Marine Tank Sergeant's Innovation In Combat Saved Day In Fallujah (Popaditch, Silver Star)

Marine Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch didn't like what he saw ahead of his tank in Fallujah, Iraq.

It was late afternoon April 6, 2004, two days into an offensive to retake the city and avenge the four U.S. contractors whose burned bodies had been hung from a train trestle. Popaditch commanded a pair of tanks sent to relieve an infantry unit.

A tanker truck, probably booby-trapped, was blocking an alley. Insurgents had strung a spider's web of electrical wires across the entrance to a nearby courtyard.

Popaditch knew he was moving into the kill zone of an ambush. He wouldn't turn back and abandon the grunts who needed him, but to bull forward meant suicide.

So he called for an airstrike. An AC-130 blew up the tanker truck, the power lines and an insurgent post packed with weapons.

With those obstacles cleared, Popaditch received permission to push forward with the gunship overhead – an untested tactic at the time. Together, his tanks and the AC-130 cleared block after block of insurgents and relieved pressure on the embattled infantry platoon.

“(We were) just inflicting a devastating number of casualties on the enemy, and we did it in a way that no one had ever done before,” Popaditch said.

The thrill of victory soon gave way to gruesome injury. As Popaditch stood in the turret of his tank during a battle the next day, a rocket-propelled grenade exploded next to his head.

“(I saw) a really bright light, like a flash, and then nothing,” he said. “It was like getting hit in the head with a sledgehammer.”

Popaditch continued to guide the movements of his tank and called for a medical evacuation despite being blinded and temporarily deafened.

Shrapnel from the blast fractured his skull and lodged around his eyes and nose. Physicians couldn't save his right eye, and they barely salvaged the left.

For his innovative combat tactics and leadership even when wounded, Popaditch received the Silver Star, the military's third-highest award for valor.

Though legally blind, Popaditch has learned to use the 8 percent of sight he has left. He's aided by tools such as a video screen that enlarges printed materials and a pair of what he calls “telescope glasses.”

“I didn't want to be a straphanger,” he said. “The military is not an adaptive world, and it shouldn't be.”

So in 2005, Popaditch left the Marines for college. He's now a junior at San Diego State University. Inspired by his time as a Marine drill instructor, he is aiming to become a high school teacher

“You do a lot of teaching when you're a DI, along with everything else. (At a high school), you may be teaching algebra or the War of 1812, but it's all teaching,” said Popaditch, 40, who lives in Linda Vista with his wife, April, and son, Nick Jr.

His Marine Corps career began nearly 22 years ago, when a recruiter talked him into enlisting after high school graduation. Popaditch quickly took to the life of brotherhood and discipline, even though he describes himself as having been bookish and shy as a boy growing up in Indiana.

He commanded a tank in the Persian Gulf War. By the time of the Iraq war, he was serving as a gunnery sergeant – an elite enlisted class that is revered in the Marine Corps.

Popaditch's tank platoon was among the first few to cross the Kuwait-Iraq border and reach the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in March 2003.

A news photographer snapped a picture of him smoking a victory cigar in his tank turret in front of a statue of then-President Saddam Hussein just as it was being toppled. The photo became a symbol of the heady early days of the war.

Popaditch's unit returned to Twentynine Palms in July 2003. He then volunteered to go back to Iraq the following winter. His battalion took responsibility for the Fallujah area a couple of weeks before the attack that wounded him.

Popaditch now speaks frequently to military groups, and he has joined SDSU's student veterans organization.

Tanker receives Silver Star, shines at MCAGCC ball
Nov. 9, 2005; Submitted on: 11/28/2005 08:41:54 PM ; Story ID#: 20051128204154
By Sgt. Jennie E. Haskamp, MCAGCC

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (Nov. 9, 2005) -- Most Marine Corps Birthday balls have a ceremony that includes readings, a cake cutting, words from the commanding officer and a speech from the guest of honor.

The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center’s 230th Birthday Ball was slightly different.

The guest of honor, Gunnery Sgt. Nicholas A. Popaditch, USMC (ret) was presented with a Silver Star 10 minutes prior to the official start of the ceremony.

Popaditch, a Hammond, Ind., native who retired in May after more than 15 years of service, received the award for his actions during a battle for Fallujah, Iraq, last April while attached to 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment.

"While on patrol in Al Fallujah, Iraq, Fox Company came under heavy enemy fire and without hesitation, Gunnery Sgt. Popaditch surged his two tanks into the city to support the Marines under fire,” states the award citation. “He led his tank section several blocks into the city, drawing fire away from the beleaguered Marines.

“His decisive actions enabled Fox Company to gain a foothold in the city and evacuate a critically wounded Marine.”

The audience was silent, as the reading continued.

“For several hours, enemy forces engaged his tank section with withering rocket propelled grenade fire until they were destroyed by accurate machinegun fire. Acting as the forward observer for an AC-130 gunship, Gunnery Sgt. Popaditch directed fire onto enemy targets, effecting their annihilation.”

Popaditch is humble about the actions cited in the citation, but he tells a different version of the final paragraph.

“On the morning of April 7th, Gunnery Sgt. Popaditch was severely wounded by a rocket propelled grenade blast while fighting insurgents,” it reads. “Blinded and deafened by the blast, he remained calm and directed his crew to a medical evacuation site.”

When Popaditch shares the story, he gives the credit to his tank crewmen, three young men who followed their instincts, relied on their training and displayed a tremendous amount of courage under fire.

Instead of giving a prepared speech during the ceremony, Popaditch spoke from the heart, thanking the men and women of Headquarters Battalion.

“While contemplating what to say as the guest of honor, it occurred to me I’m the one who should be honored to be in your presence,” said Popaditch explaining he was humbled by the invitation to be the guest of honor. “Every Marine and Sailor out there has either enlisted or reenlisted since Sept. 11. Every one of you had a choice to make, and all of you chose to serve and defend our nation.”

After his address, a Marine complimented Popaditch on speaking from the heart, rather than reading from a prepared speech.

“It’s what I do,” joked Popaditch, with a black patch covering his right eye. “I’d need some pretty large note cards to read a prepared speech without any magnification.”

Popaditch, who lost his right eye and the hearing in his right ear in the attack, is a full time college student with plans to become a high school teacher.

He lives with his wife April and his youngest son, Nicholas just a few blocks away from Recruit Depot San Diego, where he spent three years as a drill instructor earlier in his career.

Ever positive, Popaditch is ranked at or near the top of each of his classes, despite the severely limited vision in his left eye.

After the ball, Sgt. Maj. James Ricker, MCAGCC sergeant major explained how the choice was made to invite Popaditch to be the guest of honor.

“All of us present that night got to see history in the making, said Ricker, a 29 year Corps veteran. “I can think of no better way to remind all Marines who we are and what we represent to the citizens of our county. I have attended many birthday balls over the years, and that night I was in the presence of a hero of our generation of Marines.”

Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch accepts a framed collage of the Combat Center from Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer after speaking at the MCAGCC Birthday Ball Nov. 9.
Photo by: Sgt. Jennie E. Haskamp
Photo ID: 2005112820471
Submitting Unit: MCAGCC
Photo Date:11/09/2005

FAC is serious business. Long answer - forgive in advance, eh?

From a USAF view - you are dealing with a jet, even an A10, that flys, well, fast. The pilot doesnt have a real good view - he really should have a spotter - unless you are trying to destroy an entire block of buildings.

As a FAC/ETAC you train, in part, by flying in those airplanes so you know what the pilot can see and not see.

(Forgive me in advace my Army brothers)
So you have a A10 or other aircraft on station. The Army guys says, “The bad guy is behind that tree in the compound”

The ETAC/FAC says “See the road? Runs North - South”
Pilot - “Roger the road”
“See the intersection at the river?”
Pilot says “Got the intersection”
The ETAC/FAC goes on - “OK, from the intersection to the bridge is one unit” “Go South of the intersection two units - see the compound?”
Pilot “Compound with the tress?”
ETAC/FAC “Roger. You are cleared for a East to West run - target is the West end of the compound in the trees. Drop one MK82, I’ll call DBA”
Pilot “Roger, run is East to West, target is tress on West end, One MK 82 coming up”
ETAC/FAC “Cleared hot”
Bad guys meet Allah or whoever is in hell right now.

A bit easier with helo gunships, a bit harder with AC130s, the AC130 has a VERY GOOD sensor package & usually a better view than the ETAC/FAC so a real partnership makes sure things work.

So, for a tanker, with no reported training - he done good. I hope he does well with his teaching, I also hope he has a strong stomach for the liberals usually found in the school system.

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