Archives » Friday, February 08, 2008
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David Botti
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Feb 8, 2008 01:43 PM
A young Marine who once tested positive for marijuana use, went AWOL,
and never told his parents he was deploying to Iraq for a third time,
was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for his fierce fighting during
2004's battle for Fallujah. Corporal Sean Stokes actually made it
through that battle, but was killed on July 30, 2007 by a roadside
bomb. It was his third tour in Iraq. As the Marine Corps Times reports of his actions in Fallujah:
In the chaotic, intense house-to-house gun battles with insurgent
fighters during the 2004 Battle of Fallujah, the point man of Lima
Company’s 1st Platoon barreled his way through gunfire and exploding
grenades...Several times during missions from Nov. 9-11, 2004, Stokes braved
enemy fire — “fearless in the face of danger,” according to the Marine
Corps — to kill insurgents and enable his platoon to gain control of
houses...On Nov. 17, 2004, after a grenade exploded near him,
wounding him, the private managed to continue to use his weapon so the
fire teams could reassemble and launch a counterattack.
A number of military blogs are pointing to this memorial piece
written by Stokes' former platoon commander Lt. Jeffrey Sommers. Among
his anecdotes Sommers reflects on his frustration at not being able to
promote Stokes due to his prior drug use:
His work ethic and attitude prompted us to ask, almost beg, for his
promotion. No matter what our argument (“He’s smart,” “He’s got
charisma,” “Marines around listen when he talks because he’s dead on
with his analysis,” “Give him rank, he’s not the drug pop that we
thought we were getting hosed with, he’s making a difference”) the
command couldn’t budge around the time restriction involved in his
demotion; Pvt Stokes would remain a Private for the rest of the
deployment no matter what he did or was capable of.
Later he reflected on Stokes' superior performance working as "point man" during the fighting:
The first man sees a lot, and a lot rests on his shoulders. The Marines
behind him depend on what the point man passes back when enemy contact
occurs, the squad leader’s plan is dependent on that flash of
information the point man gives. Pvt Stokes found a deadly rhythm as
the point man for second squad. Whenever a fight broke out, he would
either kill the enemy immediately himself, or if he couldn’t give out a
quick situation update so his squad could close with and kill.
Stokes' aunt described to the Marine Corps Times how her nephew sought
to keep his family from worrying about his last deployment:
“To protect his family from worry, he told them before he left and
during his third tour that his ship, the Bonhomme Richard, was stopping
at different ports around the world and was not going to go to Iraq,”
Leupp said by e-mail. “He had already been through so much during his
first two tours. Sean was supposed to just see the world by stopping at
different ports. So we thought he was safe during his third and we
hoped his last deployment. But not the way we hoped.”
Here's a local television station's coverage of the Silver Star presentation ceremony:
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