Posted on 01/17/2006 5:52:13 PM PST by SandRat
CAMP FALLUJAH, IRAQ (Jan. 17, 2006) -- The tall, bright eyed, 20-year-old Marine with an athletic build seems to be always smiling. Whether he is tasked out for a working party unloading mail from home or talking about his high school band days, his good nature and laughs keep on coming.
“I was going to play football but band got in the way,” said Lance Cpl. Jonathan M. Fisher, a motor transportation operator of 7-ton military vehicles, trying to be serious but smiling about his seven-year commitment to grade school bands as a percussionist. “Go ahead, laugh it up!”
What is pretty serious though is the Franklin Township, Ind., native, has participated in more than 160 convoy operations in one of the most dangerous provinces in Iraq for nearly a year. Fisher and other “Motor-T” operators from Motor Transportation Platoon, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Headquarters Group, II MEF (FWD), have faced fire from enemy rockets, rifles and improvised explosive devices during continuous operations in the Sunni-dominated, Al Anbar province.
Despite the danger, fear and excitement they have experienced first-hand, Fisher and fellow operators continue doing their work with stride and professionalism.
“I like being able to see the [Iraqi] countryside, and I like going outside the wire,” said Fisher. “I get an adrenaline rush knowing something could happen anytime and that I have to be ready to do something about it.”
The son of a United Methodist minister, the smiling young man has long had the idea of serving others but was unsure of how he was going to do it. When hostilities began in Iraq, he felt the calling ‘to serve my country,’ as he said in his own words.
“There was more to do than just sitting on the couch and watching news,” said the 2004 graduate from Franklin Central High School in Franklin Township, Ind. “I decided I wanted to play an active part helping Marines and others in Iraq.”
Fisher went to boot camp right after graduation. He arrived to the Motor Transportation Platoon, II MEF, Headquarters Group, II MEF, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., early 2005.
Within a month upon arriving, Fisher volunteered when someone was needed to fill a last minute individual deployment to Iraq.
“I wanted to serve my time here,” he simply said.
Fisher has been a driver, a gunner, a vehicle commander and in the past in charge of more than one vehicle on convoy operations, while transporting everything from water and food supplies to medicine, mail and ammunition. Working together as a team, Fisher and other operators have logged thousands of miles taking supplies, helping coalition forces and civilians alike, from Fallujah and Ar Ramadi to the Syrian border.
“He doesn’t give up until the job is done, even if its something that may be a small task, he will do it,” said Sgt. Peter W. Slutman, 24, of Newtown Square, Pa., a vehicle recovery operator with motor transportation section, II MHG, II MEF (FWD). “He’s also just good-hearted, willing to listen and talk to others.”
Fisher looks forward to the day that he and others in his unit get a chance to go home, but he will never forget the lessons learned here.
“The real life [in Iraq] is not a joke,” said Fisher. “Back in the states people take advantage of the freedoms and good life we have that these people haven’t seen. It’s almost kind of tragic.”
Fisher hears the calling to Christian ministries after the Marines and possibly even serving in the future as a military chaplain. He plans to follow in his father’s footsteps after completion of his enlistment.
PING
BTTT
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