BELLEVUE, Wash. - Few events in Marine Corps history are storied as the iconic flag raising on Mt. Suribachi during World War II’s Battle of Iwo Jima. The quiet event, starkly contrasting the bloody battle that claimed lives of a third of the war’s fallen Marines, later marked a deafening Allied victory and powerfully symbolized the resolve of a nation at war.
History will forever honor famed Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal for capturing the celebrated photo of the flag raising. But without the attention to detail of a young Marine lieutenant, this powerful image of American patriotism would likely not exist.
There's No Place Like A Patrol Base
PATROL BASE BURY, Afghanistan — Their humble home is exceptionally primitive, but it’s all the deployed infantrymen need.
Patrol Base Bury, a tiny base contained by concertina wire and giant Hesco barriers, is the humble home of Marines with 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment during their seven-month deployment to Helmand province’s Garmsir district.
This deployment has brought them far from home in both distance and circumstance.
Read MoreU.S. forces treat Afghans wounded by suicide bomber
FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELHI, Afghanistan — The sounds from a controlled flurry of medical activity drifted through a narrow hallway packed with patients, stretchers and U.S. Navy corpsmen, funneling their calm conversations and unbreakable focus into the buzzing aid station.
Faced with a mass casualty situation following an attack by a suicide bomber in southern Helmand province’s Garmsir district, corpsmen with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment treated eight wounded Afghan National Policemen here, April 19, 2012.
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