Third Way Dispatch

Editors Note:

In honor of Veterans Day, Sean conducted a radio interview with “Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane” on WHYY Radio, which is a NRP Radio Station out of Philadelphia. You can listen to the interview here (you will need Real Audio Player to listen to this clip).

Editor’s Note:

Sean continues his recovery in Philadelphia. He recently underwent more surgery, and he is currently confined to bed-rest.

Sean recently did a radio interview about his time in Iraq with a Swarthmore station (he’s an alumn). You can listen to the interview here (click on the link to Wren Elhai’s report in the first section on Education Underground).

Sean’s unit, Charlie Company (1st Battalion, 25th Regiment), is scheduled to begin coming home next week. But the war continues to take its unrelenting toll. LnCpl Christopher Cosgrove III, Sean’s friend and bunkmate, who served with him in both his New Jersey and Connecticut units, was killed by a car bomb while manning a checkpoint in Northeast Fallujah on October 1. Another Marine, Lance Cpl. Jason E. Mikolajcik, was seriously injured. The blast also killed two Iraqi soldiers and injured two others.

Below we have pasted an email from the Company’s 1st Sgt – a moving tribute to a wonderful young man and a great Marine.

There was also coverage in LCpl Cosgrove’s hometown paper and in the Hartford Courant.

Editors Note: This arrived recently from Sean, who is continuing his recovery in Phildadelphia:

Here is the last Dispatch I wrote from Fallujah. It was still on my notepad back in our room in the barracks when I was medevaced. I got my notepad back when I got all my belongings back from Iraq.

Dispatch – May 10, 2006 Fallujah, Iraq

This past week was a sad one for Charlie Company. A sergeant from a transportation company attached to Charlie Company, who was gravely wounded in the vehicle-borne IED attack I wrote about in my last Dispatch, passed this week. Also, Charlie Company lost its former company commander this week. He was embedded with the Iraqi Army and was also killed by a vehicle-borne IED, this one a mammoth one—a truck packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives, as well as numerous artillary and mortar rounds. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of these fallen Marines.

August 24, 2006

Editor’s Note:

Sean continues to recover from his wounds, but he still has no use of his right arm. In an attempt to repair that problem, he had surgery this week to graft several nerves taken from his legs into his shoulder and neck. The surgery went well – the surgeons liked the nerves they got from his legs and were generally pleased – but they won’t know for 9-12 months whether the graft will take.

Unfortunately, Charlie Company suffered its first fatality recently – Sean’s friend Lance Cpl Kurt Dechen was killed in a sniper attack on August 3, his 24th birthday. He was shot in the abdomen – the bullet missed his armor by inches. Others from Sean’s unit, who were unable to deploy to Iraq, stood as an honor guard by his casket. As one of the Marines movingly put it, the end of Kurt’s Marine Corps career will probably be the highlight of mine.

Cpl. Marshall “Randy” Collins Jr.,a Marine infantryman with the 4th platoon of Charlie Company, wrote an account of the incident that killed Lance Cpl Kurt Dechen and injured Lance Cpl. Adam Escobar, which has been posted by The Day, a newspaper in New London, Connecticut. Click Here to read his posting.

On a brighter note, 3 others from Sean’s unit (including Lance Cpl. Escobar) are in Bethesda with him, but all are doing well. One was hit in the femur, and the doctors inserted a rod to fix it. 2 others were wounded in a grenade attack and have nasty looking but not too serious wounds.

Sean has asked us to report that Lcpl. Escobar is doing very well. He is still on crutches and it will be a while until he can walk again on his own, but he should be getting out of the hospital at Bethesda soon (perhaps this week).

August 2, 2006

Editor’s Note:

For those following Sean Barney’s progress in recovering from his wounds, he is continuing with his physical therapy and is slated for surgery on his shoulder and arm later this month.

We thought you might be interested in a story in today’s NY Daily News detailing a program to assist wounded Marines. Sean is quoted at the bottom of the piece.

July 12, 2006

Editor’s Note:

Sean Barney recently received an email from Captain Sean Miller, his Commanding Officer in Iraq, describing the events of the day he was wounded. We provide that message below. We have edited it only for a bit of Marine-style language.