7th annual Run for the Warriors honors service members, draws thousands Page 1B
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Carolina Panthers visit Marines, see how they train Page 1C
Service members, families go crazy for Maynia festivities Page 1D
GLOBE Serving Camp Lejeune and surrounding areas since 1944
CAPT. ROBERT SHUFORD
24th Marine Expeditionary Unit
Approximately 1,000 Marines and sailors from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit are set to participate in the largest multi-nation exercise in the Middle East region this year. Over the past few days the Marines dis-embarked the amphibious assault ships of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready
THURSDAY MAY 24, 20 2012
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Group to bring ashore personnel, equipment and supplies as they prepare to conduct a variety of training events with Jordanian forces and other participating nations at different locations throughout Jordan. The focus of their efforts is to conduct partnered training with other countries, to share knowledge, and to demonstrate the interoperability and flexibility a Marine Expeditionary
Unit brings as a forward-deployed crisis response force capable of responding to a variety of contingencies. “When a crisis happens in the world our team has to be ready to work with other countries and their militaries immediately,” said Col. Frank Donovan, commanding officer, 24th MEU. “By conducting exercises like Eager Lion 12 we build strong relationships with partnered
countries, we learn from each other and overcome hurdles in a training environment so that we can operate more effectively during a real mission.” This is the second major exercise for the 24th MEU and Iwo Jima ARG since deploying in March. In April, they participated in African Lion 12, the largest bi-lateral annual training exercise in Africa. “These types of exercises are a
great opportunity for the MarineNavy team to practice what we preach as a forward-deployed, crisis response force ready for anything,” said Donovan. “Conducting cooperation exercises like this are a key mission for us on our deployment. We appreciate the hospitality from the country of Jordan, we look forward to the opportunities presented during Eager Lion 12 and we’re excited to work with our partners.”
Photo by Lance Cpl. Tucker S. Wolf
Marines with Company C, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct a short-range training patrol May 5 to prepare for exercise Eager Lion 12.
Marine awarded Bronze Star for heroic actions CPL. TIMOTHY L. SOLANO 2nd Marine Division
Cpl. Ronald Smith received one of the nation’s most prestigious combat awards, the Bronze Star medal with combat distinguishing device, during a ceremony May 4 in front of his fellow Marines of 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, after an 11-mile battalion hike. Smith, a mortarman with Company B, received the prestigious award for his heroic actions July 26, 2011, when he saved
an Afghan National Army soldier’s life. The then-lance corporal left from his patrol base on the summer day, loaded with mortar rounds and his service rifle, prepared for whatever his unit might encounter on patrol. He was the assistant mortar gunner charged with being the farthest rear security Marine alongside Mario, an Afghan National Army soldier who Smith had come to call a friend. “He was one of the few Afghans who really interacted with us,” said Smith. “He helped us cook dinner, played music for us, taught us Pashto and tried to learn
English from us. Nobody could say his name, so we all just called him Mario.” A detachment of Afghan National Army soldiers had been working alongside the Marines of Company B to eradicate the insurgency in an area called Trek Nawa when a firefight broke out, putting two rounds in Mario’s leg. Toting his rifle and a pack filled with Composition B, a heat and pressure sensitive military grade explosive, Smith low-crawled under enemy fire through 50 meters of foothigh poppy to assess Mario’s injuries. “Once he got hit, he was hobbling a
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Photo by Cpl. Timothy L. Solano
Lt. Col. Tyler Zagurski (center), commanding officer of 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, stands opposite of Cpl. Ronald Smith, a mortarman with the unit, as the battalion sergeant major reads Smith’s Bronze Star medal with combat distinguishing device citation aloud May 4.
little, but he was still up,” said Smith, as he recalled the Afghan soldier who he risked his life for. “When I realized he fell down, I went back and helped him over to a berm behind a pile of (harvested) poppy and started to treat him. I just remember thinking, ‘I hope to God we don’t start to take fire from the opposite direction.’” Smith, who had been a mortarman for almost two years, responded to the casualty instinctively, as infantry Marines are trained to do. “Once I crawled back to him after he got hit, everything was such a blur,” said Smith. “I just went into autopilot; my training kicked in, and I treated him with what I had and kept security until the (helicopter) got there.” For his actions that day almost 10 months ago, Smith now stood opposite Lt. Col. Tyler Zagurski, commanding officer of 1st Bn., 9th Marines, to receive the prestigious award. Zagurski secured the medal below Smith’s “U.S. Marines” nametape and spoke on Smith’s behalf to the rest of the “Walking Dead,” as the unit is called. “This award should show our junior Marines that their actions don’t go unnoticed,” he said. “(Then) Lance Cpl. Smith faced a challenge that set a precedent for us as an institution that suggests that even a Marine as junior as a lance corporal can take bold, decisive action.” The sweat-drenched Marines of the battalion took turns congratulating the newly awarded Marine. Afterward, the battalion was dismissed, leaving Smith to look back on his time in Afghanistan before enjoying the weekend with his friends. “You know, I really believe that (1st Bn., 9th Marines,) has an angel,” said Smith. “Nobody in the battalion died on that tour, and that is because someone watched over us all.”