Memoirs written in prose of Sergeant Robertson, Damon M. USMC while in Iraq | ...with frequent appearances of King Hammurabi.
If you are new to this journal, make sure to start reading in chronological order by scrolling down to the bottom of the oldest post in October 2004. Damon's letters from August 20th, 2004 - October 23rd, 2004 were all added to this blog on Oct. 23rd, 2004. All subsequent letters are posted in real time.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Re: Hammurabi, USMC - DMR
Dear Family and Friends: We run the flight line at Al Asad, which means we loaded flight 12 with cargo and pax. (I've worked with the pilots of this flight many times on HST missions. They were always cavalier in accepting whatever crazy stuff we wanted them to lift.) Pax is an abbreviated term for "packs," as in "individual people" sent out on helo flights. Pax is also the latin term for "peace," if I am correct. ... The helo was not shot down but lost bearing in a dust storm and crashed. It hit the deck with so much force that all aboard died instantly, their bodies and (in all cases) their legs shattered by the force of the impact. Motuary Affairs Marines prepare bodies to be shipped back to the US. They arrive a the flight line to receive the incoming angels (term used to describe KIA's), then prepare the bodies and come back to ship them home. There were no body bags. They were brough back, sometimes not in one piece, stuffed in their sleeping bags. There's a lot of ritual, a lot of formal movements with the coffins. The flight line shuts down no matter what. Engines are silenced. Work ceases. The Angels are allowed to pass among us with as much honor and dignity as we can spare them. "If the Army and the Navy ever looked on Heaven's scenes, they would find the streets are guarded... by United States Marines." --Marine Hymn :D
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