Third Way Dispatch: Category Third Way in Iraq

Third Way in Iraq #20

2006-11-15T10:03:00-07:00

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).

Third Way in Iraq #19: A Friend Lost

2006-10-04T09:38:00-06:00

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.

From 1st Sgt Grainger:

By now you have heard, I’m sure, we have lost another Marine. Cpl Christopher Cosgrove III to be exact. He was the type of Marine that nothing would get him down. He spoke so proudly of his family and fiancé back in Jersey, but then again he was the type of Marine that considered everyone family. He had a nurturing sense to him as he took care of everyone and thought of everyone before himself. Never did I see him when he didn’t have a big grin on his face and give a warm hello from his heart. He was always smiling. In the stress of Iraq people tend to get under each others skin, no one could ever say that about Christopher Cosgrove, every last Marine that knew him loved him. Many a night as I sat tired and burned out Christopher would stop by my sandbagged office, I think just to check on me, he would take a handful of the letters I was working on and answer back to people who had sent Marines Donations. He especially loved answering the kids who would send cards. That was the type of Marine he was though, taking care of even the 1stSgt, his enthusiasm had a way of charging my old batteries back up for another day. What he talked the most about though was going home and getting married to his sweetheart. She was the love of his life. As I packed away his photos last night, to send home, I paused at everyone to put a face to all the stories he had ever told me. You could tell she thought the same of him as they looked so perfect together. There are no answers for the pain they all feel today nor the pain we all feel. Christopher was an example of all of the good things in life and the good things we were trying to do here. He carried the spirit of freedom and happiness for all and never let things get him or those around him down. We can all say we are a better Marine for having served with someone who lived by the Marine Corps virtues of Honor, Courage, and Commitment. We can all say we are better Marines because he genuinely loved us all. New Jersey can stand proud of their Marine who has given his all.

Third Way in Iraq #18: The Last Note from Fallujah

2006-08-31T06:29:00-06:00

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.

Suicide bombing was sadly the theme of the week, it seems. Earlier in the week, I was awoken in the morning by a loud explosion that shook our compound. About 70 Iraqi men had gathered outside our compound to sign up for service in the Iraqi police force. A man with a suicide vest walked up amidst the crowd and blew himself up, killing seven. It was a very ugly scene for those who were on guard post to witness it. Interestingly enough, the muhajadeen groups in Fallujah disavowed this attack and pledged to seek revenge on those responsible.

It is getting steadily hotter here. A few days ago, my squad patrolled for eight-and-a-half hours in 100+ degree heat. Every person has their limits, and I think I nearly found mine that day. At a certain point, I stopped sweating, which is a sign of dehydration. Others threw up and cramped up. By the end, my feet were on fire and my back was hollaring. When I got back to the barracks, I hung my cammies up to dry. They were literally dripping because they could not absorb more sweat.

Mercifully, we were given the next day off. I think I actually slept for 15 hours straight! The best thing about the day off, though, was it gave me a chance to make my first telephone call to my wife. The connection wasn’t great and we ultimately got cut off, but it was wonderful to hear her voice.

Lest it sound like everything here is doom and gloom (or blood and sweat), know that it is not. Back at the barracks, we are, as Marines like to say, continually improving our position. Thanks to packages from home, our living conditions are cleaner and better organized than when we first arrived and we all have tons of appealing food options to supplement, and in some cases replace, our MREs. The hot chow we receive for dinner also seems to be improving.

Those in charge here have begun to do a better job of task-organizing and assigning the myriad of little tasks that need to get done, from sweeping the halls and taking out the trash to cleaning the hygiene trailers and setting up and stripping down the chow line, so that those of us on the bottom end of the enlisted food chain aren’t woken up once every hour-and-a-half during the six hours we’re trying to sleep to perform these tasks. We also now have two computers for the company with Internet access. There are obviously many more Marines than computers, but if you can get to where they are when you have a bit of time to wait in line, you can check your email.

Most importantly, our little band of brothers here in our compound in the center of Fallujah is really coming together as a family. Across many sorts of divides, we are becoming very close-knit. When rest is thin and tension is thick, we act as if we hate each other, but in our downtime it becomes apparent that we really do enjoy (increasingly so every day) each other’s company. As for me, I’m honored to be a part of this little family.

If you must know, my nickname is “Barndog” and my team leader likes to sign off when communicating with me over the radio by saying, “Roger that, Echo 3 Bravo. Vote Republican.” It’s O.K., though. I just reply when we’re back at our barracks, “You know, I think I will vote Republican. I feel a little bad for them. The way things are going, they’re going to need all the help they can get this fall!” ;)

Third Way in Iraq #17: Surgery and News from Fallujah

2006-08-24T12:30:00-06:00

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).

Third Way in Iraq #16

2006-08-02T14:13:00-06:00

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.

Third Way in Iraq #15: A Message From the Captain

2006-07-12T14:57:00-06:00

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.

LCpl Barney, Sean (good name), and Mrs. Barney—

We apologize for the delay in emailing you. It wasn’t because we had forgotten about you, but because this place is a pain. We think about you all of the time, and use you as a motivator to get through this deployment, so that we can see you again. To be honest with you, we are all amazed that we are going to have the opportunity to see you again. It didn’t look good when we last saw you. With that being said, below is going to be an account of what happened that day you were wounded. I threw in that disclosure because I don’t know if you want to remember about it, but since you are alive we figured you ought to know how much of a tough son of a [gun] you are.

Alright, from the beginning. We were conducting a counter ambush position in the vicinity of Mosque Rd, and Elizabeth. That was a mission designed to draw out the enemy to a location of our choosing, and relatively on our terms. Up until that point, the enemy had been choosing the time and place to engage us. With that being said, here is the account as I remember it.

We had three OP positions all along Mosque Rd. They were there to pre-empt any attack that the enemy tried to conduct against us. They were emplaced the night before, so that their positions were set in covertly. We stepped off in the early afternoon on foot to Mosque Rd. I decided upon a location on Mosque that would limit the enemy’s abilities avenues of approach to a couple of streets. Remember, they liked to stick their heads out around corners to locate our positions before attacking us, we called it the turkey peek. So, I tried to find a position that limited their ability to hit us from.

Soon after we set in our cordon around an “IED”, we received the first sniper round. It struck the ballistic glass of the PysOp’s vehicle. We broke down a portion of the cordon to go attempt to establish the location of the sniper. At this time in our deployment we did not have a sniper problem, and the mission was to lure out the RPG/AK-47 team, in order to kill them. So, after we could not identify where the sniper was we set back into the cordon of the “IED”.

About 30 minutes later, a RPG was launched in the vicinity of Elizabeth and Mosque. It was actually launched from one block south of Elizabeth, on the west side of Mosque. The round traveled to LCpl Hwang and my position. The round almost took my head off. As it was coming at me time slowed down. I actually had enough time to turn around and witness the RPG round impact about 2 meters behind me. It hit something that had water in it. As the water was flushed into the air, I remember saying to myself that this was going to hurt. Luckily for Hwang and I the round was a dud.

As soon as the MAM shot the round at us, Sgt Roberts, who was in an OP overlooking that very same area in which the round came from, shot and killed the insurgent. Immediately, we broke down our cordon and re-established it on the dead insurgent. At this point, you were located on the east of Mosque Rd, at the intersection of Mosque and Elizabeth. As we were exploiting the scene (chasing after the two other insurgents that were with the dead insurgent) we got word from Charlie 6 that he was coming out there with an interpreter to talk with the dead insurgent’s brother.

As we were speaking with him a crack rang out. You had been hit. We all turned to see what had happened. We saw you fall to the ground, and then get back up. As we were securing the area, you were running back to where our vehicles were located at. Some of us ran to you as you were coming back to the vehicles. LCpl Hwang, and Cpl Buckley got to you as you feel down near the vehicles.

Concurrently, HM-2 Errico, who had arrived on scene with the CO, ran to your position as well. I observed you getting treatment from Doc Errico and Doc Gray, and immediately pushed Marines out to intercept the sniper. Simultaneously, I was organizing your extraction team, so that we could get you to Fallujah Surgical ASAP.

You would have been proud of how well the team worked together to go get the son of a [gun] who shot you, and organize the effort to get you out of there. Here’s where you can thank your guardian angel. None of us thought you were going to make it. We saw where you were shot, and knew that we had to get you out of there if you were going to have any chance at all. If it weren’t for picking yourself off the deck and running out of the kill area, then we may have had more casualties that day. The sniper could have just started plucking us off one at a time. So, thanks for being tough as nails and getting your [self] out of that kill box.

Alright, back to the story. Your team was assembled to take you out of there, and they left. Meanwhile, Sgt Palmer was already maneuvering onto the area in which we thought you had been shot. He and his team had to run down four individuals on foot, in the middle of the Sook Area (the main market area, which is very crowded). They caught these individuals and administered a gun shot residue test to their hands. They only had enough to test two of the individuals; however, one of them came up positive.

At this time, Sgt Malm and myself only had a few Marines on scene at the dead insurgents location. So, we attempted to link up with Sgt Palmer. The COC gave us their “location”, which was wrong. However, we didn’t know it at the time. We only had one vehicle with us, so we put the junior Marines in it, and Sgt Malm and I ran outside of it as it maneuvered through the city. We kept running until we thought we were at the site where Sgt Palmer was located. He wasn’t there. He had left to go administer the GSR test to the other two individuals back at the CMOC. So, Sgt Malm and I, along with a couple of other Marines were left in the city. The Iraqis were [angry] that we killed one of the insurgents, or at least that is what it felt like. So, we ran out of the area, again, to a location where we could get comm with the COC. As we were running all over Fallujah, all I could think about was the scene at the end of Black Hawk Down. Where the Rangers were running out of Mogadishu.

Anyways, we eventually made contact with Sgt Palmer and linked up with him, and departed the city. We headed to Fallujah Surgical to see how you were doing; however, as soon as we got onto Camp Fallujah, we ran into the CO and said that you were being taking to Balad. So, we turned around and went back to the CMOC.

Since the capture of the four MAMs by Sgt Palmer’s squad we have had little sniper activity; however, it is on the rise again. I would like to believe that we caught the bastard that day, but I’m not sure. Rest assured, if we have an opportunity to kill the son of a [gun] who shot you we will. It will be our pleasure [within the confines of our ROEs of course].

Since then we have been tracking your movements via the KVN, and anyone who has had information on you. We have your photo up in our platoon area depicting you receiving your Purple Heart from General Hagee. You stud.

Your letters, and care package have been greatly appreciated by the Marines of 3rd Sqd. Doc Errico has been put in for a NAM with a V, for his role in aiding you during your evacuation from the scene. Many other Marines and Sailors had important roles during that time and should share in that award with Doc Errico.

Well, that is about all I can remember from that day. Since then, we have gone on with much of the same day to day operations. We’ve had our successes, and the platoon is operating as a well as I can asked them to. We do wish that we had the smartest man in the platoon back though. Yes, that is you. I only act the part. If there is anything that we can do for you, then don’t hesitate to ask. Once again, I apologize for the delay in writing you.

P.S. You looked like you just polished off a bottle of Jack when you were running back to the vehicles. We thought we were going to have to administer a field sobriety test on you. Kidding. Take care of yourself, and we look forward to seeing you again.

Best wishes, and a speedy recovery,

Captain Sean Miller 4th Plt Cmdr, C Co 1st Bn, 25th Marines CMOC Fallujah