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The Assault on Sadr School in Najaf (2004)
Published 3 years ago
Marines from 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, Company C assault the Sadr School in Najaf, Iraq in order to evacuate wounded Marines inside. Here is the full story from Sergeant Major Justin Lehew.
The following paragraph is a direct excerpt from an interview I conducted with Sergeant Major Justin Lehew a few years back. The contents of the story he is telling are displayed in the video above.
"Company C, 3rd Platoon elements pinned down inside of the Sadr School as they clear the building of insurgents. Insurgents begin rolling grenades down the stairs at the Marines going up. Insurgent Sniper has alleyway controlled to deter Marines from getting out or in. Marines are wounded inside of the building. Plan is this. 1stSgt will run down alleyway to draw out the sniper. Marine machine gun team will fix snipers location when he fires (and hopefully misses). Close combat still happening in the building as you can hear firing and grenades going off throughout the video. Sniper shoots at 1stSgt, misses, he gets to the Marines and Corpsman in the building. Machine Gunners locate sniper and pin him down. Rounds still coming in for a brief moment but they take care of that rapidly. 1stSgt communicates with Platoon Sergeant that casualties are being brought out along with the men. Platoon Sergeant will tell Machine Gunners to shift fires to the left side of the alleyway as Marines carrying casualties are coming straight at them down the right side of the alleyway. Company GySgt and casualty collection team at the ready. Yes, that is a US Marine, LCpl James Hassle carrying out his brother, LCpl Ryan Borgstrom on his back, under fire a distance of over 75 yards to safety." ~Sergeant Major Justin Lehew.