Moving through the desert

Sgt. Charles “Cass” A. Spence

* EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an update on the tour of duty by Costa Mesa

resident Charles “Cass” A. Spence. The Daily Pilot profiled Spence

and his family when he was shipped out to serve during the war in

Iraq. The Daily Pilot will continue to update readers with reports

from Spence as they arrive.

Finally got a little downtime. ... You are gonna have to forgive

my spelling, punctuation and run-on sentences. I’m just too damned

tired to proofread this. Where do I start?

We closed the line of departure on none other than my wedding

anniversary, March 20. What are the odds? I did win the pool though,

$200. Everything went smooth. A little opposition initially. As we

passed through Al Nazaryah, that’s when things got intense.

It was a full-blown gunfight, and my fellow Marines performed as I

thought they would -- outstanding! Our job during this time was to

provide safe passage for a log train (convoy) of supplies. Fuel, ammo

etc. We are also taken to clear the “Baath Party Resistance” along

the way. This part of the job was, and still is, a little tough.

These guys are cowards. They wear civilian clothing over their

uniforms, terrorize the local population with acts of murder and

torture. There is no age limit to their victims.

This I have seen first hand. During an operation against the enemy

ambush (the locals informed us) these fighters were beginning to

surrender. At the last second, they ran into a building and began to

throw children -- yes children -- out in front of them while they

grabbed their weapons and began firing again using the kids as human

shields. If you have heard how the USMC trains us to be expert shots,

that day was proof! The hectic rate of fire slowed as the Marines

took careful aim and eliminated the enemy -- one well-placed shot at

a time.

I am proud to say that only the enemies were lost by our hand that

day.

I must admit, I was very, very angry at what had happened and had

to control myself when dealing with the prisoners of war that were

caught. From here, we cleared a couple more towns, all with the same

results. We saw the enemy and destroyed them.

I don’t like to make it so routine, but after the first three

firefights, things just kind of meld together. We had a bad truck

accident on our way to our current location. One of our trucks went

crashing off a medium-sized bridge. Out of 20 Marines, 18 were

injured. No deaths, thank God. The wounded were Medevac-ed out by

helicopter to a trauma center nearby.

Word got out among them that they would be flown to Kuwait for the

remainder of the war. They would have none of that. Those that could

walk got up and rejoined the company. Two of my Marines, who didn’t

catch wind that they’d be held in Kuwait, managed to slip out of the

hospital and hitchhiked all 200 miles back to the front. “Only in the

Marine Corps!”

That is a tale all by itself!! I think the guy from Stars and

Stripes already interviewed them.

Lately, we have been conducting raids and destroying weapons’

caches. We are truly making life miserable for the enemy.

Our company’s 1st sergeant speaks Arabic fluently, and so we get a

chance to experience the local culture. The locals tend to be very

standoffish at first, but once hands are shaken and blessings given

and received, they are some of the warmest and most polite people

I’ve met. They continuously talk of the atrocities committed by

Saddam Hussein and his operatives. They call us angels and kiss us on

our cheeks while reciting prayers to Allah.

The poverty here is unbelievable. No amenities that we are all so

accustomed to. No amount of peace talks would have changed Saddam

Hussein’s behavior toward his own people. So let’s think about it.

Not only do I get a chance to make the world a safer place against

terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, but I also get to help an

entire country out of a hell they have been forced to live in since

[Saddam] has been in power.

I know, watch the language. ... Man, a cold beer would go good

right about now. Man, do I miss my wife and kids.

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about them. You

know what really caught my eye about Carrie? She has the most

beautiful set of eyes I have ever seen. Now here’s the thing. It’s

not that they are just pretty to look at, it is what you see deep

inside them that matters. And she has the most honest and loving eyes

that I’ve ever seen. I truly am lucky.

I kind of had to take a break with this letter, otherwise I’ll get

all wound up.

I caught 18 deserters the other night. That was pretty funny. I’ll

tell you about that when I get back or in another letter. We’re

listening to the BBC right now. I guess some idiots in Washington are

complaining on how the war is taking too long. “Not like the Gulf

War.” Kuwait was the size of Riverside county, while Iraq is the size

of California. If these freaks could actually see what kind of impact

we were making here, they’d shut their mouths. When I say impacts, I

mean humanitarian-wise.

I forgot to mention that these kids love Skittles and M&Ms;!! I was

at the trauma center checking on my Marines, and there was a little

boy. His mother had been wounded by enemy fire (she’s OK). He was all

sullen, so I approached him with a bag of M&Ms; after an approving nod

from his mother. One minute, he was crying and stuffing his mouth

with M&Ms;, and the next ting you know, I am playing peek-a-boo and

chasing him around.

After talking to the Navy corpsman on hand, I found out that this

little boy’s father had been shot by the Baath Party earlier that

day, now get this, because he complained that they were taking too

much food from him and how could he feed his family. I found out this

kind of trash happened a lot, even before the war.

Oh, some good news! The papers we recovered after the other

night’s ambush provided us with some very useful information. We

knocked out four Iraqi tanks the other night. They tried to be

sneaky, but they weren’t sneaky enough.

Well, my hand hurts and I need some sleep. We are moving out soon,

to Baghdad hopefully.

Cass

Semper Fi!