The beginning of the Iraq War

It was crazy how this all started, 9/11 happened when I was in England...I thought it was a movie as it happened around lunchtime there. That's where this story begins, where after 9/11 deployments took a whole new meaning. They weren't the med floats most of us Marines know from before 2001. A deployment on ship to the mediterranean was more of a vacation then real work it seemed.

In July of 2002 I arrived at Camp LeJeune, NC...one of two very large Marine bases where most of the deployed come from. When I first arrived, there really wasn't much on the mind as far as going to war. This might seem pretty dumb but want to know why I volunteered to go on a MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit)? Because my boss had just told me I would have to start giving a weekly brief to the CO (Commanding Officer) of my unit on Iraq. I figured I'd rather ride on a boat than do that. Little did I know...volunteering for this MEU would lead me to be one of the first units to enter Iraq, our MEU became RCT-2 (Regimental Combat Team 2). We did a lot of the work-up before we even knew we were going to Iraq...out in the field so much, cold as hell during the winter season in NC...not to mention, Amy was very pregnant with Ryan.

The day we chopped to the MEU...we were told we were leaving the MEU and becoming the RCT-2 going to Iraq and departing in January. Ryan was less than a month old when I left, it was tough but it was also quite exciting (little did I know, I would learn to love deploying and still do to this day). We left for the Gulf on the USS Bataan. We trained hard, barely slept and worried about what was in store. We watched the Superbowl (Tampa Bay destroyed Oakland) and wondered when the time would come that we would go into the desert. We watched Colin Powel on TV and the intel that showed Iraq was carrying WMD's, we trained on using our gas masks. I don't think I can explain how unnerving it is to train with your gas masks knowing that...THIS TIME...it might be different and you might actually NEED this thing to save your life. YOU NEED TO GET THIS ON IN 9 SECONDS! It wasn't a good feeling, it scared the crap out of me...I wouldn't let it show though, I wanted to be strong, I needed to be strong, I reveled in the thought I could overcome this and know I accomplished something.

I was never stronger than I was during this deployment, we had a 6'9'' OIC (Officer in Charge) Reconnaissance Marine and a black belt instructor senior enlisted GySgt. We trained harder than most, we wore our gear (flak jackets, helmets, web gear, etc) all the time. It became a second skin, not to mention the MOPP gear as well to protect us from chem, biological weapons. It might have sucked at the time but we were ready for just about anything.

We were in the Gulf for awhile and I can't remember exactly how long it was but when we finally got the word we would be going into Kuwait...it was hectic, we rode the LCAC onto the beach...none of our lives would be the same and the war was about to begin.

To be continued...