Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
February 1, 2008
Pg. 14
By Alissa J. Rubin
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — As a cold wind swept across much of the Middle East on Thursday, bringing snow to northern Iraq and subfreezing temperatures to Baghdad, about 100 soldiers and marines gathered for a ceremony to rename a small helicopter landing zone on this huge American base in honor of a fallen comrade.
The man for whom the helipad was being named, Maj. Douglas A. Zembiec, a marine, was killed last May in a firefight in Baghdad. On a dark night in an alley, he told his troops to get down before getting down himself, and he was the one hit by enemy fire. His men survived.
But Thursday’s ceremony at the military base here at Baghdad International Airport was less a memorial for Major Zembiec — who has been honored many times for his heroism, and not just in Baghdad but in Falluja as well — than it was a moment for reflection by the men and women gathered here.
The four speakers, who included a Naval Academy friend of Major Zembiec and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq, spoke in unvarnished language, sometimes awkwardly, as if trying to explain to themselves why a man comes to this wind-raked patch of desert to fight an enemy he cannot see and what can be learned from his death.
In a movie, their words might have sounded hackneyed. But here, where each person who spoke had lost at least one friend in the name of a country that has largely turned against the war, the words rang true.
First to speak was a marine, Maj. Gen. John M. Paxton Jr. He described Major Zembiec’s act of heroism as a model of leadership, an old-fashioned-sounding attribute, but a quality the military values deeply.
Capt. Jeffrey T. Petersen spoke next. He read a letter written by a serviceman who was 10 yards behind Major Zembiec when the major was killed. The men were part of a team helping to train Iraqi soldiers.
The serviceman described hearing the Iraqi radio message crackle after Major Zembiec was hit. “What came over the radio was ‘five wounded and one martyred’; they didn’t say whether it was Iraqi or American,” he said. “The dictionary says that a martyr sacrifices something of value, especially a life of principle.”
Second to last was Maj. Thomas H. Presecan, a schoolmate of Major Zembiec at the Naval Academy. Unabashedly still grieving for the friend he lost, he reminded people of the close relationships within the Marine Corps, the smallest service. He promised that Major Zembiec’s widow, Pam, and daughter, Fallyn, would never be alone, that the whole Marine Corps would help them.
“He loved Pam, he loved Fallyn, he loved the Corps,” Major Presecan said.
Last to speak was General Petraeus, who found in Major Zembiec’s sacrifice a story to inspire those still deep in the battle and called him “a true charter member of the brotherhood of the close fight.”
General Petraeus spoke about all the other men and women whose memorial services he had attended, whose families he had written; one more joined their ranks on Thursday, the victim of an improvised explosive device in Baghdad.
“No two of these fallen are the same beyond the Kevlar, the helmet and body armor,” General Petraeus said. “They left behind loved ones who mourned the unwritten chapters of their lives.”
February 1, 2008
Pg. 14
By Alissa J. Rubin
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — As a cold wind swept across much of the Middle East on Thursday, bringing snow to northern Iraq and subfreezing temperatures to Baghdad, about 100 soldiers and marines gathered for a ceremony to rename a small helicopter landing zone on this huge American base in honor of a fallen comrade.
The man for whom the helipad was being named, Maj. Douglas A. Zembiec, a marine, was killed last May in a firefight in Baghdad. On a dark night in an alley, he told his troops to get down before getting down himself, and he was the one hit by enemy fire. His men survived.
But Thursday’s ceremony at the military base here at Baghdad International Airport was less a memorial for Major Zembiec — who has been honored many times for his heroism, and not just in Baghdad but in Falluja as well — than it was a moment for reflection by the men and women gathered here.
The four speakers, who included a Naval Academy friend of Major Zembiec and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq, spoke in unvarnished language, sometimes awkwardly, as if trying to explain to themselves why a man comes to this wind-raked patch of desert to fight an enemy he cannot see and what can be learned from his death.
In a movie, their words might have sounded hackneyed. But here, where each person who spoke had lost at least one friend in the name of a country that has largely turned against the war, the words rang true.
First to speak was a marine, Maj. Gen. John M. Paxton Jr. He described Major Zembiec’s act of heroism as a model of leadership, an old-fashioned-sounding attribute, but a quality the military values deeply.
Capt. Jeffrey T. Petersen spoke next. He read a letter written by a serviceman who was 10 yards behind Major Zembiec when the major was killed. The men were part of a team helping to train Iraqi soldiers.
The serviceman described hearing the Iraqi radio message crackle after Major Zembiec was hit. “What came over the radio was ‘five wounded and one martyred’; they didn’t say whether it was Iraqi or American,” he said. “The dictionary says that a martyr sacrifices something of value, especially a life of principle.”
Second to last was Maj. Thomas H. Presecan, a schoolmate of Major Zembiec at the Naval Academy. Unabashedly still grieving for the friend he lost, he reminded people of the close relationships within the Marine Corps, the smallest service. He promised that Major Zembiec’s widow, Pam, and daughter, Fallyn, would never be alone, that the whole Marine Corps would help them.
“He loved Pam, he loved Fallyn, he loved the Corps,” Major Presecan said.
Last to speak was General Petraeus, who found in Major Zembiec’s sacrifice a story to inspire those still deep in the battle and called him “a true charter member of the brotherhood of the close fight.”
General Petraeus spoke about all the other men and women whose memorial services he had attended, whose families he had written; one more joined their ranks on Thursday, the victim of an improvised explosive device in Baghdad.
“No two of these fallen are the same beyond the Kevlar, the helmet and body armor,” General Petraeus said. “They left behind loved ones who mourned the unwritten chapters of their lives.”