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  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to the Marines and Sailors of Bravo Battery 1st Battalion 11th Marines, as well as the to the 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Task Force Tarawa, members of the Air Force and the soldiers of the Fifth Corps. All of which took part in Operation Iraqi Freedom. We fought a war in which we were faced with many different obstacles from weather, to insurgent warfare that blended into the civilian population, to vulnerable supply lines, and to urban combat. Yet with our friends, buddies and fellow Marines, Sailors, Soldiers and Airman by our side we were able to overcome these obstacles and complete our objectives. We suffered the losses of friends, and comrades, but their names and memories are not forgotten. So this book is dedicated to all of us who made the March up and subsequent deployments to the sandbox. Semper Fi.

  To Jaimie Engle, your book and advice on the self-publishing on Amazon has been a great value to me and my preparations to further my literary career. Thank you for allowing me to bend your ear and ask for advice. Thank you.

  To KJ Waters and her design team at Blondies Custom Books Cover for the awesome design of the cover for this book, and your advice on everything, as well as putting up with my request. So all the thanks in the world to you. Thank you.

  To my family, you didn’t sign up for the stresses of a war time environment, but you knew it was a possibility that it could happen with me joining the Marine Corps, but despite everything you supported me through everything, so I want to say thank you and I love you.

  To my lovely wife; You have been my rock since we met, and you knew what you were getting into when I met you and I asked you are you sure about this, and you have been nothing but steadfast, and I want to say thank you for everything you had to put up with in our crazy loves. I love you and thank you again for being my rock.

  And finally this book is also dedicated to one of the best platoon commander I have ever served with; Captain Robert Secher. Sir, you along with all the Marines of Bravo Battery helped me become the Marine I am and the man I am today. You were one of the best sir, and you are sorely missed. RIP Captain. Semper Fi.

  Forward

  Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) I, the invasion of Iraqi in March 2003, included over 177,000 personnel from the United States and its coalition partners. Each of these participants had their own distinct perspective on the events that followed. Each view is different, and is colored by the variety of factors that make each human being unique. Most histories are written at the broad blue arrow level that portrays combat as a quick sweep across a map. The reality for the individuals at the point of contact is much different, for this is the level where anxiety, fear, and excitement are personified.

  The 3200 Marines, sailors, and soldiers of the 11th Marine Regiment provided critical artillery support to the units of the 1st Marine Division during its epic attack from Kuwait to Baghdad. The 11th Marines were assigned the task of silencing the Iraqi Army’s potent artillery to protect the 1st Marine Division from its lethal effects and ensure that the Division maintained the high tempo of operations that the Commanding General had deemed critical to mission success.

  The 11th Marines’ muscle was provided by its seventy-two 155mm howitzers organized into twelve firing batteries, including Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 11th Marines. Over the thirty-three day campaign these guns delivered over 19,000 rounds of devastatingly accurate and highly responsive fire support to the 1st Marine Division’s maneuver units. None of this would have been possible without the critical connection that the Regiment’s communicators provided by insuring a continuous link under a rapid and fluid combat environment under arduous weather conditions.

  On the following pages Aaron Albers provides a look at the life of a 11th Marines communicator as he faced the trials and tribulations of combat for the first time. He gives you a view at the tip of spear, a view that remains an enigma to those who have never gone in harm’s way.

  Colonel Michael P. Marletto, USMC (Ret)

  Commanding Officer,11th Marines, OIF I

  My Job

  When I joined the Marines, my contract was what was called a open contract, meaning the Marine Corps could look at my ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) test scores, and put me where they felt I could achieve the best potential, and that was in the field of communications. So after completing book, taking the mandatory ten day leave, and finishing combat training I went to school at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at 29 Palms to attend the Marine Corps Communication and Electronics School. There I spent the two months learning how to set up, operate, and maintain all the field radios that the Marine Corps uses. I also learned basic wiring skills as well.

  As the school completed, we were given our assignments, and I was assigned to Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion 11th Marine Regiment. It was new experience for me but I had a great group of Marines, NCO”s and SNCO’s to help mentor me. Bravo Battery at the time was using the M198 howitzer to accomplish its mission of providing artillery support in any operations that the 1st Marine Division may undertake. During my time with the battery, I was part of many field exercises aboard Camp Pendleton, and at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center 29 Palms, which is funny because the combat center is where Marines train for desert warfare.

  I went on my first deployment with the Battery in August 2001, with the intent of it being another routine, deployment but 9/11 and the subsequent actions put a kibosh on that. Despite changes in our mission, my job on deployment never changed and that was to provide communications for whatever the battery commander required.

  Reenlisting

  War is often called the last act of diplomacy, but the decision to start war comes from thousands of miles away from the actual people doing the fighting; mainly teenagers to young people in their twenties who actually do the actual fighting. At the time the war started I was 22, and in January of 2003, I was supposed to leave the Marine Corps, but prior to that, I was stopped loss while on temporary duty away from the battery with the MPs. Meaning the Marine Corps had my butt for indefinite period of time. Prior to shipping out to the Middle East I came to a realization that, I did love the Corps and the job, and if it wasn’t for the stop loss, my fellow Marines, many of whom I went on float with would be heading to war, while I was going home. I decided then to submit the paperwork and reenlist into the Marines. I actually enjoyed doing my job as a radio operator in the Marines and I made a lot of friends while serving.

  It took a lot of running around especially once we arrived in Kuwait but I was able to submit my paperwork for reenlistment. It was something I look back on thinking it was for the best. The Marine Corps became my second family, with the Marines I served with my brothers, which means we would not leave anyone behind ever, because we were Ohana which means family. Which means we would look out for one another especially then with the threat of war on the horizon.

  Facing combat for the first time

  For many Americans who were born in the late nineties and early part of the 21st century, they only know the war from what they have seen on TV which is the war of insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan and the reporting done by the media some of which can be biased. But they don’t really know what it is to really be in combat. They play video games which portrays combat as something maybe cold and distant with drones, or impersonal along the lines of a sniper. Yet true combat is facing the unknown along with the rush of adrenaline, boredom, lack of sleep, food the face of fear, and overcoming all of that to remain focused to accomplish your mission.

  That is how it was for all of us back in Mid-March of 2003, sitting south of the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border wondering if we were going to go to war or go into Iraq and conduct peacekeeping operations following Saddam Hussein leaving the country voluntarily, which for obvious results di
dn’t happen. Yet little did we know for many of us, in just a few hours, we would be going into combat for the very first time. You could tell the nerves were starting to pick up a little bit as our commanding officers gave their final briefings. We were told to expect terrorist type attacks, attacks with chemical or biological weapons, and fierce resistance from certain units of the Iraqi military. We felt confident in our training but deep down we each had our own fears.

  However when the word came down that we struck Baghdad with cruise missiles and stealth bombers, we all knew that peace had been set aside, and we were going to go war. For some it would be our last moments on this Earth, but for others we would come back with the memories, scars both internal and external, as well as coming home with a new appreciation of life that we may never have had before the war.

  This book tells you of my own personnel memories from the time the first shots went over the border to the day we set foot back here in the United States at Camp Pendleton all via social media on Facebook.

  The War Begins

  Baghdad and Beyond

  Conclusion

  War for many who have never served before in the military is often a very distant thing, only seen on the television and in the movies. They don’t get the real sense of what is going on. They don’t sense the constant stress and adrenaline that many dealt with for days on end. The sense of fear every time a chemical alert went out not knowing if it was the real thing. Those back home can shower anytime they want, go out where they want and do what they want. They could call, email or hang out with their friends anytime they feel like. They do not know the burden that deployments like this can cause a family to go through.

  My family in Wisconsin lived and breathed the news for over three weeks, hoping for a glimpse of me, praying that they would never receive that dreaded knock on the door with an officer and a chaplain standing on the other. They prayed they would never receive that phone call stating that I had been wounded. A quick phone call from the war zone did wonder for their stress as did the longer phone call once we arrived back in Kuwait. Mail, care packages, and those phone calls did wonders for our morale as well. Even aboard ship on the way home our mission could still have changed but it never did, so the daily contact continued to improve our morale. War has an effect on everyone who has a love one in the military and its effects can be worse for those who have seen it personally.

  My job put me in a dangerous position, but I knew of the risk when I enlisted in the military. However without communications on the battlefield, the job of the infantry, artillery, and all the interlocking parts would be so much harder for those in that position. I enjoyed my job as field radioman in the Marine Corps even with all the challenges that came with it. I still look on it as the best job I ever had.

  History will ultimately be the judge of the country’s decision to go into Iraq, and it will ultimately be the judge of the outcome of the war yet for many of us who were there at the start, we had one ultimate mission. That is to make it to Baghdad, keep our buddies and ourselves alive, and make it home to our family and friends. In the end the personal experiences for those of us who were there, and the many deployments that followed is all that we will have left to remember the deeds of our youth, and those friends we made and lost in the war. So to those that I have served with during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I say to you; Semper Fi and Comm UP!

 

 

  Aaron Albers, COMM UP

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