Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:59 | He was on patrol and running missions for a month in Fallujah and Josh Lipe was finally getting the benefit of all the training he had gone through. His squad was comprised of Marines that were straight out of central casting, some real characters.
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He was raised by a Marine, so when Josh Lipe went off to boot camp himself, he knew exactly what to expect. He was amused instead of intimidated by the mind games but there was one problem. He injured his ankle and kept on going. That was a mistake.
When the 9/11 attacks occurred, Josh Lipe was at Security Forces school in Chesapeake, VA. The base instantly went on war footing and students were put on guard with live ammo. Rumors were flying as the young Marines waited in suspense to find out if more attacks were coming.
As part of the Marine Corps Security Forces, Josh Lipe's unit was assigned tasks such as guarding embassies and safeguarding nuclear fuel transfers. When the bombing range in Puerto Rico was reopened following the 9/11 attacks, they had to mix it up with some local protestors.
It finally caught up with him. Josh Lipe had gritted his teeth and kept going back in the School Of Infantry when he injured his ankle and foot. Now he had a bone spur that required surgery just as his unit prepared to deploy to Iraq. He was going to miss the deployment.
When Josh Lipe came to the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, the unit was understaffed. They were going to go to Iraq shorthanded but there was no lack of spirit. While he waited in Kuwait to cross the border, he found out what night vision can do to star gazing. It was spectacular.
IED's were a growing problem in Iraq and Josh Lipe was alarmed at the piles of stones that he thought had something to do with the bombs. That turned out not to be the case, which was a big relief. He remembers a huge Iraqi truck stop on the trip north and he can still smell the bad diesel.
The Marines were living in converted shipping containers and stuck with bad chew and bad Iraqi cigarettes. The desert cammies were filthy so Josh Lipe had his squad change into greens so they could wash them. This led to some incoming from a stiff First Sergeant. (Caution:strong language)
After the Blackwater contractors were killed in Fallujah, Josh Lipe's unit was part of the force assembled to clean up the town. He had a premonition about a friend in a different unit that he happened to see and it turned out to be true. When he had fought his way into the city and had a moment's rest, he got hold of a satellite phone and had a dramatic phone call with his mom. (Caution: strong language)
Josh Lipe had a feeling they were headed into an ambush and he was right. He should have been OK. He was in the second truck and they usually tried to take out the first or the last, but in this IED attack, his truck was hit. The blast knocked him out and when he came to, he began to check on the rest of his guys. Their reactions when they saw him let him know how badly wounded he was. (Caution: strong language)
He walked into the hospital at Al Asad under his own power but Josh Lipe was soon out cold for 36 hours. He'd been badly injured in an IED attack and was in a frenzy when he woke up. Take me back to my men! That was impossible and he was flown back to the US to recover. The transition was not easy. (Caution: strong language)
After recovering from his injuries, Josh Lipe was on the field to greet his unit when they returned from Iraq. He became an instructor in several areas, first in the Marine Corps and then in the civilian world. He'd nearly been killed by an IED but he felt sure he was saved so he could teach others.
There was definitely a favorite song in the 3-4 Marines. As they waited to sweep into Fallujah, psy ops cranked up the loudspeakers and it was game on. Twenty years later, Josh Lipe reveals the name of the song and tells what it's like to be together with his guys once again.
