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All died Aug. 1 as result of enemy
small-arms fire while conducting dismounted operations outside
Haditha, Iraq. Castleberry was assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 4th
Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Marine Division, San Antonio, Texas.
The other five Marines were assigned to Marine Forces Reserve's 3rd
Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Brookpark, Ohio. As
part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, all were attached to Regimental Combat
Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).
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Montgomery (left) &
Deyarmin (right) in July 2005 |
Coullard (right) in July
2005 |
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Six Ohio Marine
Snipers Killed in Iraq
created: 8/2/2005 2:16:12 PM
CLEVELAND, OH-The local armory is calling it the deadliest attack on their
marines in years.
The attack happened yesterday afternoon near the small village of Haditha,
northeast of Baghdad.
It happened at 5:45 a.m. yesterday Cleveland time. All six Marines
were reservists, from northeast Ohio who trained at the Brook Park Armory.
They trained to be snipers - hidden gunmen with a precision shot.
We're learning they may have been the subject of an ambush, unable to ever
fire back.
They left in January from Brook Park as a proud and patriotic community
sent them off for three months of training, then on to Iraq. The 3rd
Battalion, 25th Marine specializes in transportation and communications,
but a select few specialize as scout snipers.
"As the name reflects, they were engaged as snipers in support of the
infantry operations," said Lt. Col. Kevin Rush.
In this case the six northeast Ohio snipers were involved in a mission
near the small Iraqi town of Haditha.
The question tonight is: How did six snipers, whose aim is to be
invisible, all die in a single attack?
Lt. Col. Rush tells us an investigation is underway to try and answer
that.
But NBC News has learned that the six may have been the subject of an
ambush. Marines nearby the snipers position heard a rapid burst of enemy
fire, but no return fire, indicating the Brook Park Marines never fired
back. NBC is also confirming 5 of 6 were killed instantly. The sixth body
was found shot dead nearly a mile away. NBC also reports the
insurgents behind the deaths put up posters in the area commending the
killings U.S. Marines.
"It'll come down and bite you in the rear when you least expect it, but
its part of your job," said Staff Sgt. Paul Clements. Word of the
six deaths came down to Brook Park Monday.
As for their extended family at the armory, it was a Monday morning
reality check that puts their job's mission in focus.
We are told by NBC's Jim Micklaszewski at the Pentagon, this type of sneak
attack on U.S. snipers is very, very rare where they are unable to defend
themselves in an ambush situation. The defense department hasn't dealt
with something like this in nearly 14 months.
6 Marine Snipers Are Slain in Ambush
in Western Iraq;
Another Dies in Suicide Attack
By DEXTER FILKINS
Published: August 3, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 2 - Six Marine snipers moving on foot near a western
Iraqi city were killed in an afternoon ambush, American commanders said
Tuesday, in one of the single deadliest incidents for American troops in
the last several months here.
The Americans said the six marines killed Monday afternoon had formed a
pair of sniper teams that were working near Haditha, one of a string of
cities along the Euphrates River believed to make up the main infiltration
route for guerrillas entering Iraq and moving toward Baghdad. The snipers
were working in two teams of three men each; both teams were wiped out.
"I don't believe there are any surviving eyewitnesses," a senior Marine
officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The ambush follows at least a half-dozen American military offensives in
the area to root out insurgents and shut down the "rat line," as it is
called, that is believed to shuttle insurgents from sanctuaries on or
across the Syrian border into the Iraqi heartland. The Americans staged
the operations in the hope of restoring Iraqi authority, but the
guerrillas have proved resilient.
Ansar al Sunna, an insurgent group, took responsibility for the ambush in
a posting on an Islamist Web site, claiming that its men, which it called
the Lions of Monotheism, had killed eight marines, "some of them by guns
and others by beheading."
There was no way to verify the claim.
One of the marines who American officials acknowledged had been killed was
unaccounted for after the ambush. His body was found later more than a
mile away from the ambush site, suggesting, according to one Pentagon
official, that he may have been dragged away by the insurgents.
In its Web posting, Ansar al Sunna said it had killed the marines in a
"compact ambush," as they walked in the Jazeera neighborhood north of the
city. The unit involved in the attack, the group said, went by the Arabic
word Tawid, meaning allegiance to one god, commonly used by Sallafis and
other ultraconservative Islamist sects.
The Associated Press reported that several masked men, claiming to be
members of Ansar al Sunna, had appeared in the city's central market,
carrying helmets, flak jackets and rifles they said had belonged to
American troops. They passed out fliers.
"They were on a mountain near the town so we went up, surrounded them and
asked them to surrender," one of the fliers said, according to The A. P.
"They did not surrender, so we killed them."
The killing of six American marines on foot is unusual. Most American
casualties result from "indirect" fire like mortar explosions and bomb
blasts. Ordinarily, in a street fight, the guerrillas are no match for the
marines.
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