3/23 ready to train aboard Combat Center
Story Identification Number: 2003314161047
Story by Sgt. Jennie Haskamp
MCAGCC, Twentynine Palms, Calif.-(March 14, 2003) -- They are law enforcement agents, electronic equipment salesmen, SCUBA instructors, pharmaceutical sales representatives and college students, law students, husbands and fathers, sons and brothers. They hail from Tennessee, California, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama and even New York, but on Sunday, the 3d Bn, 23rd Marines found themselves in Twentynine Palms.
When the call to mobilize came, they set their lives aside, reminded family and friends this is what they signed up to do and made their way to the airports. 3d Bn, 23rd Marines was on their way to play their part in Operation Enduring Freedom. Their turn had come.
"The notice came on March 1, but the actual word hit the street on the fifth," said Staff Sgt. Cody Harding, an Atlanta native and 3/23's training chief. "Most of the battalion is here, but we have 40 Marines still at their MOS schools, and we had to leave some Marines behind."
Harding, a 14-year veteran of the Corps fought in the Gulf War with 3rd Bn, 10th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, and is now part of the Instructor Inspector Staff in New Orleans where 3/23's battalion headquarters is located.
"I spent close to six months in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, took three showers and wore one set of the old 'chocolate chip' cammies the whole time," enthused Harding, who started his career as an artilleryman and joined the infantry community in 1995 "I'm motivated and ready to do whatever it is we're going to do."
The Headquarters and Support company commander, Major Raphael Mayeux, a Baton Rouge, La., native, shares Harding's enthusiasm.
"On September 11, 2001, I was 20 blocks from the World Trade Center," said Mayeux. "I have been preparing myself to be activated since then. We have a job to do, and we're going to do it."
According to Mayeux, the battalion is no stranger to combat.
"Ours was the only Reserve infantry battalion to see combat in the gulf war," he explained. "3/23 left Lejeune on December 25, 1990, and headed for Saudi Arabia. Many of my Marines have combat experience; my battalion commander (Lt. Col. David Couvillon) was a platoon commander in the gulf."
In addition to the Persian Gulf, 3/23 Marines fought in Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima and Kwajalein, said Mayeux proudly.
Although he had to say goodbye to his wife of 13 years and his only child, Sara Grace, who will celebrate her first birthday in April without him, he is prepared for the task at hand.
"I have been preparing, waiting for and expecting this mobilization for the last 18 months," said Mayeux who was on active duty from 1988-1993. "I will have my company trained well enough to accomplish any task the Marine Corps assigns us."
As the company commander for H and S Co, he does more than lead grunts.
"H and S has cooks, intel guys, motor transport Marines, logisticians, communicators and an entire administrative section," he said, explaining that while H and S Co. is administrative, their function is to support the line companies. "We also have the entire medical staff on our roster. My 1st Sgt. (Charles Dotson) has a bear of a job, accounting for our Marines and Sailors each morning. H and S Company is all over the place."
Although 3/23 comes from many different walks of life, they are all prepared to do what they have been called upon to do.
Twenty-eight-year-old Lance Cpl. Larry Willfond of Walnut Ridge, Ark., left his wife and three daughters at home when he was mobilized.
"I hated to leave my family, but this is why I joined the Corps," he said quietly. "It was hard on them when I left, especially my wife."
Willfond hopes she will someday understand why the president called him away from his family.
"My parents are behind me 100 percent," said Willfond, who joined the Reserves in 2000 as a basic rifleman. "They told me to go and make them proud and come home safely."
Fellow Arkansas Marine, Lance Cpl. Joshua A. Goss, of Searcy, is enthusiastic about being called to active duty.
"Sure it was sad to leave my family and girlfriend," said the Harding University student, "but it had to be done."
The Corps newcomer explained why he is excited to be going now, and not later on in the campaign.
"I've been in for six months," he explained. "I just finished my training, and it is all fresh in my head. I would rather go now than two years from now, after I've had the chance to forget the essentials."
Corporal Mark Peddy is not new to the Corps or to combat.
"I joined the Reserves in 1989," the native of Jackson, Tenn., explained with a Southern drawl. "I was activated for the gulf war in 1991 and went over with what was then Golf Company, 3/23."
Peddy was discharged from the Corps for several years when he watched, outraged, as the carnage unfolded on September 11, 2001. "I called the prior service recruiter that day, I was so mad at what I was seeing," he recounted, anger flashing in his eyes. "I didn't want to sit on the sidelines; I felt guilty not being a part of it."
When asked what he expected to encounter this time around, he didn't hesitate.
"I expect to put a star on my Combat Action Ribbon," he replied. "That's what I expect we will be doing-seeing combat."
Sergeant Aaron King of San Jose, Calif., is no stranger to the Corps either.
"I joined the reserves in March of 2002, after four years on active duty," said the veteran of 2d Bn, 3d Marines. "I joined 2/23, but I got to the unit right after the main body was deployed to Southwest Asia. When they left, the rest of 2/23 was sent to 3/23"
King, who left active duty to go to college, planned all along to return to the fleet.
"This is what I was born to do," said the enthusiastic squad leader. "The terrain will be different than I've experienced before, but a patrol is a patrol, and I'm ready to lead Marines."
Lance Cpl. Matt Badgett of Germantown, Tenn., lacks King's experience but not his enthusiasm.
"I've been in the Corps since '97, and I knew this was going to happen sooner or later," explained the 24-year-old rifleman. "My parents are extremely proud of me. They're glad I'm serving my country, and they are very supportive."
Another member of 3/23 from Tennessee looking forward to this mobilization is HM1 Rick Wallace, an independent duty corpsman (IDC) who was reassigned from the Naval Ambulatory Care Center in New Orleans to join the battalion as they support OEF.
"Reserve units don't have IDCs," explained Wallace. "I'm part of the Medical Augmentation Program. My role is to help with sick call and make sure these corpsmen are prepared to support the line units when the time comes."
Wallace had plans to ask for reassignment when he received word he was being sent to 3/23, making him one of nearly 70 Navy personnel assigned to the unit, including a chaplain, two medical officers, more than 60 corpsmen and a religious program specialist.
"I returned from a [Mediterrannean] float with 8th Marines in December, and I said if we go to war, I want to be with the grunts," said the Knoxville native.
In the midst of setting up the Battalion Aid Station, getting to know corpsman he had never seen before and triaging Marines who wandered in before the BAS was even in operation, Wallace summed up his new duty station with a chuckle.
"I got my wish, here I am, and here we go. I'm glad I am here, this is what I want to be doing," he concluded.
For Ole Miss graduating senior, Cpl. Israel Denham, the mobilization didn't come as a total surprise, but he wasn't completely prepared for it either.
"I had to box my life up really quick," said the Ocean Springs, Miss., Marine. "I'd just had hernia surgery, and received my acceptance letter to law school when the activation order came down."
For Denham, who would prefer this conflict be resolved without military action, the call to active duty is a bittersweet one.
"They said we're going to be used as casualty replacements," he explained. "I hope that is not the case. Don't get me wrong, I'm here, I want to be here, but I hope it doesn't come down to us being used in that capacity. Maybe I'll get the chance to keep someone alive over there."
Denham does not pretend to have all of the answers.
"I am a supporter of peace. I would even call myself a pacifist, and I think we need to get beyond war, but Saddam Hussein is a bad person, and we know what we need to do," he said firmly. "We're here to do just that."
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