Been 6 years.
We had been out on patrol for several hours and finally stopped at my favorite PB, Patrol Base Faheem, it was here that my former platoon slept, ate, and prepped for patrol after patrol, day after day in the oppressive heat and constant danger that was, and is to this day Sangin Afghanistan.
Faheem was nothing more than 8' high earthen walls pushed into a triangle shape by the Combat engineer's of 2nd CEB, with each point of the triangle protected by a single Marine in a hesco barrier and sandbag guard post, Faheem stood alone as the furthest American post in the district. It was Indian country. 6 hour firefights were an almost daily occurrence.
My then current platoon had just delivered some much needed supplies to the guys, water, food, mail, new boots. We were maybe 200 meters outside friendly lines when the call came out, "Bravo Fox. Routine casualty" it was said in such a calm, relaxed and casual tone that I wanted to be convinced someone had tripped and broken an ankle, or become a heat casualty, but I knew it wouldn't be that easy. Lcpl. John Farias had been shot fatally by a loser mercenary from Pakistan, who had come to Helmand Province in the Sangin valley to kill Americans.
Navy Corpsman Doc Gardner worked on Farias for half an hour, but to no avail, he was dead before his body hit the ground. He was placed in a USGI black body bag and placed in one of our gun trucks for the hour long drive to the Regimental FOB. The whole drive I was angry. I wanted to murder everyone I saw. When we got to the FOB my VC wouldn't let me carry his stretcher to the LZ. I ran behind some parked vehicles and wept like a small child.
I want to believe we accomplished something of value in that God forsaken place but I know we didn't. I hope John's family continues to find comfort in peace in the knowledge that their son was the caliber of Marine that few Americans are blessed to know, and that they, for those few years of his short life had the privilege of raising and knowing him.
Rest in peace Johnny.
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Originally Posted by MrAK
