|
 MARINE
CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (12/14/2011) - One moment he's on
guard duty, the next he's on the ground bleeding. The native of
Wellington, Nev., Marine takes a moment to collect his thoughts,
picks himself up despite the pain and knows he has a job to do.
Lance Cpl. Cody Goebel, a machine gunner with 3rd Battalion, 5th
Marine Regiment, had taken a bullet to the neck while guarding a
position vital to his squad's defense while serving in Helmand
province, Afghanistan.
With an arterial wound to his neck,
Goebel stood tall and refused medical aid until he was properly
relieved and another Marine could man his position.
“I
remembered to stay calm. I had been hit and now I needed to return
fire,” said Goebel. “I wasn't thinking about myself, I knew I had to
defend my post and knew the other Marines were counting on me.”
Finally after seven minutes of fighting, a fellow squad member
was able to relieve Goebel. Goebel went to find Petty Officer 3rd
Class Alexander Federov, a Navy corpsman assigned to the battalion.
“I immediately applied pressure to his wound,” said Federov, a
close friend of Goebel's. “It was all I really could do.”
“He
was very coherent considering he had been bleeding for 10 minutes,”
recalls Federov. “From a medical stand point he should have lost
consciousness, but he was calm, joking and even singing.”
Goebel was successful because he stayed calm and remembered his
training. His dedication was vital during his effort to repel the
enemy attack.
Federov describes his friend as “the type of
person who will make you smile in the worse of situations.”
“When you felt life couldn't get any worse, he was always saying
something goofy to lighten the mood,” said Federov.
His peers
describe him as a humble, calm, brave and “great guy."
Now
Goebel stands anxiously behind 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment's
formation to receive the Silver Star award for his actions in
Afghanistan.
“I'm just nervous I won't remember all the
commands for the ceremony,” admits Goebel. His voice sounds calm,
but he jokes that he's more nervous about receiving the award then
when he got shot.
Goebel is standing on 5th Marine's parade
deck, looking for his friend Federov 45 minutes later. In a couple
months he'll be back in Afghanistan, this time with 2nd Battalion,
but right now relaxing is the only thing on his mind.
Goebel
opens his award for a picture with a fellow Marine while standing on
the parade deck.
“Thank God he didn't ask me to put it in my
right hand,” jokes Goebel with a grin. “I'm just tired of shaking
hands, it hurts after awhile.”
Goebel locates Federov across
the parade deck and heads toward him, he's clearly happy to be out
of the limelight. His humility and calmness gets him through another
day.
More photos available in frame below
By USMC Lance Cpl. Timothy Lenzo
1st Marine Division
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2011
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