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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Sunday, November 7, 2004

Kane'ohe Marines, families stand by

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

The Marine Corps base at Kane'ohe Bay is expecting a big turnout for a memorial service tomorrow for eight Marines who were killed last weekend in a suicide car bomb attack in Fallujah, Iraq.

U.S. Marines with the 1st Division yesterday bowed their heads in prayer at their base outside Fallujah, Iraq. More than 10,000 U.S. troops, many of them based out of Kane'ohe, are surrounding the city.

Anja Niedringhaus • Associated Press

An all-out assault on the rebel-held city of 300,000 west of Baghdad is expected any day, and the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment is likely to be in the thick of it. Comparisons already are being made to the battle for Hue in 1968 during the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War.

The deployment has been a trial by fire, rocket-propelled grenade and death, and the Hawai'i Marines have only spent a few weeks at war.

For the Marines and their families in Hawai'i, the stress of dealing with eight dead has been compounded by what is expected to lie ahead.

"I think all of us are a little on edge," said Melody Michaelson, whose husband, Andrew, is a 30-year-old staff sergeant with 1/3 in Iraq. "I can't speak for everyone, but (I would think) anyone who has a loved one over there, regardless if they are in Fallujah or not, they are on edge, especially when they start talking about mounting attacks."

Michaelson added: "This is nothing like the majority of us have ever seen before."

Cmdr. Lach Noyes, a Navy doctor in Fallujah, said the number of dead and wounded from an assault on the city would "probably" reach levels not seen since Vietnam.

The Boston Globe reported that the medical team that treats U.S. casualties in the Fallujah area has doubled its staff and supplies.

More than 10,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines have taken up positions around the city, where an estimated 1,000 to 6,000 insurgents are dug in.

Staff Sgt. Jason Benedict
Staff Sgt. Jason Benedict from 1/3 was riding in the back of a 7-ton truck heading back to a Fallujah camp last Saturday when the suicide car bomb exploded, killing the eight Bravo Company Marines. Militants fired on the Marines from rooftops.

"I looked to my right where everyone else was sitting," Benedict, 28, told The Boston Globe. "There was nobody there, just smoke."

It was the deadliest attack against U.S. forces in six months. Ten Marines were wounded.

Seen sitting on a cot in a photo, his left hand wrapped in gauze, Benedict displayed the anger many of the Hawai'i Marines must feel.

"You've got to expect casualties," he said. The fight for Fallujah, he added, "is overdue."

The seesaw occupation of Fallujah produced a Hawai'i-related death on March 31, when retired U.S. Army Ranger Wesley J. Ba-talona, 48, who was born on the Big Island and was working as a military contractor, was killed with three other Americans. After the attack, the bodies were beaten by a mob and two burned corpses were hung from a bridge.

The horrific acts, televised around the world, set in motion both Fallujah's transformation into a symbol of Iraqi resistance and the coalition's determination to snuff out the insurgency.

The aftermath — which saw 700 Marines begin a siege of the city, only to pull out in the face of mounting international criticism — continues to take a toll.

Dennis Astor
Dennis Astor, a 22-year-old Navy hospital corpsman 3rd class out of Kane'ohe Bay, was recuperating Thursday at the Bravo Surgical Company hospital from second-degree burns on his arms and shrapnel in his forehead from last Saturday's suicide attack, the Washington Post reported.

Astor is now bothered by the night. "I'm just afraid my friends are going to pop up outside, and I'll see them, see my dead friends," he told the Post.

The Marines who died in the suicide bombing and who will be memorialized tomorrow are: Pfc. John Lukac, 19, of Las Vegas; Lance Cpl. Andrew G. Riedel, 19, of Northglenn, Colo.; Lance Cpl. Jeremy D. Bow, 20, of Lemoore, Calif.; Lance Cpl. Michael P. Scarborough, 28, of Washington, Ga.; Lance Cpl. Travis A. Fox, 25, of Cowpens, S.C.; Cpl. Christopher J. Lapka, 22, of Peoria, Ariz.; and Lance Cpl. John T. Byrd II, 23, of Fairview, W.Va.

All were with 1/3. It was the state's single-day greatest combat loss since the Vietnam War. An eighth Marine killed in the attack, Sgt. Kelley L. Courtney, 28, of Macon, Ga., was assigned to 1/3, but he was based in Okinawa.

About 900 Marines and sailors with 1/3 — as well as six CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters with Heavy Marine Helicopter squadron 463 and approximately 70 Marines from the squadron — deployed with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit out of Okinawa in July.

Meanwhile, approximately 1,000 Kane'ohe Bay Marines with the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment are deploying to Afghanistan this week.

Courtney, in his last e-mail from Iraq to his older brother, said, "Don't tell Mom, but I'm scared," the Associated Press reported. "We are about to stir up a hornet's nest here shortly and I'm going to be right in the middle of it."

Tomorrow, the fallen Marines will be remembered at 11 a.m. in the Kane'ohe base chapel. If the crowd is too large, the service may be moved to the theater.

Michaelson said the 1/3 family at Kane'ohe Bay has been coping "as best as can be expected."

"The families are obviously grieving — all of us are," she said. "Whether we have an injured Marine or not, whether it was our husband or not, all of us have kind of come together."

Knight Ridder News Service contributed to this report. Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.