Recorded Books Inc. - My Men Are My Heroes: the Brad Kasal Story

THE BRAD KASAL STORY

AS TOLD TO

NATHANIEL R. HELMS

NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND

Naval Institute Press

291 Wood Road

Annapolis, MD 21402

2007 by Brad Kasal and Nathaniel R. Helms

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First Naval Institute Press paperback edition published in 2012.

ISBN: 978-1-6125-1137-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data for the hardcover edition is available from the
Library of Congress.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006921329

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

201918171615141312987654321

First printing

This book is dedicated to the memory of the members of 3d Battalion, 1st Marines who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the fight for Fallujah.

Headquarters and Service Company

SSgt Russell L. Slay

SSgt Trevor L. Spink

Sgt Krisna Nachampassak

Cpl Bradley T. Arms

Cpl Nicanor A. Alverez

Cpl Terry Holmes

LCpl Louis W Qualls

LCpl James E. Swain

PFC Christopher J. Reed

Weapons - George Company

Sgt Byron W. Norwood

Cpl Brian Oliveira

Cpl Steven Rintamaki

LCpl Joshua W. Dickinson

LCpl Abraham Simpson

Kilo Company

Sgt Christopher T. Heflin

Sgt Morgan W. Strader

LCpl Jeramy A. Ailes

LCpl Juan E. Segura

India Company

Cpl Dale A. Burger Jr.

LCpl Justin D. McLeese

LCpl Andres H. Perez

LCpl Joseph T. Welke

LCpl Phillip G. West

PFC Fernando B. Hannon

PFC Geoffrey Perez

Lima Company

Sgt Juan Calderon Jr.

Sgt William C. James

Cpl Theodore A. Bowling

LCpl Benjamin S. Bryan

LCpl Luis A. Figueroa

LCpl Michael W. Hanks

LCpl Nicholas D. Larson

LCpl Nathan R. Wood

From Sergeant Major Brad Kasal:

From writer Nat Helms:

Writing this book has been a remarkably rewarding endeavor. I would like to thank people who contributed so much to making sure this story could be told.

First I would like to thank Sgt Major Kasal for his patience, forbearance, and honesty. By nature he is a very humble man. It was necessary to remind him almost daily the book was about him; otherwise he might never have mentioned his own role in anything.

Kasal is a Marines Marine and a warrior of unparalleled valor, honor, and honesty. His efforts were ably reinforced by Lt Col Willard Willie Buhl, Brigadier General John Toolan, and all the officers and men of the United States Marine Corps who directed me, patiently corrected me, and put up with all my questions for almost two years.

Also I wish to acknowledge the role of Lt Col Robert Brown, U.S. Army Ret, the publisher of Soldier of Fortune magazine. Without his advice and encouragement this project would not have gotten off the ground.

Im grateful to our editors, Larry Erickson and Dan Weeks, who deserve much credit for the final product. During the production of this book Larrys son, Ryan, was fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as a grunt in the 10th Mountain Division, no doubt making Larrys editorial task doubly difficult.

Finally I must mention my wife, Marsha, who listened to me rumble on far into the wee hours; my daughter, Cecily Daller, Esquire, who provided me legal advice and constant encouragement; and my son, Nate Helms, currently serving in the Coast Guard. It is men like Kasal and our sons and daughters in uniform who make it possible for the rest of us to pursue our dreams.

The long white bone lying on the road looked like an enormous chicken leg that had been sucked clean and tossed asideexcept for the gray athletic shoe on the rotting foot. The shoe and the leg had once belonged to a radical Muslim jihadista holy warrior. The remnants of the rotting corpse had become breakfast for a pack of the starving, half-mad dogs that roamed the embattled city of Fallujah, Iraq, in November 2004. It was a city that thousandsperhaps tens of thousandsof warriors on both sides of the battle wouldnt exit in one piece, much less alive.

The last time Marines had fought from house to house and room to room for days on end was during the epic battle for the Vietnamese city of Hue in 1968. As it was then, the combat at Fallujah was ghastly and the casualties high. During the monthlong fight, at least 136 Marines were killed and more than 1,200 were wounded.

In both cities, pools of blood slicked the floors and stained the walls of embattled houses after the Marines surged through them. Every alley was a death trap and every room a potential morgue. Dead men shared floor space with the living while cracking bullets zipped overhead and pinged around like castor beans in a cheap Juarez rattle. Walls of the rooms where the combatants took shelter suddenly collapsed, and roofs came crashing down without warning. A finely sifted frosting of concrete, dust, and sweat covered the living and dead alike, coloring everyone in the same dull gray. Every room in every house promised a fierce contest with only one outcome for the embattled Marines. To a man, they knew that failure was not an option.

Another gripping image from Fallujahcaptured by a freelance photographerdepicts a terribly wounded Marine being assisted from a house by two comrades. He is bloody but still defiantly holds his 9mm pistol at the ready. The mans jaw is set in determination to come out standing up.

The riveting photo couldnt show it, but the Marine had been shot seven times and riddled with at least 43 grenade fragments during a struggle to rescue several wounded comrades from inside the house. His right leg was nearly severed by a burst of bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle, one that also wounded another Marine.