USMC HERO
That includes taking enemy rifle fire on Nov. 14, 2004, absorbing a grenade blast and refusing medical attention inside Fallujah’s “House of Hell” during Operation Al Fajr (New Dawn).
For his extraordinary heroism and leadership in Fallujah, Iraq, as the Weapons Company first sergeant for 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Kasal was awarded the Navy Cross during a ceremony here Monday.
“The word hero is tossed around pretty loosely these days,” said Maj. Gen. Michael R. Lehnert, Commanding General of Marine Corps Installations West, after awarding Kasal with the Naval service’s second-highest decoration, in front of an audience that included the 1st Marine Division’s past and present commanding generals, Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis and Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, respectively.
”Some may call a basketball player a hero for scoring the winning goal or a celebrity for donating a small portion of their earnings to a good cause, but Kasal is a true American hero.”
When then-1st Sgt. Kasal assisted one of his platoons with an over watch inside Fallujah that day, intense gunfire broke out in an Iraqi home to his immediate front.
Seconds later, Marines were rapidly exiting the building, known as the “House of Hell.” “That house was a death trap,” said Maj. Gen. Lehnert.
“It was set up for one purpose: to kill United States Marines.” Kasal could have easily stayed out of the house.”
When he found out that there were Marines still pinned down inside the infamous house, nothing the insurgents could put on the table would stop him from rescuing his Marines.
“Going in for them was the right thing to do,” said Kasal, 39, who hails from Afton, Iowa. “They’re Marines, and I’m a Marine. We look out for each other.”
Upon entry of the house, Kasal found himself face-to-face with an insurgent who he neutralized at extreme close range. Shortly afterwards, AK-47 gunfire was coming from all directions, and Kasal was hit from behind.
“While I was in that house, I made three life or death decisions,” Kasal said. “I never thought I would live through any of them, but I did what I did to help the other Marines.”
The first decision Kasal made was to expose himself to enemy fire in order to pull another wounded Marine out of the line of fire. Kasal took more enemy fire doing this.
While both Marines were under cover, they assessed their wounds. Both had multiple injuries, but there were only enough bandages for one of them to live.
Kasal made his second decision to forfeit his medical supplies to the other Marine.
“It made more sense to use all of the bandages on one of us then to split the supplies and have us both bleed to death,” Kasal said.
The insurgents deployed a hand grenade to get the Marines out of cover, and it landed within a few feet of the two bleeding Marines.
Kasal then decided to use his own severely wounded body to protect the Marine from shrapnel.
By the time he was carried out of the house by Lance Cpl. Chris Marquez and Lance Cpl. Dan Shaffer as Lucian M. Reed, an Associated Press photographer snapped the iconic photo displayed at Marine Corps installations all over the globe, Kasal had lost approximately 60 percent of his blood from more than 40 shrapnel wounds and seven 7.62 mm AK-47 gunshots.
One day prior to being awarded the Navy Cross Kasal’s father passed away.
However, a live video teleconference feed to Kasal’s hometown provided his mother, family members and friends an opportunity to watch him receive the Navy Cross, be promoted to the rank of sergeant major and reenlist for three years.
“It’s been a very emotional week,” Kasal said. “I am blessed to recover from my injuries, which the doctors thought would never happen, and regain my place in the Marine Corps. I would take the pain of surgeries any day over the pain of being away from my Marines.”
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A photo of the badly
wounded Kasal, taken by embedded photographer Lucian Read was used on the
back cover of Bing West’s book, "No True Glory", about the
battle for Fallujah.
West is the premier historian of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and
is one of the few people who have made a concerted effort to publicize the
heroism of our forces fighting in the dangerous and desolate reaches of
those countries.
In his book about the liberation of Fallujah he writes:
“The Western press covered incidents of misconduct more fully than the
multiple instances of bravery ... the stupid, criminal acts at Abu Ghraib
prison cast a shadow over the decency of hundreds of thousands of other
soldiers. The shooting of a wounded insurgent inside a mosque in November
emerged as the most televised event in the battle for Fallujah because,
like the Abu Ghraib story, it smacked of misconduct. Yet the Western press
paid scant attention to the subsequent investigation that cleared the
Marine or to the courage of a Jesse Grapes or a Timothy Connors.
“The Western press strived for neutrality, torn between disapproval of
the invasion of Iraq and recognition that a democratic Iraq bolstered the
security of the West. In World War II the Western press—believing in its
cause—had extolled the Greatest Generation of Americans. The warriors
who fought in Iraq would not be called the Greatest Generation, because
America was divided about the cause for which they were dying. The focus
of the press was upon the individual deaths as tragedies.”
This was an incomplete portrayal. The fierce fighting at Fallujah attested
to the stalwart nature of the American soldier. In The Illiad, a
warrior in the front ranks turned to his companions and said, "let us
win glory for ourselves, or yield it to others" For Greek warriors,
there was no true glory if they were not remembered afterward in poem or
in song.
There will be no true glory for our soldiers in Iraq until they are
recognized not as victims, but as aggressive warriors. Stories of their
bravery deserve to be recorded and read by the next generation. Unsung,
the noblest deeds will die.