My grandson is headed home from Iraq after several months near Ramadi in the Sunni Triangle, Al Anbar province.
He is a Marine Special Ops. Only in "Indian country" for 3.5 months..but in direct , face to face combat virtually every day.
My wife and I were down to Camp Lejeune visiting his young bride about 3 weeks ago. Since they have a home in the Marine housing community, I had some time during slightly more than a week to speak at length with several other Marines there.
One, assigned to my grandson"s unit, is in charge of welcoming home those that return early...wounded, etc.
He told me that to that point , out of 60 direct combat, spec ops Marines, there were already 24 Purple Hearts...
No KIAs though, thank the Lord..although a sister company in the same MEU suffered 3 killed in one incident.
Those new armored jackets etc is very effective..able to stop a 7.62X39 at point-blank range.
Besides being a .50 cal MG operator in the "ring" atop a Humvee, my Grandson is also his unit's designated sniper.
The Marine who welcomes back the returnees told me there is an unconfirmed story going around about my Grandson.
Seems he engaged an enemy sniper directly across the Euphrates river.
He successfully completed his task...eliminating his opposition sniper.
About a week later a group of insurgents were brought in and interrogated. They told interrogators that they had heard there was a tough shot operating for the Marines in their area, so they sent down their "best shot" to take on the Marine.
Praise God...their "best shot" was only SECOND BEST that day !
Yes, the Marines had a big hand in his training...but his marksmanship was honed at an early age on those fat WNY woodchucks...
He is on his way home..being in an MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) the entire strike force...ships, planes, choppers, troops and all move together.
They are doing training of other nationals and completeing small missions while proceeding homeward..
