U.S. Marines Tough It Out on Thanksgiving Day

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq —  The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit decorated its chow hall with cardboard cutouts of pumpkins and put turkey, stuffing and pecan pie on the menu. There was also nonalcoholic sparkling wine and a priest who thanked God for the good fortune to come from the “greatest land in the world.”

But none of the Thanksgiving rituals could blot out the realities of Iraq.

Even as dinner ended and the Marines drifted outside into the darkness of their unlighted base, another Marine was killed in an attack by insurgents here in the northern part of Babil province.

Twelve other Marines were wounded in the same area on Thanksgiving Day.

Insurgents also attacked the convoy of Col. Ron Johnson, the unit’s commander, detonating a roadside bomb as he returned to the base after a night of directing raids against militant targets. Johnson was unhurt.

Despite spending Thanksgiving thousands of miles from home, many Marines expressed little frustration or sadness.

“It’s like the president said, we have to complete our mission,” said Staff Sgt. Jim Starr, 31, a member of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s elite Force Reconnaissance platoon who is on his sixth overseas deployment. “You look around you here and see what the Iraqis don’t have, and you think that anything you can do to help them is a good thing.”

Last year, President Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad and served Thanksgiving dinner to some troops.

This year, the commander in chief spent Thanksgiving morning phoning troops in Iraq and other hot spots around the world before settling in for a holiday meal and his twin daughters’ birthday celebration at the family ranch in Texas.

One call he made was to Cpl. Kevin D. Morris, a member of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Fallouja, where U.S. forces recently completed an offensive to root out Sunni Muslim insurgents.

“As the men and women of America’s armed forces are sacrificing for the liberties we all enjoy, the president wanted to express his gratitude for their service and sacrifice, and to wish them a happy Thanksgiving,” said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan.

“I honestly don’t mind being here, even on Thanksgiving,” said Starr, who has a 5-year-old daughter. “I know I’ve missed birthdays and holidays that I’m not going to be able to take back. But I was the one who asked to do this job.”

In the former rebel stronghold of Fallouja, many Marines enjoyed their first hot meal in weeks, along with a chance to contact loved ones.

Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Fleharty used his unit’s brief Thanksgiving visit to base camp to send out an e-mail to friends and relatives.

“Where I’ve been the past few weeks is not a nice place. When you’re in a place like that for a while, you sometimes start to think that maybe you’re not a nice person,” he wrote.

“I learned a lot about being thankful in the past few months.... I’m thankful my country’s democracy is in place and I don’t have to witness the painful labor of its birth.

“I’m thankful that I was granted the honor to work with the bravest group of young men anyone could ever hope to meet.”

Senior officers proudly point to statistics showing that, of the roughly 240 Marines who have been wounded since the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived here in late July, more than 80% have returned to duty.

“They all seem so highly motivated, focused and happy,” said Lt. Cmdr. Richard Walters, a British naval officer who serves as a liaison between the British and American forces. “We Brits talk about it a lot. I have not seen an unhappy Marine.”

Not all are always happy. Many Marines here are men and women in their late teens and early 20s and they leave behind nascent marriages and, in some cases, infant children.

Some marriages are strained, Marines say. Long-distance breakups occur.

But others insist that despite the ache of separation, they remain convinced that their sacrifice is for a good cause.

“I think a lot of the media is liberal and they portray guys like me and what we’re doing as a bad thing -- and it’s not a bad thing,” said Cpl. Brandon Wayne Humphrey, 21, who is a gunner on convoys that have to dodge insurgent fire. “We’re doing a great thing here, helping free a people that has been oppressed for years and years and years. I’d like the world to see that.”

Humphrey spoke after hanging up from his allotted half-hour Thanksgiving call to his wife, Rachel Lucinda, in Fort Worth.

They have been married for almost two years. He has spent nearly half that time away on two tours of duty in Iraq.

“I’m a family man and it’s hard not being able to be there for my wife,” Humphrey said. “You’ve got to get the vocabulary right on the phone. Besides being a Marine, you’ve still got to play the role of the man at home. You’ve got to be comforting to your wife so she doesn’t get upset.”

On Thursday, that comfort had to come long-distance.

“I know we’d all like to be with our families today,” Johnson told his officers as he closed the daily briefing just before dinner. “We’re going to sit down and enjoy a nice Thanksgiving meal. But then we’re going to go back and stay on the attack, because we have to keep after them 24/7.

“I’m sorry,” he told them. “But that’s the way it has to be.”

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Times staff writer Warren Vieth in Crawford, Texas, contributed to this report.