Valued Veteran Supporter,
I am an Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) Combat Veteran with the First Battalion, Fifth Marines. In January of 2003, the First Battalion Fifth Marines deployed to Kuwait to take part in Operation Iraqi Freedom. We were the first unit to cross the line of departure into Iraq as we moved to seize the Rumayllah Oilfields, taking the first of enemy resistance of the war.
U.S. Marines are conditioned to face danger and hardship, but nothing can adequately prepare them for the loss of one of their own. During this fight, we suffered our first Marine Killed-In-Action in Iraq. The Battalion mourned the loss of Second Lieutenant Therrel S. Childers of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. He was fatally wounded when Iraqi vehicle-mounted troops launched a surprise attack using civilian trucks. He passed while doing what Marine Lieutenants have always done in combat, leading his Marines in the attack.
