By tara petersen
Staff Writer
TARA PETERSEN U.S. Marines (l-r) Vincent Rodriguez, Danian Philbert, Michael Casey and Michael Lynch stand in front of the 6th Motor Transport Battalion headquarters in Red Bank.
Operation Iraqi Freedom was about more than firing a gun. Danian Philbert, Michael Lynch, Michael Casey and Vincent Rodriguez are among the local Marines who have returned home after seven months of duty overseas. All four were based at Camp Coyote in Kuwait but regularly went into Iraq as support for the infantrymen there.
About 175 members of their battalion, the 6th Motor Transport, arrived July 13 at Fort Monmouth or one of six other sites around the country, according to Gunnery Sgt. Douglas Breen of South Brunswick.
The battalion, including Breen, was activated for Operation Enduring Freedom in January, though Breen noted that "the operation didn’t become ‘Iraqi Freedom’ until the war began." Breen was able to perform his military duties from the United States, rather than overseas.
After a few weeks of classes to teach them "what to expect," and drills to prepare them for being gassed with chemical weapons, the four men landed in Kuwait in the middle of the night.
"It was pitch black," said Lynch, a Jamesburg resident. "The moon was the only light. When there was no moon, there was no light at all."
Lynch worked as a mechanic, repairing trucks used in the war. He said one of the most memorable times in Iraq was when they were blinded by a sand storm that lasted three days.
"We were told the enemy was a half-mile away. Just imagine someone pulling a curtain over your face and trying to look through it. [Another Marine and I] were talking to each other, but we couldn’t see each other," Lynch said.
Philbert, a Monroe resident, drove trucks that supplied food, water, fuel and ammunition to the troops at various campsites. The 22-year-old said the most difficult part was dealing with the lack of sleep.
"When we were driving one convoy in a ‘blackout drive,’ I actually saw the vehicle in front of me get shot at. I saw sparks. He was half asleep and so was I. I told him afterward what happened, and he didn’t even realize (he had been fired upon)," Philbert said.
According to Philbert, the convoys drove in "blackouts" at night with their headlights off to minimize the chance of being seen by the enemy.
Rodriguez, 24, Woodbridge, said he initially worked on radios and other communications equipment, but after the war began in March, he was in "convoy control." It was then his job to keep the approximately 120-vehicle convoy moving and to provide a route for it.
He said he would get nervous when he saw the Fedayeen, a radical group in support of Saddam Hussein, "on top of sand dunes" all dressed in black and firing on his convoy.
"But luckily they were terrible shots," Rodriguez said. "The majority of the (Iraqi) people wanted us there."
Lynch agreed. He said that while driving through the towns on the way to Baghdad, "Iraqi people would come up and ask, ‘Is Saddam dead?’"
When transporting enemy prisoners, Philbert said he could tell the difference between the Fedayeen and regular Iraqi army soldiers by their behavior.
"(Hussein’s supporters) had to be held down and tied up, but the regular army guys would shout, ‘Kill Saddam.’ They had no choice (in joining Hussein’s army)," Philbert said.
He said he realized a larger purpose to the war "when I passed through the border to Iraq and saw kids on the side of the street begging for food and water, and saw the way they were living. This guy (Hussein) has 16 palaces."
"Their houses were built out of mud. You could see the ribs of the cows," he added.
Casey, a 21-year-old Old Bridge resident and Montclair State University student, also expressed sympathy for the people of Iraq.
"Just driving around and seeing the poverty-stricken kids, and then I come home and all I have to do is run to the 7-Eleven and I can have whatever I want," Casey said.
Rodriguez said that, as a way to cope, he tried not to think about his three children while separated from them.
Philbert is back home with his fiancée, whom he proposed to while overseas, and will return to his job as a hardware and software technician.
Lynch, 27, is already back to work at his trucking company, which his father ran while he was overseas. His fiancée kept their 3-year-old son thinking about him by saying prayers each night, Lynch said.
Casey said of his experience, "We all had a job to do. We did it, and we’re home safe."
Breen said that the men and women who supported the fighting troops deserve a lot of credit.
"These guys put their lives on hold," he said.