Every Day Heroes

It's often said that it's difficult to cover the entirety of the Iraq war from a hotel in Baghdad. The truthfulness or fairness of that statement is debateable. But regardless of effort, motivation, or lack thereof, given the thousands of potential stories to tell it's no surprise that many are overlooked. For instance, enter "Lance Corporal Joshua Butler" in the search window at ABC News and you'll get this response: No results were found for "Lance Corporal Joshua Butler". Try the same at the New York Times: Your search for Marine Corporal Joshua Butler in all fields returned 0 results.

That's unfortunate. Because in a rather baffling story last summer the NY Times bemoaned the fact that there were no stories of heroes in the media coverage of the Iraq war. They blamed the Pentagon. (Full text here.) For bloggers this was the equivalent of tossing a lamb chop into a den of lions. Follow the links and trackbacks in this story and you'll find numerous examples of heroism, outstanding acts of courage, and ample evidence that the generation at war in Iraq is no less deserving of accolades then their fathers and grandfathers before them. Since most of those blog reports rely on military news sources for their information we can dismiss that "Pentagon reluctance" to acknowledge heroism and instead ponder why the media has been reluctant to do so. After all, they waste little time in detailing the failures of those same all-to-human troops.

Among the many heroic stories the Times missed is that of Marine Corporal Joshua Butler. Corporal Butler was serving with India Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team-2 in Husaybah, Iraq, near the Syrian border. On April 11, 2005, they were attacked:

That morning a group of four mortar rounds flew over the base.

Twenty-two-year-old Cpl. Roy Mitros was the sergeant of the guard when this happened.

?It was definitely out of the norm because all of them were within 5 to 10 meters of each other,? he explained.

The Huntsville, Ala., native hurried to the combat operations center (COC) to report the location of the rounds to the watch officer. At that point the base came under heavy mortar and rocket-propelled grenade fire as the COC took three RPG rockets blowing the doors off. Mitros went to get the quick reaction force, finding them all ready with their gear on.

Corporal Anthony Fink, a 21-year-old Columbus, Ohio native and Lance Cpl.s Joe Lampe and Roger Leyton were manning a M-240G medium machinegun when their bunker was hit with an RPG knocking them to the ground. The dust and sand from the busted sandbags clouded their view of the oncoming truck and small arms fire forced them to keep their heads down.

From his post, Lance Cpl. Joshua Butler saw a white dump truck rolling past Fink?s position toward his post and the front entrance.

The 20-year-old Altoona, Pa. native engaged the truck with 20 to 30 5.56 mm rounds as it veered off the road and detonated about 40 meters from his post, creating a crater and sending a wall of smoke into the air.

Butler was thrown into one of the walls of his post as shrapnel and debris landed around him. One piece broke through his goggles that rested on the front of his Kevlar helmet. Getting up to check himself and moving down the wall of his post to gain better cover, he heard another distinct diesel engine rumble.

A couple of seconds later, a red fire truck cleared the smoke the previous truck left heading toward Butler and his post at about 40 mph.

?It was like nothing I?d ever seen before,? he explained.

Fellow Marine, Lance Cpl. Charles Young, a 19-year-old from Oldsmar, Fla., fired grenades from a corresponding position at the fire truck hitting directly in front and behind the truck, slowing its progress.

As the truck slowed, Butler was able to make out two men inside the truck, their faces covered by black veils. He engaged these men with his SAW, spraying 100 to 150 rounds into the truck causing it to follow the same path its predecessor made exploding 30 meters from his position.

?I knew what they were doing and I just tried to stop them,? he said.

The explosion created an enormous fire ball that ripped into the air. Doors around the base were blown off their hinges, windows shattered and remains of the fire truck rained down on the entire camp.

A third suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated farther out.

Mitros arrived with the quick reaction force as the small arms fire continued and Butler was sent to be seen by the corpsman.

As Butler stopped the SVBIED attacks, the assault on Fink?s post continued from multiple directions. Taking fire and returning it, Fink and Leyton began firing 40 mm grenades from a M-203 grenade launcher as 1st Sgt. Donald Brazeal, the company first sergeant, arrived at their position to find out where they were taking the heaviest amount of fire.

?(Fink) told me that it was coming from beyond a wall 300 meters from the post, so we reset the machineguns to suppress the wall,? explained the 40-year-old Council Bluffs, Iowa native.

Brazeal and Fink pulled out two AT-4 anti-tank missiles. Brazeal fired the first of the two from a HESCO barrier, landing a direct hit on the wall. Fink then followed it with another direct hit. With the insurgents? position suppressed, they were able to resupply the post with ammunition.

As the battle continued, approximately 100 school children ran out of the school across the street from the base. The insurgents sought cover behind them slowing the fighting.

?The Marines displayed extreme discipline in not firing at the children,? Brazeal explained.
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Despite what Brazeal says was an obvious preplanned attack, no one was severely injured. Three causalities were medevaced for minor injuries, but returned later.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Jessie Beddia, was the primary corpsman during the attacks.

?Most of our causalities were internal injuries from the blast wave of the truck explosions, but miraculously nothing was really serious. A couple of Marines complained about some minor hearing loss, but that is common in that situation,? the 31-year-old from Buytown, Texas explained.

The daylight attack on this remote U.S. military base fits a pattern of recent insurgent attacks on U.S. military strongholds. On Saturday, a mortar attack at Camp Ramadi killed three servicemembers, and there was a coordinated assault two weeks ago on the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.

U.S. forces have repelled each attack, inflicting large losses on the insurgents while incurring few casualties.

The insurgents used small and medium arms fire as cover fire for a suicide car-bomber as he drove his way towards the perimeter wall near the southeast tower. Marines returned fire, causing the vehicle to explode before it reached the wall.

A quick reaction force, made up of Marines and U.S. soldiers, as well as Apache helicopters and artillery counter-fire, prevented the insurgency from breaching the perimeter walls.

The insurgent force was estimated to be more than 60 members strong. Their attempt to infiltrate the operating base lasted for two hours before they were forced to retreat, but not without suffering at least 50 casualties.

Shortly thereafter the story of Corporal Butler was forgotten - at least in the media. But last week, following the return of Butler's unit to the States, he was honored in the US Congress by Bill Shuster (R - Pa):

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and distinguish one of America?s finest ? United States Marine Lance Corporal Joshua Butler of Altoona, Pennsylvania. Butler, who dreamed of being a U.S. Marine since he was four years old, protected hundreds of his fellow comrades from suicide bombers mounting an attack with trucks, explosives and no regard for human life.

Butler was stationed in Iraq along the Syrian border, and while guarding the base?s perimeter from a lookout tower his post was attacked. Butler sprayed the first suicide bomber with twenty or thirty rounds causing him to veer off at the last moment to miss his target. The truck, filled with explosives and manned by a suicide-mission insurgent, crashed through the improvised barrier the Marines had built up along the edge of the base. After being knocked down by the blast, Lance Corporal Butler remained focused, alert and ready. Through the smoke of the blast, he saw a red, suicide-driven fire engine coming toward the base. Butler fired one-hundred rounds onto the vehicle. After the truck was hit by a grenade, launched by Pfc. Charles Young, its explosives were detonated outside of the base but within fifty yards of Butler. Debris from this blast sprayed the length of four football fields and knocked down soldiers as far as two-hundred yards away. But no Marines were seriously hurt, including Butler.

Lance Corporal Butler?s actions saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow Marines and marked a significant victory against the insurgents in Iraq. The suicide bombers mission was thwarted by Butler?s courageous and timely reaction. An estimated twenty-one insurgents were killed that day while fifteen were reported wounded.

Lance Corporal Butler ? You are a U.S. Marine and a hero, and across the country Americans are proud of your leadership. Thank you for serving when your nation called.

If you read far enough into the AP story headlined U.S. Military Deaths Reach 2,000 in Iraq you may experience a bit of deja-vu:

[Al-Qaida in Iraq] also said it was behind the three suicide car bombs aimed at the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in Baghdad. Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Hussein Ali Kamal said 17 people were killed - mostly hotel guards and passers-by - in Monday's attack, which involved bombers driving two cars and a cement truck.

The U.S. soldier who shot and killed the truck driver said he initially had a hard time seeing the truck drive through the breach that the first car explosion had created in the concrete wall.

``Once the dust and the debris settled down, I noticed the truck had already breached through our perimeter,'' Spc. Darrell Green told CNN American Morning. ``He backed up and then pulled forward. As he was doing that, I engaged in machine gun and took out the driver. If he had made it through, he could have done a lot more damage, a lot more casualties than what actually happened.''

In a Web posting, al-Qaida in Iraq said it carried out the hotel attack to target a ``dirty harbor of intelligence agents and private American, British and Australian security companies.'' The hotel complex houses offices of the AP and other media organizations.

It's often said that it's difficult to cover the entirety of the Iraq war from a hotel in Baghdad. But if you wait there long enough, eventually the war will come to you.