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September 10, 2004
Update from LtCol Dave
Congratulations on a well-deserved promotion! Here's the latest update:
As you have heard, we lost 7 Marines to a suicide car bomber the other day. We also lost 3 Iraqi Special Forces Soldiers. All were exceptionally brave men. The Marines are from a battalion that has fought as hard or harder than any other here in Iraq. These were the guys that were knee deep in the hardest fighting in Fallujah back in April and who have been going hard ever since. Even more tragic is that they were close to getting out of here.As heart broke as the Marines of the battalion were, last night they really took it to the insurgents inside of Fallujah. Contrary to what might be in the media, the mission was not "retribution" for the suicide bombing. It was part of a regular operation that was slightly accelerated in light of what happened. We had been watching the city for quite a while and killed many, many terrorists last night. The battle lasted for hours and hours later, we were still getting secondary explosions off of objectives that we destroyed. You must have faith that the Marines are giving much better that we get.
Such action does not lessen the pain for the Marines who lost their buddies but it gives them a chance to fight and that is what they want. I saw the SgtMaj for the battalion that lost the seven Marines the morning after the explosion. He told me "there is still plenty of fight left in them" (the Marines). Sure enough, that night (last night), they delivered. Regardless of what the enemy throws at them, the Marines will always be laying in the tall grass looking to take the fight to them. There is a major effort to "keep the noise level down" and stay out of the news but it does not mean that the Marines are not out there every day performing. I cannot say it enough, they are amazing.
Posted by Deb at September 10, 2004 10:56 PM
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