ve learned a few lessons in life that I think helped me along the way,” said Reichert. “Never quit, no matter how tough life can get.”

Here is the photo, it seems to large to post on FR but someone else might be able to do it.

http://www.marines.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200521884517/$file/D577WEB.jpg

It is pretty simple to post -- if you know or even if you don't. The hard part if figuring out the original size versus the size you want and the ratios.

It is an < IMG > with the following format:

< IMG SRC="http://www.marines.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200521884517/$file/D577WEB.jpg" WIDTH=900 HEIGHT=600 >
For XML, you would need to close it with < /IMG >. [You don't need this on Freerepublic -- we post in HTML].

Now for the tricky part -- you download the file and have a utilty that gives you the size of the original file. This is just for figuring out the size of the image versus the size you want to display and the ratio.

For me, it said it was 1800x1200 so I tried different values and ended up with 900x600 [widthxheight].

If you divide by the Greatest Common Factor [600], you get a 3x2 ratio. Then try different sizes -- multiply the ratio by 200 -- gives 600x400 -- or 250 -- gives 750x500 -- or what I ended up with -- multiply by 300 -- times the 3x2 ratio -- yielding 900x600.

You might get lost in the Math -- but maybe can worth with you or you use the calculator on the computer.

During the Arba'een pilgrimage, 1st Platoon, Fox Company manned a platoon patrol base at the Karch Oil Plant in Lutayfiyah, Iraq. During the pilgrimage the platoon was heavily engaged in ambushes and indirect fire attacks. At 0800, on the morning of 9 April 2004, a squad-sized patrol was sent into Lutayfiyah to prevent Anti-Coalition Forces from interfering with the Arba'een pilgrimage. Staff Sergeant Reichert, a trained scout/sniper, established a guardian angel position on top of an oil tank with a .50 caliber SASR rifle to cover the patrol's movement into the town. He occupied this position with full knowledge that he would be extremely vulnerable to enemy fire.
As the patrol moved toward Lutayfiyah, Staff Sergeant Reichert and his spotter, Corporal Tucker, noticed that a dead animal had been placed alongside a dirt road the squad was approaching. The Staff Sergeant radioed the patrol and redirected them to the east side of the road to better observe the dead animal. The patrol leader called back to the patrol base and reported two wires leading out of the animal. Suspecting this to be an improvised explosive devise (IED), the patrol leader called the Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit (EOD) and set up a cordon around the sight. Thirty minutes after the patrol set the cordon, a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) was fired at the Marines holding the western half of the cordon. Seconds after the RPG round was fired insurgents began firing on the patrol with machine guns and small arms. The patrol leader informed the over watch position that he was taking fire from the rooftops in the town. Corporal Tucker spotted a man firing an AK-47 at the patrol from the roof of a house. Staff Sergeant Reichert killed the man at a range of more than 1600 meters. Corporal Tucker then spotted three men climbing on top of a building in close proximity to the patrol. Corporal Tucker confirmed that the last man had a crew served weapon slung over his back. Staff Sergeant Reichert fired again and his spotter confirmed that the round had found its target a crowd of armed insurgents began moving towards these two isolated Marines. The insurgents turned back when Staff Sergeant Reichert engaged them with his sniper rifle. Staff Sergeant Reichert's long range covering fire allowed the two Marines to safely rejoin their squad.

During the firefight one of the battalion's combined anti armor teams (CAAT White) and EOD arrived at the scene in response to the dead animal containing an IED. CAAT White moved east through the town and also began to take heavy fire from all directions. As Staff Sergeant Reichert continued to fire from his position on the oil tank, CAAT White mistook his fires as an enemy sniper. CAAT White suppressed the over watch position with heavy machine gun fire. Staff Sergeant Reichert attempted to establish communication with the patrol base and the patrol to tell CAAT White to shut off its fires. At this point, he lost comm with all units and could not tell CAAT White to cease fire. CAAT White repeatedly fired on the oil tank each time the Staff Sergeant fired.

He continued to fire in support of the patrol for several minutes under heavy fire from the friendly machine guns. At this time, the firefight had grown so hot that the 1st Platoon quick reaction force (QRF) was launched to recover the patrol and bring them back to the patrol base. Ten minutes after all of 1st Platoon had regrouped at the patrol base, a Marine from CAAT White reported that as they retrograded from Lutayfiyah, one of their vehicles had been left inside the town and was running out of ammunition. 1st Platoon again mounted up on their vehicles and responded with CAAT White to rescue the lost vehicle. Staff Sergeant Reichert and Corporal Tucker stayed at the oil plant and continued to cover the platoon from their over watch position. This made first platoon become decisively engaged in another firefight as two vehicles were sent back to the FOB to evacuate the causality. The firefight lasted all afternoon, which made it impossible for the platoon to return to the oil plant and pick up Corporal Tucker and Staff Sergeant Reichert until after dark. The two Marines were left alone all day with the nearest friendly units at least two kilometers away. Not knowing exactly when they would be picked up, Staff Sergeant Reichert and Corporal Tucker commandeered a vehicle to drive back to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Mahmudiyah in case of an emergency. At 2100 one squad from 1st Platoon escorted by a CAAT section returned to the oil plant and picked up Staff Sergeant Reichert and his spotter before they were forced to execute their escape and evasion plan. After this link up Fox Company returned to FOB Mahmudiyah.
Staff Sergeant Reichert's ability to accomplish his duties as Platoon Sergeant and his additional MOS of 8541 Scout Sniper is an inspiration to the Marines of his Battalion and all Scout Snipers. He put himself in grave danger when he stayed behind to cover the platoon without the support of friendly units. He risked his life for his fellow Marines.

B. T. McDANIEL

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