Posted on 02/16/2007 1:14:58 PM PST by rightalien
CAMP PENDLETON ---- The bell rang 100 times. Once for each name. Once for each comrade lost. Once for each time in the last year that a member of the Camp Pendleton-based Regimental Command Team 5, or the Fighting Fifth, died from wounds received in and around the Iraqi city of Fallujah. View A Video
The crowd of more than 300 grew quiet as the sound of bells cut through the air on a Camp Pendleton parade deck Thursday morning. Square-jawed Marines hung a dog tag for each of the fallen. Another Marine read their names and hometowns. Small towns, many of them, tucked into places like Missouri, Tennessee, Michigan.
The solemn ceremony memorialized the deaths of 100 troops who served in Iraq over the last 12 months as part of the Fighting Fifth. Many of the dead, two-thirds of them, were corporals and lance corporals. Some were sailors, others reservists, still others Army soldiers. Judging from their photos, many were younger than 25.
Some 17 battalions were part of the regimental command during that time, and 13 of them suffered fatalities as they served in Iraq's volatile Anbar province.
About 400 from the regiment were wounded, suffering injuries ranging from concussions to amputations.
The ceremony came about two weeks after some in the regimental command returned stateside from a yearlong deployment.
"These guys will be part of us forever," said Col. Larry Nicholson, the regiment's commanding officer. "In the middle of our euphoric homecoming, this is their homecoming."
From the back of the audience, one young Marine, still on crutches after taking a sniper's bullet in a firefight late last year, watched in silence.
Lance Cpl. Lukas Bell's wounds came on Dec. 7, the day one of his friends, who was honored Thursday, died in a firefight in Iraq. Bell's injuries landed him stateside on Dec. 12.
By the end of the ceremony, Bell's eyes were red. The 22-year-old two-time Iraq war veteran made his way toward the row of helmets atop M-16s and boots. He moved toward the makeshift memorial representing the fallen of the 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment.
His unit. His friends.
"It's rough, you know," Bell said. "I haven't had a chance to mourn."
The red-eyed lance corporal apologized, gently shooed off reporters and hobbled away on crutches.
Not far from him, another Marine knelt, his eyes closed and his hand on a helmet atop a gun and boots, the traditional memorial for fallen troops. Even with hundreds of people milling about, the man maintained a silent, private vigil. He reached out, grasped the dog tags hanging from the gun, crossed himself, turned on his heel and walked away.
Marine officials said the Fighting Fifth is recognized as the Corps' most highly decorated regiment.
Col. Nicholson said he believes progress has come in Iraq, and said an example of that is found in the numbers. In March 2005 ---- only months after Fallujah erupted into a volatile battleground ---- some 3,000 Marines were stationed there. Now, he said, there are 300. He also said the Sunni stronghold is seen not as a trouble spot by Iraqis, but as a place of refuge.
"Iraq is a better and safer place because of the services and sacrifices made by the regimental combat team," Col. Nicholson told the crowd. "Future generations will marvel at the courage and sacrifice borne by Marines today."
K'Ann Hines came from Ventura to attend the memorial. It was four months to the day after her 26-year-old son, Lance Cpl. Joshua Hines, died after a roadside bomb detonated under his Humvee. She asked that the world remember her son "by his smile."
"He'd do anything for anybody," Hines said. "He'd put his life down for somebody."
Nearby, another grieving mother stood behind the memorial bearing her son's dog tags. She buried her face in her husband's chest and cried. Her son, Lance Cpl. Richard Allen Buerstetta, died in Fallujah four months ago. A bomb ripped into his Humvee, killing him and Lance Cpl. Tyler Overstreet, and wounding two others.
When the Marines knocked on the door of his family home just hours later, Buerstetta's mother, Madeline, slammed it and ran screaming for her husband, Paul.
The Tennessee couple stood on the parade deck to honor their son. They smiled a bit as they spoke of letters his friends sent them, of hearing that their son, who loved exercise, had formed a sort of gym in Iraq, a spot his buddies dubbed "Buerstetta's Tent."
Their son, a reservist, had been in Iraq only 28 days.
According to the Pentagon, more than 3,100 U.S. service members have died since the start of the war, and an additional 23,500 have been wounded. At least 326 troops based in North County have died in Iraq since the war began.
It's so heartbreaking.
May God bless each family for their sacrifices. I'm so thankful for those willing to protect me and those I love. May we never forget that freedom is not free.
My son is doing is ICT (Infantry Combat Training) at Pendleton now, I hope he heard the bells and understood why they rang out.
We did a similar Tribute at Camp Schwab in late '66 for 1/9 losses suffered in RVN.
Jerks a knot in the Heart even now.
Semper Fidelis
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