SOUTHERN IRAQ March 22 —
Lance Cpl. Joseph Willems was approaching one of many bunkers dug
into Iraq's desert when he saw the muzzle fire.
"I looked down and saw shots being fired, and I just went
'ooooh,' and jumped back," said the 19-year-old Marine from Kenosha,
Wis. "Saw a guy in a blue sweat shirt, and took a hip shot with my
saw."
With his "saw" slang for machine gun Willems killed the Iraqi
soldier in the first action by Echo Company's 1st Platoon of the
15th Marine Expeditionary Unit after it entered Iraq from northern
Kuwait on Friday.
"The only time I freaked was when I saw his eyes, and my weapon
jammed. I kept backing up and it kept jamming," said Willems.
It was early morning. By the end of the day, Echo Company had
lost one Marine, killed five Iraqis and taken 400 of them
prisoner.
The Marines were clearing an area of bunkers in southern Iraq,
near the port of Umm Qasr, after scores of Iraqi soldiers
surrendered, many walking toward the Americans in strict military
formation under a white flag.
But there were still a few holdouts. The Marines, covering each
other, stopped, scrambled and then stopped and scrambled their way
to each bunker. There were bursts of gunfire, often rapid
machine-gun fire, and the heavy thud of hand grenades.
"It was very eerie," said Lt. William Todd Jacobs, 24, of
Cincinnati. "There was smoke everywhere. It's our first time in
Iraq, and you see these four guys walking toward you with their
hands up. We knew they were surrendering."
"But then somebody shouts, 'There's two in the hole! There's two
in the hole!'" said Jacobs, who led the 1st Platoon.
The Marines reacted immediately, and shot both, then threw in a
grenade that blew a plume of sand and black smoke out of the
bunker.
"I didn't want to get shot so I shot him first," Cpl. Juan B.
Elenes, 21, of Portland, Ore. said about two of the Iraqis who
refused to give up.
"I saw the top part of his head, so I shot him. And then we shot
another in the bunker."
Death also came to the Marines, when one of their own was shot
and killed during the actions. An investigation is pending into how
he died.
On Saturday, investigators collected his gear from the squad that
found him dead and carried it down the defense lines his gas mask
and helmet, both marked with name, as well as his day pack and
weapons.
Marines laying face down in the sand, their weapons pointed over
the berm, couldn't help noticing.
"I was OK until I saw one of our own Marines dead. I thought,
'Oh, we can die too," said Lance Cpl. Daymond Geer, 20, of
Sacramento, Calif. He talked about it while watching Cobra attack
helicopters swarm around a target to the north.
Death had been on Geer's mind since he received word just before
heading into Iraq from Kuwait that his father had only weeks to
live. He was hoping to be sent home in time to see his father, but
wanted to stay with his unit for the attack on Iraq.
Geer said he has family back home praying for him, and that he
spent an hour praying before his unit joined the invasion.
"I pray whenever I can before doing something crazy," he
said.
The fighting, he said, "was totally different than any experience
in my life. Even seeing the enemy get shot, well, he was squirming
in the dirt. It was not good.
"But I did my job. I actually fought and I helped liberate
Iraq."
His friend and fellow squad member Cpl. Clint Bagley, 21, of
Shreveport, La., agreed, and said "You're shooting. It's not
training anymore. It's combat. It's pretty scary. It changes
everything."
Bagley said he had expected more of a fight in southern Iraq.
Instead, the surrendering Iraqis were "like ragged soldiers, not
warriors. They were small and ill-prepared."
Still, he said he would approach a bunker and think, "I don't
know if there are three or thirty, and 'Oh my God, am I going to
have to shoot that guy?'"
Elenes, who did kill in action on Friday, said, "OK. I'm done.
I'm ready to go back to Kuwait now."
photo credit
and caption:
U.S. marines of the 3/4 Lima
company, 1st platoon, deploy around the southern Iraqi city of
Basra, while burning oil pipelines are seen in the background
Saturday, March 22, 2003. (AP Photo/Laurent
Rebours)
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