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Marine of the Week // "These insurgents just came at us with everything they had that day..."
Staff Sgt. Jeffery V. Escalderon
@1stbattalion7thmarines
Husaybah, Iraq
November 2004
Award: Bronze Star W/ Combat “V”
Staff Sgt. Escalderon’s men came under numerous attacks in Husaybah on a near-daily basis during the deployment. The Marines of Company B nicknamed a certain area of the city of Husaybah, ‘mortar thirty,’ because everyday at around 4:30 p.m., they received incoming mortar fire from insurgents.
While manning a security position with one of his four-man squads, Staff Sgt. Escalderon was attacked by a car-full of insurgents. He responded immediately by killing two of the enemy. After about an hour of heavy fighting, Escalderon’s Marines were able to repel the enemy’s assault, leaving eight terrorists dead. Two weeks after the deadly battle, Escalderon led a squad of Marines to capture a handful of insurgents in Husaybah. The terrorists responded to the Marines’ raid with rockets, mortars and machine guns. Escalderon exposed himself numerous times to enemy fire in order to repel the attack with hand grenades.
The fighting continued throughout the day until the enemy was overwhelmed and killed.
Escalderon directed both ground forces and helicopters against the enemy during the coordinated attack.
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