Eutrusca
03-05-2006, 12:42
COMMENTARY: One hell of a Marine, and one hell of a man! Despite having taken seven gunshots, 40-plus shrards of shrapnel and losing half his blood, SGM Kasal refused to give up, using his last compression bandage on another Marine. Just as there are heroes from Vietnam, where many citizens of American thought we should not have been, so there are heros from Iraq, where many think we should not be. None of this detracts from their heroism, nor should it detract from whatever honor they are accorded.
Fallujah hero awarded Navy Cross
a day after his father dies (http://www.marinetimes.com/)
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — As a crowd of some 400 looked on, Sgt. Maj. Brad Kasal stood, holding a microphone, glancing at his notes, and trying to scrape together words of appreciation and gratitude.
It wasn’t easy.
At the May 1 ceremony, Kasal received the Navy Cross medal and was promoted to the highest enlisted rank of sergeant major. What made it difficult was that Kasal’s father couldn’t hang on long enough to see his son receive the nation’s second highest medal for combat heroics.
Gerald Kasal, 69, passed away the day before after battling cancer.
“It’s an emotional day,” he told the crowd, as if apologizing for his pause.
During a ceremony at Assault Amphibian School, where Kasal has been assigned as he’s continued on his recovery, the 22-year veteran received the blue-and-white medal from Maj. Gen. Mike Lehnert.
Kasal, an infantry unit leader who has become an Iraq war Marine legend for his actions during a violent urban fight against insurgent fighters in Fallujah on Nov. 13, 2004, said he was humbled by all the attention.
“Words cannot say how much I appreciate you and love you to death,” he told the crowd, which included some members of his former unit, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines.
While Kasal has deflected much of the attention given to him, several generals praised his dedication.
“This is one of our heroes,” Lehnert told the crowd, which included former 1st Marine Division commander, Lt. Gen. James Mattis, and current division commander, Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski.
Kasal led a squad of Marines with the Pendleton-based 3/1 into a house in the Jolan neighborhood where several Marines were caught in a gun battle with Iraqi insurgents. Inside, Kasal and Pfc. Alexander Nicoll took fire from the second floor as Kasal came face-to-face with another fighter, who fired his AK-47 assault rifle.
The shots missed. Kasal fired back, killing the man. Another fighter sent a burst of automatic fire from upstairs that sliced through the two Marines, knocking them to the ground. Kasal, his leg shot up with six rounds, dragged Nicoll away from the doorway, but another AK-47 round hit him in his buttocks.
With both Marines bleeding, Kasal used the only two compression bandages they had to control Nicoll’s bleeding.
It was the third time that morning Kasal thought he might die. “I thought for sure I was going to bleed out … might as well let one of us live,” he recalled, speaking after the ceremony.
The battle lasted more than an hour. In the end, Sgt. Byron Norwood, a 25-year-old Texan, was killed and about a dozen other Marines were wounded.
Kasal came out fighting, holding his 9mm pistol in his right hand as the two Marines, sans rifles, carried him by his shoulders out of the house. “They left their weapons behind so they can better carry me out … putting them at risk,” he said.
Kasal is a fighter.
He survived that day despite taking seven gunshots, 40-plus shreds of shrapnel and losing half his blood. He’s battled self-doubt at times and worried about his future. He’s endured 22 surgeries and has defied doctors’ calls to amputate his mangled right leg.
But the 39-year-old Kasal, the fourth of five brothers who grew up an Iowa boy and turned into a fighting Marine infantryman, and refused to give up. “I got more determined to prove [my doctor] wrong,” he said.
“They also said I wouldn’t walk,” he added. But two days earlier, he took to a trail near his Oceanside, Calif., home and ran 1.5 miles. “It wasn’t pretty, but,” he said, his voice dropping. “Now my goal is to pass the PFT again.”
Kasal is moving to Iowa, where he has orders for his second recruiting tour and will be the top enlisted leader at Recruiting Station Des Moines.
As for his promotion to the top enlisted rank, he promised this: “I’m going to bust my butt every day … and lead my Marines as best as I can.”
Fallujah hero awarded Navy Cross
a day after his father dies (http://www.marinetimes.com/)
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — As a crowd of some 400 looked on, Sgt. Maj. Brad Kasal stood, holding a microphone, glancing at his notes, and trying to scrape together words of appreciation and gratitude.
It wasn’t easy.
At the May 1 ceremony, Kasal received the Navy Cross medal and was promoted to the highest enlisted rank of sergeant major. What made it difficult was that Kasal’s father couldn’t hang on long enough to see his son receive the nation’s second highest medal for combat heroics.
Gerald Kasal, 69, passed away the day before after battling cancer.
“It’s an emotional day,” he told the crowd, as if apologizing for his pause.
During a ceremony at Assault Amphibian School, where Kasal has been assigned as he’s continued on his recovery, the 22-year veteran received the blue-and-white medal from Maj. Gen. Mike Lehnert.
Kasal, an infantry unit leader who has become an Iraq war Marine legend for his actions during a violent urban fight against insurgent fighters in Fallujah on Nov. 13, 2004, said he was humbled by all the attention.
“Words cannot say how much I appreciate you and love you to death,” he told the crowd, which included some members of his former unit, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines.
While Kasal has deflected much of the attention given to him, several generals praised his dedication.
“This is one of our heroes,” Lehnert told the crowd, which included former 1st Marine Division commander, Lt. Gen. James Mattis, and current division commander, Maj. Gen. Richard Natonski.
Kasal led a squad of Marines with the Pendleton-based 3/1 into a house in the Jolan neighborhood where several Marines were caught in a gun battle with Iraqi insurgents. Inside, Kasal and Pfc. Alexander Nicoll took fire from the second floor as Kasal came face-to-face with another fighter, who fired his AK-47 assault rifle.
The shots missed. Kasal fired back, killing the man. Another fighter sent a burst of automatic fire from upstairs that sliced through the two Marines, knocking them to the ground. Kasal, his leg shot up with six rounds, dragged Nicoll away from the doorway, but another AK-47 round hit him in his buttocks.
With both Marines bleeding, Kasal used the only two compression bandages they had to control Nicoll’s bleeding.
It was the third time that morning Kasal thought he might die. “I thought for sure I was going to bleed out … might as well let one of us live,” he recalled, speaking after the ceremony.
The battle lasted more than an hour. In the end, Sgt. Byron Norwood, a 25-year-old Texan, was killed and about a dozen other Marines were wounded.
Kasal came out fighting, holding his 9mm pistol in his right hand as the two Marines, sans rifles, carried him by his shoulders out of the house. “They left their weapons behind so they can better carry me out … putting them at risk,” he said.
Kasal is a fighter.
He survived that day despite taking seven gunshots, 40-plus shreds of shrapnel and losing half his blood. He’s battled self-doubt at times and worried about his future. He’s endured 22 surgeries and has defied doctors’ calls to amputate his mangled right leg.
But the 39-year-old Kasal, the fourth of five brothers who grew up an Iowa boy and turned into a fighting Marine infantryman, and refused to give up. “I got more determined to prove [my doctor] wrong,” he said.
“They also said I wouldn’t walk,” he added. But two days earlier, he took to a trail near his Oceanside, Calif., home and ran 1.5 miles. “It wasn’t pretty, but,” he said, his voice dropping. “Now my goal is to pass the PFT again.”
Kasal is moving to Iowa, where he has orders for his second recruiting tour and will be the top enlisted leader at Recruiting Station Des Moines.
As for his promotion to the top enlisted rank, he promised this: “I’m going to bust my butt every day … and lead my Marines as best as I can.”