God Bless him and his family.
Posted on 06/05/2007 10:29:57 AM PDT by RDTF
CAMP PENDLETON — More than 140,000 Marines have served in Iraq or Afghanistan since the Sept. 11 attacks. Only 18 have received the Navy Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor for combat bravery.
On Monday, the family of the 18th recipient, Cpl. Jason S. Clairday, gathered to receive his posthumous award and to hear the young man, who was 21 when he died, remembered as one "who set the standard for others to follow."
Clairday was awarded the Navy Cross for leading Marines in storming an insurgent stronghold in Fallouja in December 2004 to support Marines pinned down inside the home. Already wounded in the first assault, he refused to leave the fight and insisted on leading a second assault.
"He was told to evacuate; he was supposed to evacuate," said Col. Larry Nicholson. "He did not. He rallied his Marines and said, 'We're going in strong.' "
With grenades and M-16 fire, Clairday and his fire-team members killed the insurgents inside the home and saved several Marines. But wounds he suffered during the second assault proved fatal.
Travis Icard, who served with Clairday in Fallouja, told Marines and others attending the ceremony that his former fire-team leader "guided me to be a better Marine and to be a better man…. Cpl. Clairday taught me things you can't learn in a textbook. He was always hard-working but never hard to work with."
Nicholson, commander of the 5th Marine Regiment, credited the bravery of Clairday and other Marines who "went into that city and took it away from the terrorists" for improvements in Fallouja, which is no longer controlled by insurgents.
Clairday, of Salem, Ark., played baseball in high school, sang in the church choir and went into the Marines looking for stability in his life.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
ping
God Bless him and his family.
from article:
When he was killed, Clairday’s battalion was part of a second sweep through Fallouja, searching for insurgents who might have sneaked back into the city west of Baghdad after the November battle.
Clairday’s squad was on security patrol, backing other squads that were assaulting houses. Hearing that a squad was cornered inside a house, he and his Marines scrambled to the roof of a three-story building and jumped a 4-foot gap to reach the roof of that house and attempt to get the Marines out safely.
Another example of why we will never lose this war on the battlefield.
Semper Fi Ping...
Prayers for his family and God rest another Marine who put the “Fi” in Semper Fi.
SEMPER FI,GODSPEED AND REST WELL BROTHER!
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Amen.
From his mom:
“Jason was 6 years old when he and his brothers entered my life.With a new husband and 5 boys sometimes things got a little rough but Jason was the peacemaker. He was the one that I could count on for the truth.And he would even ‘fess up if it was him!My last visit with him was on Easter’04.We talked of the past and the future.He told me of the great time he had in Spain.He talked of Iraq and the need for us to be there,he was a good soldier.He had the same smile at 20 that he had at 6.He was always happy to be in Camp Arkansas.When he knew that we were going to sell the house and divorce it affected him as much as it did his father and me!!He wanted us to let him buy the house when he grew up.Now and for always he will be in Camp,the place he always loved.Jason also has 2 older(ex) step-brothers Johnny Johnson and Danny Johnson who morn the loss of a brother and a nephew JD Major (11)who remembers an uncle who played with him and helped him hunt Easter eggs.Jason’s memory sustains us all.Jason’s short life touched us all and his death changed us forever.God’s will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.”
Donna Clairday of Thayer Missouri
More comments from his friends:
http://www.fallenheroesmemorial.com/oif/profiles/clairdayjasons.html
so hard to read! Thanks
Indeed it hard to read. I am at work and broke into those pesky "Spring allergies."
I suspect that he was up for the CMOH, but that it bounced around in the Pentagon, while the armchair weenies tried to figure out if he should get the Big Medal. IMHO, he definitely merited it.
People forget or misunderstand how important the November 2004 Battle of Fallujah was. Before it, the standard lefty, hate-America refrain was “the insurgents are winning.” There was even an infamous Newsweek story just before the battle with a quote from Colin Powell saying just that. After the battle, no one ever said “the insurgents are winning” again. The America-haters had to change their refrain to “America can’t win” or something similar. After Fallujah, it became obvious to everyone that the insurgents couldn’t engage the Americans in any kind of direct fight and have a prayer of willing.
The men who fought and won that battle are American heroes as great as any at Normandy and Iwo Jima and Inchon and Hue.
Cpl. Jason S. Clairday, one of the few good men.
R.I.P.
Prayers up for the family and friends.
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