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A Real-life account of combat readiness
"I've acquired a target SirâŠ. Permission to engage!! It sounds like dialogue taken from a movie or a video game, but with the steady squeeze of the trigger, reality comes crashing down, and a Marine realizes the importance of his daily training.The day was Sunday, April 4th. Corporal Lonnie Young had been in Iraq since January, three long, hot months in the war-torn country and a far cry from his hometown of Dry Ridge, Kentucky -- small-town America with a population of 2,000. Being called to the frontlines as a Defense Messaging System administrator, he quickly found himself providing convoy security and personal security for visiting general officers, but on this day he was setting up communication throughout the different camps. Young and his co-workers, approximately seven civilian contractors and coalition fighters, pulled into the gates of Camp Golf in An Najaf to establish a communication link at the coalition base. "While entering the front gate, I noticed a small group of protesters out in the streets," Young recalled. "As we proceeded onto the base there were numerous coalition soldiers in "riot gear" near the front gate. Our rendezvous point was behind the first building in a large parking lot." Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-09-16 |
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