|
 Like
hail
during a
thunderstorm,
the
bullets
landed
all
around
the
Marine
as he
simultaneously
fired
two M-16
service
rifles,
one in
each
arm.
Staff
Sgt
Ralph
Scott
was
using
his own
weapon
and the
weapon
of his
platoon
sergeant,
who was
busy
carrying
another
wounded
Marine
on his
back to
safety.
Both
rifles
continuously
erupted
as he
methodically
emptied
magazine
after
magazine
into the
insurgent
position.
It was
November
12,
2004,
and
Scott
was in
the
middle
of his
seventh
deployment.
He was
the
platoon
commander
for the
1st
Platoon
Company
C,
Battalion
Landing
Team
1/3.
On this
particular
day,
Marines
Sgt Jack
Foster
and LCpl
Robert
Carter
were
pinned
down in
an open
field in
Fallujah,
Iraq,
with no
cover.
Foster
had gone
to get
Carter,
who had
been hit
in the
arm and
was
severely
wounded.
Soon
Foster
ran out
of
bullets.
That's
when
Scott,
along
with his
platoon
sergeant
Sgt
Michael
Chambers
and Cpl
Jason
Bennett
ran into
the open
field to
retrieve
them.
“Bennett
and I
stood up
in the
field to
draw the
enemy
fire to
give the
others a
chance
to run
for a
covered
position
into of
a school
house
full of
Iraqi
Army
soldiers,”
Scott
said.
“In
order to
help
Chambers
lighten
his
load, I
took his
rifle
and used
it with
mine.
That is
how I
came to
have two
rifles
to fire
at the
enemy.”
It was
later
called a
miracle
that any
of them
survived,
especially
considering
that two
rocket-propelled
grenades
had also
been
fired
upon
them,
the
shrapnel
going
every
which
way but
inexplicably
missing
their
flesh.
“Anybody
from
that
platoon,
seeing
what he
did,”
started
Chambers,
“My
words
can't do
him
justice.”
Scott,
who has
served
in the
Marine
Corps
since
enlisting
at age
17 in
1989,
earned a
Bronze
Star
Medal
with
Valor
for his
actions
that day
and
other
combat
he saw
between
November
and
December
of 2004.
He is a
man with
an
unyielding
sense of
duty
toward
his
fellow
Marines,
according
to
Chambers.
“When
Staff
Sergeant
Scott
first
came to
us in
Charlie
Company,
all he
said to
us was,
‘My
whole
entire
job — I
don't
care if
it takes
my life
— is to
bring
you all
home,'”
said
Chambers.
“I'm
here to
tell you
that he
stood
behind
his
word.”
“All I
can say
is you
won't
meet
another
man like
him,”
Chambers
said.
“Every
battle
we were
in,
while
Marines
would
naturally
and
instinctively
hit the
deck
when the
first
barrage
would
hit,
Staff
Sergeant
Scott
would be
there
standing,
already
simultaneously
returning
fire. We
would
follow
his
lead.
There's
no finer
man, no
fiercer
warrior
that the
Marines
have
ever
sent
into
battle
than
that
man. I
would go
back to
combat
with him
in a
second.”
“In my
heart,
I'm
still
with
Charlie
Company,”
said
Scott.
“Whatever
job the
Marine
Corps
gives
me, I
will do
it to
the best
of my
ability,
but I'd
be lying
if I
said I'd
rather
be here
than
back
with the
grunts.”
“I wake
up every
morning,
and I
come to
work,”
said
Scott.
“Whether
work
happens
to be
behind a
desk in
Hawaii
or on a
battlefield
in Iraq
isn't
really
the
point.
The
point is
to do
your
best and
give
your
best
effort
at all
times
and in
all
situations.”
Excerpts
from
articles
by Sgt
Joe
Lindsay,
combat
correspondent,
Hawaii
Marine,
Nov. 25,
2005,
and Dec.
2, 2005.Photo and information courtesy of US
Marines /
Dept. of Defense |
