USMC Lance Cpl. Matthew T. Earle, a Manassas, Va., native and an
assaultman with India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment,
returned to Marjah just shy of a year after he was medically
evacuated with two punctured lungs and a chipped vertebra, injuries
he sustained during an insurgent ambush in Marjah in 2010. Photo by
USMC Sgt. Earnest J. Barnes, Sept. 10, 2011
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MARJAH DISTRICT, Helmand province, Afghanistan (10/7/2011) — Some
Marines involved in the battle for Marjah in 2010 say they stared
death in the face. One Manassas, Va., native involved in the intense
fighting not only stared death in the face, but shook its hand as
well.
Lance Cpl. Matthew T. Earle, an assaultman with India
Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, was critically wounded
while conducting counterinsurgency operations in 2010, but lived to
tell the story. Now he is back in Marjah, setting the example for
his Marines.
Earle's squad was conducting a patrol to assess
how local residents felt about the insurgency and the coalition
troops tasked with liberating the city of Marjah.
His squad
stopped at a local mosque to speak to an elder, when two men drove
up on motorcycles and brought the Marines a warning. They said
insurgents were planning to ambush the Marines from multiple
directions as soon as they left the mosque. The Marines heeded the
warning and decided to wait until dusk to leave; they hoped the
enemy wouldn't attack as valuable sunlight faded. |
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Earle's squad stepped off to head back to the patrol base nearby
when their worst fears became a reality. The insurgents opened fired
on the Marines from two directions, shooting rifles and machine
guns. |
Earle said he was running toward the side of the road and
reaching for his rocket system, which was his primary weapon
as an assaultman. He was shot with a 7.62 caliber round as
he was reaching for his weapon system.
Earle said if
he wasn't reaching back at that moment, the round would have
struck him in the arm, but instead the round punctured his
right lung, collapsed his left lung, and chipped a vertebra
before exiting through his back.
“Last thing I
remember was a big firefight,” said Earle, a 2006 graduate
of Osborne High School. “There is a six-day window I cannot
remember except for bits and pieces.”
The Marines and
sailors on scene filled Earle in on the details.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Matthew A. Dishmon, a Jamestown,
Tenn., native and a corpsman with 3/6, was with Earle on
that unforgettable day. Dishmon, who was directly in front
of Earle on the patrol, said he was the only one to see
Earle go down.
“Doc” Dishmon, as he is known by his
fellow service members, said he yelled, “Earle's hit!” None
of the other members of the squad could hear him over the
machine gun fire, and it was at that instant he made the
decision to go back into the line of fire to rescue his
friend.
“I ran to get him out of the middle of the
road,” said Dishmon, as he recalled the scene. “I grabbed
him, pulled him off to the side, and began working on him.”
Dishmon asked Earle where he was shot; Earle was only
able to mumble one word, “back.” Dishmon took off the
wounded Marine's personal protect equipment and started
tending to his wounds.
The corpsman said he placed an
occlusive dressing over the entrance and exit holes the
bullet made to stop Earle's sucking chest wound. Unaware
that both of Earle's lungs were damaged, Dishmon quickly
realized the situation was much worse than he originally
assessed.
“I noticed his chest was unequal. I gave
him a needle thoracentesis, (also known as needle
decompression),” said Dishmon, referring to a procedure to
relieve the pressure building in Earle's chest. “He had two
punctured lungs; that is why it filled up so fast.”
The battle stopped as the sun edged over the horizon, but
for Earle, the fight for his life was far from over. The
Marines assisting Dishmon called their command to request a
helicopter for a medical evacuation. As Earle lost blood and
began to loose consciousness, Dishmon and the Marines
assisting him never lost hope.
“From what I've
gathered, I (died) twice on the ground and once in the air,”
explained Earle. “At one time I guess my status was changed
from ‘urgent' to ‘routine killed in action.'” Once they got
Earle to the hospital, the doctors were able to stabilize
him and address his injuries. Earle said he attributes his
survival to the quick actions of Doc Dishmon and believes
one wrong decision made by Dishmon could have meant Earle's
death.
“They said I had about a minute 30 left (to
live) by their estimation when I got to (the hospital),”
said Earle, who is expecting his first child soon. “That
minute and 30 seconds could have been Doc deciding what to
do or waiting for a break in the fire.”
Earle was
released for full duty shortly before his current
deployment, but he said it was important to him to come back
to Marjah. Now serving as a squad leader with the same
company, Earle said he realized he could use his near-death
experience to teach the young Marines under his charge. He
said he ultimately came back to Marjah for his Marines and
to show them one person can make a difference.
“A
lot of people say one person can't make a difference, but
especially in the infantry, one person can literally mean
the life or death of people,” said Earle. “Dishmon is a
testament to that. If he hadn't gone out on that patrol, I
wouldn't be here.”
By USMC Sgt. Earnest J. Barnes
2nd Marine Division
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2011
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