American Valor Quarterly Issue 1 - Winter 2007 | Page 32
out the ambush, while the vehicles went to the southern
end of the H-K in order to cordon it of to keep the
insurgents from escaping. Cpl. Dunham said he would take
one fire team and start pushing south on the eastern edge,
and I would go with the other fire team toward the western
edge. The two fire teams pushed south, a few hundred
meters from each other, when we ran into several vehicles
After the battalion commander’s patrol had left the police attempting to get around the ambush.
station and headed west toward the Lima Company position
near the border checkpoint with Syria—about 10 minutes Sgt. Sanders: We had been in this area before, and noticed
after we had arrived at the treatment plant—we heard a that there were a lot of vehicles in a place where there
number of explosions to the west. Lima Company had been normally is not. Cpl. Dunham looked at SSgt. Ferguson
getting mortared on a daily basis for the previous two weeks, right off the bat and said, “Let’s do it,” and went out to
and catching the guys who
inspect the vehicles, since
were shooting at them had
we knew that something
proved problematic. This
fishy was going on. We
sounded
like
an
were moving along at a
opportunity to get a jump
pretty quick pace, when at
on the insurgents who
the second or third vehicle
were mortaring Lima
down, it all started
Company, where we
happening.
thought the explosions
were coming from. Cpl.
A guy jumped out of the
Dunham came up to me
car, then a couple more
when he heard the
jumped out, and one of
explosions, and I said to
them started wrestling
him, “What do you think?”
with Cpl. Dunham. Pfc.
“I think Lima is getting
Kelly Miller and LCpl.
The Medal of Honor is presented to the family of Cpl. Jason Dunham during a
hit,” he told me. So I said, White House ceremony on January 11, 2007. Cpl. Dunham was the second service William Hampton ran up
“Well let’s go get them!”
to them, and I was right
member to be awarded the Medal of Honor in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the
first Marine to receive our nation’s highest military honor for heroism in Iraq.
behind, when Cpl.
Sgt. Sanders called up our vehicles which had been Dunham yelled for us to watch the insurgent’s hands. The
patrolling around the police station and in Karabilah, and next thing I knew, there was an explosion, and I thought I
Cpl. Dunham got the patrol pushing west on the run, to was looking at four dead guys right in front of me. That’s
link up with those vehicles. By the time we linked up, we when Miller got up and started walking back toward me. I
had figured out from the radio traffic that it wasn’t Lima told him to get the hell out of there and back behind the
Company that was getting hit, it was the battalion wall. He and Hampton were bloody, and beat up pretty
commander’s patrol that had been ambushed in an area that bad, but alive. The insurgent jumped up, took a look at
we called the “H-K Triangle.” It was a little triangular me, and took off running. I shot him a few times, and told
shaped village between Husaybah to the west by the border, SSgt. Ferguson that I was going down to get Dunham.
which was Lima Company’s area of operations, and Everything went into slow motion—I started making radio
Karabilah, in my zone. Most of the insurgent activity during requests for medevacs and tried to get anybody there that I
our previous three weeks in the area had taken place in the could to help the three wounded Marines.
H-K. By the time we realized it was the battalion
commander’s patrol being hit, we were right at the H-K I knew Cpl. Dunham was in pretty bad shape. I tried talking
Triangle, and right near the thick of it as an RPG flew over to him, and though he was still breathing, I could tell he
one of our trucks. After we saw the RPG, we realized we wasn’t right. Out of nowhere, one of the corpsmen
were at the ambush site and took up a position against a appeared, “Doc Chops” we called him, because of his
wall for cover. Cpl. Dunham came over to me, and we sideburns, and he started administering first aid to Cpl.
decided to start pushing south through the H-K to clear Dunham.
Lopez had sent them up for me to use in Karabilah, and the
best way for me to get them trained was to put them into a
patrolling operation with us. During the four-day operation,
SSgt. Ferguson and 4th platoon were to be in charge of
perimeter security while the company occupied the patrol
base.
American Valor Quarterly - Winter, 2007/08 - 32