Marines come home to Purple Hearts
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Lance Cpl. Joaquin McCurty had grown up with a grandfather who earned a Purple Heart as a Navy pilot in Vietnam, someone he knows as tough and inclined to keep his emotions to himself.
Lucy Pemoni • Associated Press
That image was shaken when, after earning his own Purple Heart on the Fallujah battlefield, McCurty phoned home.
Brig. Gen. George Trautman, commander of Marine Corps Base Hawai'i, thanks Lance Cpl. Jose Moracruz for his service. Moracruz and four other Kane'ohe Marines received the Purple Heart yesterday.
"He's real stoic," the Kane'ohe Marine said of his grandfather. "I was surprised when he broke out in tears after I talked to him. And that made me cry, too. I'd never seen that side of him."
McCurty was one of five Marines injured in Fallujah to receive the honor in a ceremony yesterday at Tripler Army Medical Center. They are the first Hawai'i-based Marines wounded in Iraq to return home.
All belong to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, from Marine Corps Base Hawai'i, and all received their Purple Heart from the base commander, Brig. Gen. George J. Trautman.
Trautman moved down the line, pinning to the Marines' fatigues the purple ribbons with pendant hearts, commenting to McCurty that he had been injured on the Marine Corps' 229th birthday.
The awardees:
• Lance Cpl. Jeffrey B. Owens, 21, of Harlan, Ky., injured Oct. 17.
• Lance Cpl. Lance Pettis, 29, of Bremerton, Wash., injured Oct. 30.
• Lance Cpl. Bryan C. Bodrog, 20, of San Jose, Calif., injured Nov. 9.
• McCurty, 23, of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, N.M., injured Nov. 10.
• Lance Cpl. Jose A. Moracruz, 20, of Collin, Texas, injured Nov. 13.
All but McCurty and Bodrog, who used crutches to walk, declined to be interviewed. Moracruz, who was in a wheelchair during the ceremony, is the only one still hospitalized at Tripler, officials said; the others are outpatients who have plans to return home for the holidays after their orders for extended convalescent leave come through.
Lucy Pemoni • Associated Press
Trautman recounted the historic origin of the decoration, which was first presented in 1782 by George Washington to recognize soldiers' outstanding valor and merit. "The road to glory in a patriot army and a free country is thus open to all," Washington wrote in creating the Purple Heart, which the military revived in 1932 as an honor for those wounded in combat.
Lance Cpl. Bryan Bodrog holds back tears when speaking about his "brothers" still fighting in Iraq.
Trautman said: "They have all walked the road to glory ... they all understand the end of that road is freedom — in their case it was freedom for Fallujah, freedom for Iraq. It's the glory that comes from forever being recognized as a recipient of one of our nation's most cherished honors."
McCurty glanced down at his decoration when asked how it felt to receive one.
"I'm really proud to get it," he said, then added with a smile: "To tell you the truth, I was kind of avoiding this one. ... It came up and bit me."
McCurty said he had been on patrol overnight and was taking sniper fire from atop a two-story dwelling as daylight broke. His unit was trying to take out the snipers and was deciding who should enter the building when a mortar round exploded nearby.
He said he suffered a groin injury that will leave him unable to father more children; he and his fiancee are expecting a daughter in January.
It also left him with emotional scars he wants to address before going home, he said.
"I want to try to deal with some of the things that I have on my mind," McCurty said.
Bodrog said that on the previous day, his unit was crossing a zone of heavy combat. He was firing his machine gun when a rocket-propelled grenade winged him on the left.
"It all happened so fast," Bodrog recalled. "It hit off my collarbone and landed two or three meters to the left."
When it exploded, Bodrog took shrapnel to the left thigh.
"The blast did a number on my spine," he said. "My left leg is paralyzed. ... The doctor says I should recover."
Bodrog attributed his endurance of the ordeal to his Christian faith. He acknowledged feeling "a little nervous" shortly before the assault began Nov. 8 but talked to a comrade who shares his faith and felt much stronger.
"I always carry a Bible in my right pocket," he said.
Bodrog said that while he's heartened by the prospects for a rare Christmas with his family, he wished he could be with his "brothers" in Iraq. When asked what he'd like to say to those brothers, the Marine fell silent a moment.
"I say that ... I love them ... excuse me," he said, faltering, his eyes filling with tears. A Marine officer offered to end the interview, but Bodrog pressed on.
"No, I really want to say this," he said, and then finished: "They are the greatest brothers anyone could ever have."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
