When Things First Got Hot (and Chilly)

This picture reminds me a lot of our team's early days in Sangin. It was taken during one of my first operations in country, or at least I think it was . . . anyway, it was mid to late September. Big Daddy, Creole, Mumbles, Doc, and I had been attached to India Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines for a clearing operation. The LT was butting his head up against a wall trying to get us deployed the way he wanted, but the word from higher was to get CAG "surged" (everyone loved that phrase back then) to India Company, who was the focus of effort. So the team was split up, and each of us ended up with a different element, while LT and Dominicano stayed at the main base and Doc helped out at the Aid Station.

It was a relatively uneventful start to a difficult day. The first squad LDed pretty early in the morning but by the time I stepped off with the third squad it was already ridiculously hot. Probably 100 degrees, plus all that damn gear. Sweating our way into orchards, across mud walls, rushing through danger areas - it was a long, grueling start. I amused myself during breaks with the EOD Tech with whom I'd made fast friends. Guys like him have to be a little crazy and the one thing constant across 3/7, 1st Recon, and 3/5 was how quickly I was able to make friends with EOD. They are a strange bunch. We eventually joined up with the second squad at a large compound where a family claimed their father was working in the District Center. First squad was pushed out clearing the next sector of the route, so we holed up at the compound while they swept for IEDs. It was a pretty standard scene: Marines bored as hell, kids chucking rocks at their goats and (if they also got bored) each other, women hiding in one of rooms, and me trying to figure out how the hell I could get some useful information for the Platoon Sergeant or maybe even the LT. The father returned, claimed he was an Engineer and sympathetic to the government and the Marines even though he was Ishaqzai. Big Surprise - he only had twenty-odd Marines armed to the teeth waiting for him when he got home. What else was he going to say?

We had a particularly awful terp, so I didn't get very far but the forward element was moving so slowly it really didn't matter. A few hours later we realized there wasn't going to be any further movement before it got dark so the Platoon Commander ordered first squad to RTB. On the way back their Combat Camera was shot in the side above his side SAPI plate. Creole was there, and helped bring him back to the compound where the rest of us were staying. Leatherneck (the main camp) spun up the MEDEVAC bird and sent it on its way, but it took over a half-hour. The Corpsman we had with us brought the guy back three times before the chopper touched down.

He died on the return flight.

Funny, this picture is actually from the next morning. I remember it because it was so cold on radio watch (I think I had 0200-0400) and I had only packed out my poncho liner. Solution? Burn a bunch of plastic from MREs I had eaten, staying close enough to get some heat but not so close that I was hacking constantly. It's a difficult balance.