Photo by: Cpl. Athanasios L. Genos
Posted on 03/22/2006 12:02:36 PM PST by Born Conservative
As a high school quarterback, Brian Stann led the Scranton Prep offense under the glare of Friday night lights.
At 25, the Scranton native is still a field general. But now he’s leading U.S. Marines under the glow of bursting grenades and flashes of gunfire.
First Lt. Stann’s unit played a key role in a weeklong hunt for insurgents in northwestern Iraq last May. The 2nd Mobile Assault Platoon braved enemy attacks over six days while securing a bridge near Karabilah along the Euphrates River.
First Lt. Stann led a charge back into the heart of an ambush to recover six severely wounded soldiers. All six survived.
The Naval Academy graduate was awarded the Silver Star on March 10 for his actions. It is the military’s third-highest award for combat heroism.
“I was definitely proud to accept the award, but to me, it’s a symbol of what my guys did,” said 1st Lt. Stann, 25, whose parents, Marty and Elizabeth Cieless, live in Dalton. “Through their love for the Marine Corps, their love for each other and the overall will to fight, they were able to come through against some very tough odds. It is important to me, but my men come first.”
Battling insurgents
The seven-day campaign, dubbed Operation Matador, targeted insurgent hotbeds near the Syrian border. Lt. Stann’s 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment unit was called to secure the Ramana bridge, the only route in and out of the insurgent strongholds north of the Euphrates River.
But to get to the bridge from their post, the Marines had to traverse a 2½-mile stretch through a treacherous urban area. There, insurgents dug in with mortars, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Beginning May 8, the platoon of about 50 soldiers made three separate trips to the bridgehead. Fierce, organized ambushes marked their first and last treks.
During that last push, on May 10, insurgents pounced. Lt. Stann’s men beat them back into the darkness and headed toward the bridge.
The enemy stalked from the shadows.
Tanks attached to the platoon had toppled buildings shielding the terrorists, creating a fog of dust and debris. On their heels, the insurgents ran three suicide car bombs into the firefight.
Those tanks only got two.
The third car detonated near a Marine vehicle whose driver — disoriented amid the haze — had wandered off course.
The wounded soldiers pulled each other from the wreckage. The vehicle’s gunner was shot twice as a corporal dragged him out.
Lt. Stann and his soldiers fought their way back toward the ambush, spraying gunfire and ordering air strikes. The six Marines were airlifted out within 10 minutes.
“Once we got out, I pulled the Marines together; some were a little rattled,” said Lt. Stann. “We had to stay there and fight at the bridge for another five days. They all got their senses about them and got prepared to do that.
“Talk about some heroic men. These guys, they did phenomenal.”
Nine Marines and more than 125 insurgents died during Operation Matador. Soldiers discovered weapons caches and cave networks in cities near the Euphrates.
Another tour
Lt. Stann’s platoon spent the next three months fighting in other major military operations.
Lt. Stann was named Weapons Company executive officer after leading the assault platoon. He left Iraq in early September, and was later named company commander.
Now at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, he expects to return to Iraq in early July.
Initially, though, he wasn’t supposed to go anywhere near the Middle East. Commissioned into the Marine Corps after his 2003 graduation from the Naval Academy, Lt. Stann was assigned to a unit headed to California.
He volunteered for one heading to Iraq.
“My country’s at war. That’s what I should do; that’s what I joined the military to do,” he said. “Some people are made to do certain jobs. Some are made to be warriors and fight their nation’s battles.”
Two words: Heroic Actions. Two more: BATTLE HARDENED.
I wonder what Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy were made to do?
PRESENT ARMS
Damn good job Marine!
I read this, and then I remember all the nattering nabobs at the beginning of the war. The ones who said: "Sadam's 'battle hardened' revolutionary guards will kill our pasty boys in big numbers!! We won't have enough body bags for all the amature volunteers who will be killed!!"
Does anyone else remember that?
I thought then, Yeah Right, wait'll some of our jar heads get ahold of those hajis.
Makes you proud.
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