The First Taste Of Combat

Lance Cpl. Joseph Willems was approaching one of many bunkers dug into Iraq's desert when he saw the muzzle fire.

"I looked down and saw shots being fired, and I just went 'ooooh,' and jumped back," said the 19-year-old Marine from Kenosha, Wis. "Saw a guy in a blue sweat shirt, and took a hip shot with my saw."

With his "saw" — slang for machine gun — Willems killed the Iraqi soldier in the first action by Echo Company's 1st Platoon of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit after it entered Iraq from northern Kuwait on Friday.

"The only time I freaked was when I saw his eyes, and my weapon jammed. I kept backing up and it kept jamming," said Willems.

It was early morning. By the end of the day, Echo Company had lost one Marine, killed five Iraqis and taken 400 of them prisoner.

The Marines were clearing an area of bunkers in southern Iraq, near the port of Umm Qasr, after scores of Iraqi soldiers surrendered, many walking toward the Americans in strict military formation under a white flag.

But there were still a few holdouts. The Marines, covering each other, stopped, scrambled and then stopped and scrambled their way to each bunker. There were bursts of gunfire, often rapid machine-gun fire, and the heavy thud of hand grenades.

"It was very eerie," said Lt. William Todd Jacobs, 24, of Cincinnati. "There was smoke everywhere. It's our first time in Iraq, and you see these four guys walking toward you with their hands up. We knew they were surrendering."

"But then somebody shouts, 'There's two in the hole! There's two in the hole!"' said Jacobs, who led the 1st Platoon.

The Marines reacted immediately, and shot both, then threw in a grenade that blew a plume of sand and black smoke out of the bunker.

"I didn't want to get shot so I shot him first," Cpl. Juan B. Elenes, 21, of Portland, Ore. said about two of the Iraqis who refused to give up.

"I saw the top part of his head, so I shot him. And then we shot another in the bunker."

Death also came to the Marines, when one of their own was shot and killed during the actions. An investigation is pending into how he died.

On Saturday, investigators collected his gear from the squad that found him dead and carried it down the defense lines — his gas mask and helmet, both marked with name, as well as his day pack and weapons.

Marines laying face down in the sand, their weapons pointed over the berm, couldn't help noticing.

"I was OK until I saw one of our own Marines dead. I thought, 'Oh, we can die too," said Lance Cpl. Daymond Geer, 20, of Sacramento, Calif. He talked about it while watching Cobra attack helicopters swarm around a target to the north.

Death had been on Geer's mind since he received word just before heading into Iraq from Kuwait that his father had only weeks to live. He was hoping to be sent home in time to see his father, but wanted to stay with his unit for the attack on Iraq.

Geer said he has family back home praying for him, and that he spent an hour praying before his unit joined the invasion.

"I pray whenever I can before doing something crazy," he said.

The fighting, he said, "was totally different than any experience in my life. Even seeing the enemy get shot, well, he was squirming in the dirt. It was not good.

"But I did my job. I actually fought and I helped liberate Iraq."

His friend and fellow squad member Cpl. Clint Bagley, 21, of Shreveport, La., agreed, and said "You're shooting. It's not training anymore. It's combat. It's pretty scary. It changes everything."

Bagley said he had expected more of a fight in southern Iraq. Instead, the surrendering Iraqis were "like ragged soldiers, not warriors. They were small and ill-prepared."

Still, he said he would approach a bunker and think, "I don't know if there are three or thirty, and 'Oh my God, am I going to have to shoot that guy?"'

Elenes, who did kill in action on Friday, said, "OK. I'm done. I'm ready to go back to Kuwait now."