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CAMP PENDLETON – It was the first time the four had all been together again since that day in Fallujah, Iraq, nearly 2½ years ago – the day they stepped into a “meat grinder” now known in Marine Corps lore as the “House of Hell.” For their actions and courage that day, Nov. 13, 2004, Sgt. Maj. Brad Kasal and former Sgt. Robert “R.J.” Mitchell would later receive the Navy Cross, the military's second-highest medal of valor. “My part was I went in the house, got shot first, came out of the house, told Kasal and everybody else what went...

My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story, by Brad Kasal as told to Nathaniel R. Helms Des Moines, IA: Meredith Books. Pp. 286. Illus., map, table, glossary. $24.95. ISBN:0-696-23236-7. One of the iconic images of the Battle of Fallujah in November, 2004, was that of a Marine being assisted as he left a house, still holding a nine-millimeter pistol in his right hand. The story behind this picture is an amazing tale of heroism under fire, on par with past Marine heroes like Hector Cafferata during the Korean War or Jacklyn H. Lucas during World War II. The...

U.S. Marine Corps First Sergeant Brad Kasal is an American hero. His story is a remarkable tale of bravery, sacrifice and savagery that adds another page to the great book of American military lore. Kasal may never join the pantheon of Marine Corps legends with colorful names like “Manila John” Basilone, or “Ol’ Gimlet Eye” Smedley Darlington Butler, who won two Medals of Honor, or Master Gunnery Sergeant Leland “Lou” Diamond, who sported a non-regulation goatee and once raised chickens behind his barracks. But he is every bit in their league. During his three tours of duty in Iraq and...

It was in the third week of the Iraq war, as U.S. troops barreled toward Baghdad, that Sgt. 1st Class Paul Smith's band of combat engineers found themselves on the wrong end of 10-to-1 odds. In a walled courtyard not far from Baghdad's airport, Smith and his 15 lightly armed soldiers were trying to hold off 100 Special Republican Guard fighters wielding rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47 assault rifles. When wounds downed the U.S. crew of the armored vehicle bearing the Americans' sole heavy machine gun, Smith scrambled into the breach. In the gunner's hatch of that personnel carrier, with...

 U.S. Marine Corps First Sergeant Brad Kasal is an American hero. His story is a remarkable tale of bravery, sacrifice and savagery that adds another page to the great book of American military lore.   Still holding his 9mm Beretta, a seriously injured First Sgt. Brad Kasal is helped from a Fallujah house on Nov. 13, 2004, after killing several Iraqi insurgents andwith his own body shielding a fellow Marine from a grenade blast. Kasal may never join the pantheon of Marine Corps legends with colorful names like “Manila John” Basilone, or “Ol’ Gimlet Eye” Smedley Darlington Butler, who won...