A Good Day for the Marine Corps by Peter Bronson

A GOOD DAY FOR THE MARINE CORPS
OUTNUMBERED 8-1

By Peter Bronson


(Please pray for our Marines and others serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.)


“Our vehicles came under a barrage of enemy RPGS (rocket propelled grenades) and machine gun fire. One of our humvees was disabled from RPG fire, and the Marines inside dismounted and laid down suppression fire so they could evacuate a Marine who was knocked unconscious from the blast.” That’s not from an episode of The Unit or 24. It’s not from an anti-war movie. It’s not from any newspaper or TV news report I could find.

The quote comes from a “designated marksman who requested to remain unidentified.” He was reporting what happened recently in the city of Shewan, Afghanistan. The story was told in a Marine Corps News report by Cpl. James M. Mercure. It will give you goose bumps and make you want to stand up and salute the nearest flag. Here’s more, because it’s a lot better than anything I could write today:

“Sewan had been a thorn in our side throughout the Marines’ deployment here in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, because it controls an important supply route into the Bala Baluk district. Opening the route was key to continuing combat operations in the area.”

“The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity to fight,” the sniper said. “A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told the townspeople that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong.”

During the battle, the designated marksman single handedly thwarted a company-sized enemy RPG and machinegun ambush by reportedly killing 20 enemy fighters with his devastatingly accurate precision fire. He selflessly exposed himself time and again to intense enemy fire during a critical point in the eight-hour battle for Shewan in order to kill any enemy combatants who attempted to engage or maneuver on the Marines in the kill zone.

The corporal said “It was roughly 250 insurgents against 30 of us. It was a good day for the Marine Corps. We killed a lot of bad guys, and none of our guys were seriously injured.”

Such an amazing story of heroism and victory would have been on Page One in every paper in the country during World War II. Just 30 Marines giving eight hours of hell to 250 insurgents is the kind of story that would make a good movie, if that kind of movie still could be made.

But we need to hear news like that, because a good day for the Marine Corps is a good day for freedom. And that’s a good day for America.