bobdina
07-04-2010, 10:42 AM
During his last tour in Iraq, 1st Sgt. Don Brazeal’s unit got into 279 firefights — more than one per day.
This was in the bad old days when Anbar province was at the heart of a seething insurgency. On April 11, 2005, al-Qaida fighters tried to overrun his combat outpost in Husabyah, on the Syrian border.
As the fight intensified, he exposed himself to intense gunfire to take out an enemy position single-handed.
“As you know, they aren’t the best marksmen in the world,” he said. “Thank God.”
The battle, which lasted until April 14, began when insurgents tried to breach the wire with a car bomb.
The explosion woke up Brazeal. He grabbed his rifle, put on his boots and ran out of his sleeping bunker. As soon as he got outside, a rocket-propelled grenade exploded nearby.
“It kind threw me for a loop there, knocked me over, and I was knocked out for a better part of a minute,” said Brazeal, 45. “Then I woke up, dusted myself off and ran to the sound of the guns.”
Given the volume of rocket, mortar and small-arms fire coming in, it was a “miracle,” he reached a bunker where Marines were returning fire.
Insurgents were shooting from buildings and alleys about 350 meters from the wire.
At first, the Marine fire was panicky and unfocused, so Brazeal told the noncommissioned officers in the bunker to calm their Marines down.
“Let’s watch our fire discipline,” he told them. “You’ve got muzzle flashes. Key in on them and let’s return fire on those positions.”
Said Brazeal later: “I don’t want to say I was chewing ass, but I was very direct in what they needed to do, and those young NCOs made it happen.”
Brazeal directed the Marines’ fire as they repelled two suicide car bombs as the vehicles raced toward the wire. The first was a dump truck and the second a fire truck that the day before had been used to put out a fire at the local mayor’s house.
As the enemy fire continued, Brazeal got fed up.
“I don’t know what crawled into my psyche at the time, but I did what I did,” he said.
Brazeal guessed where the Marines were taking the most fire from, and then he climbed on top of the bunker to take it out himself.
Despite taking fire from three directions, Brazeal wasn’t thinking about how exposed he was. He just wanted to protect his Marines.
“Being a first sergeant, you’re like a father figure to most of them,” he said. “And no father wants anything to happen to their kids.”
Brazeal took a rocket launcher, aimed and fired.
“They stopped shooting,” he said.
It took about three days before he realized how close he came to death.
“I went back to look at it, and I was like, ‘What in the hell was I doing?’ ” he said. “Looking back on it, I have no regrets on what I did.”
Brazeal said he was humbled to receive his Bronze Star with “V” for valor.
“It brought tears to my eyes, not because of me but because of leading those Marines, sailors and soldiers,” he said.
Some of those Marines were killed in subsequent deployments.
“A little piece of me dies every time I find out something happened to one of them,” he said.
http://www.stripes.com/news/special-reports/i-ran-to-the-sound-of-the-guns-1.105250
This was in the bad old days when Anbar province was at the heart of a seething insurgency. On April 11, 2005, al-Qaida fighters tried to overrun his combat outpost in Husabyah, on the Syrian border.
As the fight intensified, he exposed himself to intense gunfire to take out an enemy position single-handed.
“As you know, they aren’t the best marksmen in the world,” he said. “Thank God.”
The battle, which lasted until April 14, began when insurgents tried to breach the wire with a car bomb.
The explosion woke up Brazeal. He grabbed his rifle, put on his boots and ran out of his sleeping bunker. As soon as he got outside, a rocket-propelled grenade exploded nearby.
“It kind threw me for a loop there, knocked me over, and I was knocked out for a better part of a minute,” said Brazeal, 45. “Then I woke up, dusted myself off and ran to the sound of the guns.”
Given the volume of rocket, mortar and small-arms fire coming in, it was a “miracle,” he reached a bunker where Marines were returning fire.
Insurgents were shooting from buildings and alleys about 350 meters from the wire.
At first, the Marine fire was panicky and unfocused, so Brazeal told the noncommissioned officers in the bunker to calm their Marines down.
“Let’s watch our fire discipline,” he told them. “You’ve got muzzle flashes. Key in on them and let’s return fire on those positions.”
Said Brazeal later: “I don’t want to say I was chewing ass, but I was very direct in what they needed to do, and those young NCOs made it happen.”
Brazeal directed the Marines’ fire as they repelled two suicide car bombs as the vehicles raced toward the wire. The first was a dump truck and the second a fire truck that the day before had been used to put out a fire at the local mayor’s house.
As the enemy fire continued, Brazeal got fed up.
“I don’t know what crawled into my psyche at the time, but I did what I did,” he said.
Brazeal guessed where the Marines were taking the most fire from, and then he climbed on top of the bunker to take it out himself.
Despite taking fire from three directions, Brazeal wasn’t thinking about how exposed he was. He just wanted to protect his Marines.
“Being a first sergeant, you’re like a father figure to most of them,” he said. “And no father wants anything to happen to their kids.”
Brazeal took a rocket launcher, aimed and fired.
“They stopped shooting,” he said.
It took about three days before he realized how close he came to death.
“I went back to look at it, and I was like, ‘What in the hell was I doing?’ ” he said. “Looking back on it, I have no regrets on what I did.”
Brazeal said he was humbled to receive his Bronze Star with “V” for valor.
“It brought tears to my eyes, not because of me but because of leading those Marines, sailors and soldiers,” he said.
Some of those Marines were killed in subsequent deployments.
“A little piece of me dies every time I find out something happened to one of them,” he said.
http://www.stripes.com/news/special-reports/i-ran-to-the-sound-of-the-guns-1.105250