Ghost Fighters

"People don't know we are fighting ghosts..."


In a week that saw the WH push back against Big Media's coverage of Iraq, followed by various denials on the part of those Big Media outlets that has focused attention on the question of why we don't more often hear about Iraqi success stories, one small paper offers an example of how to do it.

On Friday one of our publications, the Five Cities Times Press Recorder and it's managing editor Emily Slater, published a front-page piece focused on 20-year old Marine marksman Brandon Rehorn. The piece is the first of four that promise to tell the story of the young Central Coast Marine.

Brandon's story is both a personal one--his mother is convinced that his choice of the Marines has "saved his life"--as well as one promising to shed light on the broader scope of US efforts in Iraq; both good and bad:

All (people) see on TV is us dying and innocent people dying. They don't know the half of it. They don't see the stuff (the insurgents) do to test us out. People don't know we are fighting ghosts. They don't understand why innocent people get killed.

Brandon is an unlikely Marine. Growing up as a teenager in Nipomo with a passion for paintball but little 'real-life' experience with shooting the 'real deal', Brandon walked into a recruiter's office with two of his friends. He was the only one to walk out a military recruit:

"If the war wasn't going on, I wouldn't have enlisted. I knew I was going to Iraq and that's what I wanted. I thought I could make a difference (specifically) in the infantry. I wanted to be a part of something big. I wanted to do something tough and hard. I didn't want to be a mechanic or a pencil pusher. I didn't want to join the Corps to do that."

The Marines are the last place one would picture the soft-spoken easygoing Brandon.

"People who hadn't met me--my stepdad's family and my neighbor--until after I got back from Iraq thought I would be a jerk. All the members in my family don't think I seem like a typical Marine."

"I told the recruiter, 'You don't have to lie to me. I know I'm going to Iraq.'"

Upon completion of boot camp, Brandon was stationed with the 1-5--the 1st Battalion of the 5th Marines, a member of Charlie Company. Additionally, because of his expert shooting scores in basic he was chosen for training as a designated marksman. For the impassioned video gamer it would all become very real, very soon: "I realized (shooting) was going to be more personal. I could see exactly where my shot was impacting."

Exactly where one of his first shots impacted was through the neck of an Iraqi man.

Brandon and his unit ultimately landed at Camp Snake Pit, in beautiful downtown Ramadi. For young Brandon's money, his new home was one of the most dangerous spots in Iraq:

"Ramadi is nothing like Fallujah. 1-5 was so much more scared in Ramadi than they were in Fallujah. It's hard in Ramadi because the men wouldn't come out and fight like they did in Fallujah. There, you knew who you were fighting because the women and children had been evacuated and the men were fighting like in a battle; it's more difficult to ID the enemy in Ramadi. No one wears a uniform."

The TPR promises to tell Brandon's story in four installments, the next publishing on Wednesday the 29th. The coming installments promise to tell the story of fighting and dying, building and rebuilding Iraqi lives and ultimately, the story of Brandon's homecoming.

In the process, these pieces will hopefully flesh out people's perceptions about the thousands of Brandons out there: young men who choose to do dirty, difficult work that is often under-reported and unappreciated.

I will do my best to blog these reports here but at this writing anyway, this initial piece remains unavailable in the TPR's on-line edition. Inexplicably so.

UPDATE-- 7:49PM. The TPR home-page was updated this afternoon, and the story is now available. The TPR link now goes directly to it. The sidebar with comments from Brandon's mom is linked also.

Part of the Beltway Traffic Jam.