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Posted on 03/29/2003 10:14:14 PM PST by 11th_VA
INJURED US Marine Corporal Michael John Mead wants his boots back - so he can get back in the fight.
The 20-year-old, from Newberry, Michigan, was among several Marines injured when their armoured personnel carrier was ambushed by Iraqi troops in the southern city of Nassiriyah, a key river crossing point, last Sunday.
Fighting back tears, he spoke to journalists on board the USNS Comfort hospital ship, about the war that has changed forever his life and the lives of many others.
Cpl Mead suffered severe burns and shrapnel wounds to his right leg and has undergone several operations to save the limb and he is currently wheelchair-bound.
He was one of the first US soldiers to enter Iraq - and among the first injured.
"We entered Iraq three days before I got injured and it frustrates me because I was injured on the day we reached Nasiriyah," said Cpl Mead.
"I promised my Marines that they'd go home before me. It's kind of hard to keep that promise while I am stuck in this hospital."
The amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) his unit was travelling in broke down just inside Iraqi lines in Nasiriyah.
They hopped into another AAV in the platoon, but were soon attacked.
"We hadn't made it very far in the city when we were hit by a rocket-propelled grenade," he recalled.
The AAV was set ablaze and the injured were pulled out of the wreckage by other Marines, who dragged them to safety.
Cpl Mead remembers the gunshots, the explosions and the shouting. But most of all he remembers very clearly the calm faces of his fellow Marines.
"Our Marines did very well. When the rounds started flying, instinct and training took over. Everybody was calm and they did their job well," he said.
Conscious the entire time after the attack, he remembers being checked by a medic on the field to make sure that he had not lost any of his limbs.
"There were many of us injured and the treatment we received on the field was fast and proper. It was enough to stabilise us and get us out of harm's way," said Cpl Mead.
"A corpsman who was checking me kept working despite several sniper fires."
He was taken by helicopter to Camp Coyote in Kuwait and doctors there decided that he and some of the others needed further treatment on board the hospital ship the USNS Comfort, situated in the Northern Gulf waters.
Cpl Mead hopes he recovers fast enough to get back to the fight, but for now, he is recuperating in one of the ship's 1,000 hospital beds, where treatment has helped save his leg.
"If it wasn't for the doctors, nurses and corpsmen I would still be in a desert tent in the middle of a sandstorm with an open leg wound and risk of infection," he said.
"I do not hate Iraqis, but I do hate Saddam Hussein himself. How do I feel about this whole thing now?
"I just want to find me a pair of boots and I want to go back out there.
"I know war is not nice. It is not a game. It is for real. There is no nice war. Your friends are getting shot and they are dying.
"My fellow Marines are my brothers, they are my family and it is hard to be separated from them. That's why I want to go back out there."
Injured or sick prisoners of war (PoWs) are also being treated aboard the Comfort, where they are kept under 24-hour watch.
Two Navy officers, one of Lebanese descent, serve as interpreters for PoWs on board the ship.
There is also a Muslim preacher on board, who they can speak with at any time.
don't kow whether it's appropriate or not for an army guy to say this, but:
SEMPER FI
click on the graphic to see the complete Victory Series
A hero. No doubt.
They use the F88 (I believe that is the designation), a domestically-produced version of the Steyr AUG.
...-BTTT-
We don't grow's em' any other way up here. I'm about 60 miles east of Newberry, Michigan right now and I'm mightily proud of this young man......
"I know war is not nice. It is not a game. It is for real. There is no nice war. Your friends are getting shot and they are dying.
"My fellow Marines are my brothers, they are my family and it is hard to be separated from them. That's why I want to go back out there."
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