Usmc Personal Narrative

Sergeant Major Valliant was happy to finally receive a tasking; he got Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 501st PIR to give up a platoon to escort himself and General Cook out to the transportation museum. They loaded up several of the armored Humvees that had M-249 MG mounted in their turret. The others were loaded in old M-35 2.5 tom trucks, each one of them had M-2 .50 Caliber MG mounted in their turrets.

The Marines heading east once out of Norfolk would hit country roads and townships. There had been several militias out this way earlier, but they were cleared out by Lt Colonel Luxon’s Marines and the Naval Special Weapon’s sailors, which the current Marine force found hard to believe. The LAVs and AAVs as well as the Humvees and trucks were split equally between the two forces. Fuel, rations and water were also split. They brought with them fuel pumping devices that would allow them to pull fuel from the underground storage at gas stations. It had been developed by the 19th Special Forces early on and

The Marines heading east once out of Norfolk would hit country roads and townships, there had been several militias out this way earlier, but they were cleared out by Lt Colonel Luxon’s Marines and the Naval Special Weapon’s Sailors, which the current Marine force found hard to believe, well about the Sailors, not their fellow Marines. The LAV’s and AAV’s as well as the Humvee’s and trucks were split equally between the two forces. Fuel, rations and water was also spilt, they brought with them fuel pumping devices that would allow them to pull fuel from the underground storage at gas stations. It had been developed

SNC delivered a confident and complete order successfully addressing all paragraphs of the five paragraph order. SNC assigned primary and secondary tasks to subordinates and reiterated the Enemy Situation. SNC properly controlled the fire team’s formation utilizing proper dispersion and smoothly transitioned from column to wedge. Upon enemy contact SNC relayed a clear and effective ADDRAC and directed SNC’s fire team to provide suppressive fire. SNC maintained mission focus when SNC’s fire team took a casualty. SNC directed his fire team in a tactically appropriate manner as they evacuated the casualty. Upon return to MA-2A SNC submitted the map to higher without being prompted by the evaluator. SNC displayed suburb leadership potential

“All right Marines it has been a long hard tough course are you ready to turn.” Aye aye sir hoorah.”

In five years I see myself as either a Sargent or Corporal in the United States Marine Corps. Being 22 years old I will be in the first year of my second enlistment providing that I do not get NJP’d (non-judicial punishment) or something else dumb that I might get myself into. I look forward to joining the Marine Corps because of my long family military history and my extent of being a child of a military father. I plan on either being in the MOS (military occupational service) 1142 or 1345. I see myself having a degree by the end of those five years from online schooling while overseas on deployment or at my current duty station. Providing that I am a Sargent I will send in a request form in to become a DI (drill instructor) and then hopefully

We as Marines need to know when it is appropriate to ask questions. A sign of leadership is the ability to fill in the gray areas with intuition and without someone holding our hands at every turn. Another take away from this lesson is recognizing when we have Marines who we can delegate a mission or task to and they will be able to finish it quickly and correctly. As stated in the story these people are hard to come by and they are irreplaceable recourses. Leaders need to seek out these people and keep them close at hand. Most would say it isn’t what you are given but how you use what has been given to you. This would be a prime example that that isn’t always the case. Remember there are always exceptions to nearly every rule. We must never let our judgment get clouded we need to keep our ears and eyes open to developments taking places especially in our subordinates and leaders above us. Situational awareness caries onto our professional relationships as

This was my second deployment and my first deployment to Afghanistan. I had been with 3rd BN 509th for my prior deployment to Iraq and now I was going to be with them again in Afghanistan. I loved being in 509th in Iraq like a lot of units in the 2006-2007 era, lost a lot of people and lived in very austere conditions which in turn I feel brought the unit closer. In preparation for the new deployment to Afghanistan we went to the Nation Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, CA. Where we were more focused on our job as providing indirect fire. During Iraq we shot mortars for half of the deployment and in preparation for Iraq we shot mortars, but the emphasis for indirect fire was much heavier in preparation for this new deployment.

Vehicles were down, we need help, send QRF. This came from the 2nd Bradley Section on a different exfill route and they were caught in a large ambush in Sadr City. Battalion came over the Radio and said it would be 20 mic’s before they were there. I looked at my wingman and he looked back and said lets go get our brothers. Our drivers and gunners had already fully loaded the turrets and guns back up, even the Tow was up. I radioed up to Battalion and said we would meet them there at the grid that was given because it was 7 minutes

I joined the Marine Corps looking for a challenge. I wanted to open doors for a new career and longed to have a positive impact on the world around me. Looking back five years later, I realize I found all that I originally sought, but I’ve also found something profoundly satisfying and meaningful that I never knew I was missing.

It was a rainy morning in mid-October. My mortar platoon was able to do a week’s worth of dismounted patrols tasked with clearing compounds of interest of IED factories, weapons caches, and drug stockpiles (mainly marijuana). The patrol from the previous day ended with an hour’s worth of small arms and several IEDs. I knew that today would most likely be the same. At around 0600 we mounted in our MRAPs and Strykers and also picked up the Sappers and EOD. Before leaving FOB Zangabad we linked up with the ANA that we were doing a joint patrol with and then left our start point. We drove north on RTE Quebec and made a right onto RTE Hyena near checkpoint 17, which was an ANA checkpoint. My convoy continued down the road for another 500 meters

“It’s worse than that I fret.” General Holcomb told him. “They were able to drop an entire division onto Fort Gordon as you know. The 3rd Infantry Division has been resupplied by airdrop. I received messages this morning that Fort Bragg has linked up with Camp Lejeune, the reports are hard to believe. One Army Military Police Company came roaring to the rescue in a huge black armored train, of a Marine Company that was attempting to link up with them. But, they ran into a well-armed Militia, together two companies wiped out an estimated five hundred Militia members.”

Once upon a time, there was a group of Marine reserves, 4th Division. Being given the some of the toughest training available by what they thought of as their "evil" superiors. Day after day they had to scrub the barracks, keep the grounds clean, stand on sentry duty all night long, plus having all their physical training for hours. Word was received that the 2nd, 5th, and 6th Marine division were to spearhead an attack on a castle which was being used as an enemy stronghold. The "Big Brass" knew through intelligence that there were between 5-7,000 troops in that castle, but the 2nd, 5th, and 6th had fought through much worse before. So no reserves were to be needed. When this news was heard the Marine reserves were sorely disappointed, for they were anxious to get in on the action. D-day was set for September 2; H-hour was 2400. Then the news came that the 2nd Marine division could not take part, and it was D-4. The Marine reserves were to be deployed immediately. At 2200 hours, D-day, they were completely prepared to attack. Assembled a quarter mile from the castle walls, the Marines had set up artillery pieces. Giant 155mm M114s, and 105mm M101s were ready to start pounding the walls. Meanwhile, inside the castle, all of the enemies top military Generals were gathered along with the King and the Prince to devise a defence plan. There was nothing the Marines wanted to do more than meet the Prince, who was an

Then over the COMMS (a radio known as a PRC148) I hear, ‘Hey! We have guys in a burning in the trucks [MAT-V] at the god damn tents [Using my nickname DC or DOC COUNTRY], my TL, (who we will call STRETCH in this story), said, ‘Hey DC, we got to roll! So we get Oscar mike, and it’s just us two, a couple hundred rounds of ammo, medical bags, and two Toyota pickup trucks. It wasn’t very far away, maybe a 3-minute drive.

During the next day or so, we passed through additional small communities. In one of these towns, whose crooked side streets and back alleys we roamed, we landed in a narrow driveway behind several hotels and businesses. We searched their garbage cans for food and for anything else that could be useful for our journey. Across the street and perpendicular to the driveway was a jeep with four or five soldiers inside. When the vehicle began to move, one of the GIs stood up and