In My Own Words

SEA POWER

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In My Own Words

By Marine 1st Lt. Laura A. Schmitz
Sea Power
August 2005

I was raised in a very patriotic family; it was a natural part of life. Because I thought I wanted to fly for the Navy, I chose the Naval Academy. I started thinking about the Marine Corps my sophomore year. I liked the structure and the mission better. The strength of women Marines is that we have determination, and we want to succeed at everything we do.

The first attack I experienced was when I was leading Force Service Support Group convoys in OIF I (Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment 1). It was minor compared to April 2004, when a major attack occurred on my second deployment.

Once we knew we were going back to Iraq, we had a couple months to get all our vehicles ready and to train. They were long, intense days trying to get ready. The training we had here and in Kuwait is what brought everyone out of the April attack alive.

The fear of the unknown was more prevalent during OIF I. We were going into a war and we didn't know what they had. During OIF II, the enemy was regrouped and they were out to get us.

Convoys were being attacked daily. For a while they were targeting the supply convoys because we weren't as heavily armored. I had spent time in Kuwait going through scenarios in my mind, and when the attack happened I went back to that training.

That night in April, we were leaving on a convoy from Al Taqaddum and going to Fallujah with 22 vehicles. As we were traveling the main route, my Marines reported there was a bus stalled in the rear of the convoy. At the same time, I was passing a pickup truck and saw someone on a cell phone, probably initiating the attack. I was on the radio notifying the MPs when I saw tracers flying past. We sped up to get through the kill zone, but they didn't really open up until half the convoy was through.

It was a bigger attack than we initially thought. They were part of the Mujahadeen Militia, and they had dug in defenses along the berms by the road. They had improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted, and were using machine guns, RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and small arms fire. An RPG went through a mail container on the convoy, and all the mail burned up. I feel bad about that to this day.

The Marines did what they were trained to do. They stood on top of their trucks and returned fire with the .50-calibers [machine guns] and M-16s. I called in helicopter support, and they blew up the pickup truck and helped us with our perimeter defenses.

As soon as we stopped, the two corpsmen jumped out and started checking for injuries. We had six wounded [Marines] we sent out on Medevac, and we had 10 vehicles disabled. When Explosive Ordnance Disposal came the next morning to inspect the IEDs, they found 13 enemy killed. It was definitely a long 24 hours!

This is a great job, and I'd tell anyone that. I'm proud that I'm working with Marines. Because we are the smallest and toughest service, the esprit de corps in the Marines is something you will never find in the other services. Looking back, I'm going to be able to say I served with the Marines, and they're the ones that come through any adversity on top.