Last Time Brook Park, Ohio Reserve Unit Saw Combat Was Iwo Jima [Archive]

blueturk

08-03-2005, 08:33 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/03/ohio.marines.ap/

Grief hits home of Marine reservists
Battalion loses men in two bloody days in Iraq

Wednesday, August 3, 2005; Posted: 7:02 p.m. EDT (23:02 GMT)

BROOK PARK, Ohio (AP) -- The rash of violence in Iraq this week has taken an especially brutal toll on a Marine battalion based in this working-class town: at least 19 members from the unit were killed over two days.

Grief and anger shook the town, as families and residents anxiously awaited answers after learning that 14 Marine reservists were killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb -- one of the heaviest blows suffered by a single unit in the war.

Two days earlier, six others -- at least five from the same battalion -- were killed while on sniper duty. (Marines identified)

The sorrow in Brook Park, a Cleveland suburb of 21,000 people, was painfully clear Wednesday among the line of customers sipping their morning coffee at the counter of a doughnut shop down the street from the battalion's headquarters. Nearly everyone at the counter said they knew someone who was connected to the battalion.

"You never know who it could be. It could be your best friend. It could be your husband -- it could be anyone from here," Eleanor Matelski, 69, said as she angrily tore up a paper cup that had held her coffee.

"Tell Bush to get our soldiers out of there now before any more of our soldiers die," she said.

A few steps away, near the gates of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, residents piled red roses, American flags, handwritten notes of condolences and white crosses for the victims.

Nine of the Marines came from a Columbus-based company of the battalion, said Master Sgt. Stephen Walter, a spokesman for the company. The battalion was activated in January and went to Iraq in March.

"It makes me upset. This affects a lot of families," said Clarence Koon, 56, as he sipped coffee at the doughnut shop.

Shop manager Pat Wilsox, who said some of the reserves from the battalion frequent the doughnut shop, threw her hand over her heart when she heard the news that the unit had suffered more losses. "Oh my God," she said softly. "I'm all for protection, but this is getting a little bit ridiculous."

Rex Lott's son, Cpl. Billy Lott, serves with the battalion's weapons company out of Akron. He said the last 24 hours have been rough, waiting for any word, hoping his son is all right. He left work early Wednesday to go to the reserve center.

"They expressed that they hadn't heard anything yet," said Lott, 53. "No news is good news as far as they're concerned."

Bob Fekete, manager of a tire shop near the battalion, said the losses weighed heavily on him. He has done auto work for some of the headquarters' Marines.

"It especially hits home because all these gentlemen were from this battalion," Fekete said in the shop's lobby decorated with American flags and a box filled with toys being collected for a Marine charity.

Fekete, who served with the Marines during Vietnam, did not express the anger some of his neighbors did. "It's just one of those things. It's part of the game," he said.

The risk that the same geographical area will suffer multiple casualties has been heightened in Iraq because reserve troops train and fight together -- unlike in Vietnam, where reserve units were split up and sent to the various active duty units.

The 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, was first activated on May 1, 1943, and fought in several battles in World War II. It helped capture a key airfield at the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific. Before this week's dead, the unit's Web site listed 25 of its Marines had been killed this year.

The battalion has units in Brook Park, Columbus, Akron, Moundsville, West Virginia, and Buffalo, New York. The West Virginia unit said it had none of the casualties.