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Norfolk Marine tells story of rooftop fight in Iraq Marine Cpl. Lonnie Young waged the battle of his life in Iraq on April 4: Trapped on a rooftop with a handful of other men, he helped to face down hundreds of Iraqi insurgents attacking from all directions. Marine Cpl. Lonnie Young waged the battle of his life in Iraq on April 4: Trapped on a rooftop with a handful of other men, he helped to face down hundreds of Iraqi insurgents attacking from all directions. BILL TIERNAN/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT By KATE WILTROUT, The Virginian-Pilot © September 18, 2004 NORFOLK — Outnumbered, low on ammo, perched on a rooftop for hours in a battle against Iraqi insurgents, Lonnie Young figured his number was up. It was April 4, 2004, and the war had entered its deadliest month for Americans. Days earlier, four contractors passing through Fallujah had been ambushed, killed, and strung from a bridge. At least half a dozen other men from their firm – Blackwater USA , based in Moyock – handled security at the Coalition Provisional Authority’s base in Najaf, where Young, a 25-year-old Norfolk-based Marine Corps corporal, was working that day. After installing an antenna on the roof to upgrade communications, Young stretched out in the back of a truck for a pre-lunch catnap. Gunfire – and the more atypical sound of guards returning fire – woke him. The battle that followed became front-page news, an early indication of the growing insurgency across Iraq. Within days, a picture of Young and the Blackwater commandos atop the roof appeared in newspapers across the country. But until Young sat down recently to share his story, his role in the outcome of the battle has gone untold. According to one senior Marine officer on the ground in Najaf that day, Young’s actions helped turn the tide of the battle against a well-coordinated militia attacking from various directions. “All of the Blackwater guys told me that if it hadn’t been for him, they may indeed have been overrun,” said the officer, who asked that his name not be used. Young is in the foreground wearing a helmet in this photo taken during the April standoff with Iraqi insurgents in Najaf. File photo. Moments after the attack began, Young donned his body armor, grabbed his M249 light machine gun, and raced upstairs with a handful of Blackwater commandos. The gun battle against hundreds of members of the al-Mahdi militia, loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, grew so intense that Young had to stop shooting every 15 minutes to let the barrel of his gun cool. He’d tear through 700 to 800 rounds, then spend five minutes filling magazines with bullets until the metal was cool enough to use. The first break in action for the Kentucky native came when an Army captain near him was shot in the arm and back. Young dug into his medical kit and bandaged the man up, then eased him down four stories to nurses below. Next, Young dashed across the camp to Blackwater’s ammunition supply room, strapped about 150 pounds of bullets to his body, and sprinted back to the roof. The noontime battle stretched into the afternoon. Young figured he’d die. “I thought, 'This is my last day. I’m going out with a bang.’ If I had to die it would be defending my country,” Young said Friday. “I just felt like we were losing ground, and I thought, 'If I’m going to die, I’m not going down without a fight.’ I knew we were seriously outnumbered. They were coming at us with pretty much everything they had. We were seriously struggling to keep our ground.” The insurgents had machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and a sniper shooting out the window of a local hospital. Young saw a red flash, then blood spurting 5 or 6 feet out of the jaw and neck of a contractor. He reached into the quarter-sized bullet hole in the man’s jaw and pinched his carotid artery closed, then dragged the man across the roof to where his medical kit lay sprawled open. Midway across the roof, Young heard a loud smack. Pain danced across his face, chased by adrenaline, and he forgot about it. After a medic packed the man’s wounds with a substance that clots blood, Young strapped the man to his back and carried him downstairs. In all, the Marine left the roof five times: twice to transport wounded comrades, three times for ammunition. When a group of U.S. Army military police officers joined the fight, Young used his experience as a weapons instructor to talk them through it. Conserve your ammo. Slow and steady before you squeeze. Adjust your sites for range and distance. Take breaks so your gun barrel doesn’t melt. At some point, Young felt dizzy. He realized he couldn’t see out of his left eye. The doctor found a gunshot wound high on his left shoulder. Young didn’t want to leave the fight, but an Army captain told him otherwise. “Basically, I refused to get down off the rooftop at first,” said Young, the father of a 7-year-old son back in Dry Ridge, Ky. Soon afterward, a Blackwater helicopter flew Young to a combat support hospital in Baghdad. Chris Taylor, a director at Blackwater USA, praised Young after hearing how the Marine replenished the contractors’ ammunition to keep the bullets flying. “When there are rounds firing, coming at you from down range, everybody pulls together to do what needs to be done,” said Taylor, a former Marine. “He should be proud of the way he acted.” After surgery to remove the bullet from his shoulder – it lodged an inch from his spine – and shrapnel from his eye, Young recuperated for two weeks in Baghdad, then spent a month at home in Kentucky. Young said he dreams about combat every night, and his wounds remind him of what happened – especially on long runs or while doing pull-ups. The pain makes him wonder whether he should stay in the Marines when his hitch ends in December. If he does leave, Young has a Purple Heart and a chunk of bullet cut out of his back for souvenirs. He has also been nominated for another award based on his actions that day, according to a Marine Corps spokesman. Even if he gets out, and puts his degree in design engineering from Eastern Kentucky University to use, Young will never forget how he got to be a sniper, medic, ammunition supplier, weapons coach, and communications specialist – all on the same day. Said Young: “I’d always wanted to be a Marine.” Reach Kate Wiltrout at 446-2629 or [email protected]

That is one hardcore Marine !!

That is fucking motivating!

Semper- Fi Marine!!

You are one badass leatherneck.

Holy shit. That man is one bad mofo. I wonder if that blackwater guy lived.

I'm damn glad he is on our side.

Semper Fi bro!

Quoted: I once heard thet most Marines don't particularly care for getting compared to EITHER Pvt. Pyle. GOOOOLLEEEEEE Sgt Carter.

Shazzam!

Young is in the foreground wearing a helmet in this photo taken during the April standoff with Iraqi insurgents in Najaf. File photo.

hats off to that marine.  Wow.

Quoted: media.hamptonroads.com/images/military/lonnieyoungblackwater.jpg Young is in the foreground wearing a helmet in this photo taken during the April standoff with Iraqi insurgents in Najaf. File photo.

in a firefight why the hell is he the only one wearing a helmets?????????????????

Quoted: Quoted: media.hamptonroads.com/images/military/lonnieyoungblackwater.jpg Young is in the foreground wearing a helmet in this photo taken during the April standoff with Iraqi insurgents in Najaf. File photo. in a firefight why the hell is he the only one wearing a helmets?????????????????

The other guys are civilians.

Quoted: Quoted: media.hamptonroads.com/images/military/lonnieyoungblackwater.jpg Young is in the foreground wearing a helmet in this photo taken during the April standoff with Iraqi insurgents in Najaf. File photo. in a firefight why the hell is he the only one wearing a helmets?????????????????

Because he is a well disciplined Marine.


OohRaw. Thanks for adding more file photos and story to this Post ppl.

September 17, 2004
True Grit
Cpl Glen R. Springstead recently interviewed another modern-day hero of the Corps.


The bullet in his back hasn't damaged his spirit. Cpl. Lonnie Young kneels next to a wounded Marine.
In boot camp, recruits learn that every Marine is a rifleman and this is reinforced annually when each Marine must requalify on the rifle range. Cpl Young put that training to good use when the base he was working on in An Najaf, Iraq came under attack by approximately 800 anti-coalition militiamen, April 4, 2004. Young fought alongside seven Blackwater Security personnel to secure the base and defeat the enemy. Here's his account of the day's events.

The day was Sunday, April 4th. Corporal Lonnie Young had been in Iraq since January, three long, hot months in the war-torn country and a far cry from his hometown of Dry Ridge, Kentucky -- small-town America with a population of 2,000.
Being called to the frontlines as a Defense Messaging System administrator, he quickly found himself providing convoy security and personal security for visiting general officers, but on this day he was setting up communication throughout the different camps.

Young and his co-workers, approximately seven civilian contractors and coalition fighters, pulled into the gates of Camp Golf in An Najaf to establish a communication link at the coalition base.

“While entering the front gate, I noticed a small group of protesters out in the streets,” Young recalled. “As we proceeded onto the base there were numerous coalition soldiers in “riot gear” near the front gate. Our rendezvous point was behind the first building in a large parking lot.”

After undergoing a short mission briefing, the convoy moved to the rear of the base to continue their mission at hand. Young and his team remained with the 5-ton truck and went to work installing a Motorola base-station radio in the Spanish Forces headquarters building.

“We entered the building and had a quick discussion with the Spanish commander. After the short introduction, we went to the roof and began installing the radio antenna,” Young said.

While on the roof, Young stopped for a brief moment to clear his head and admire the view of the cityscape. He recalls not seeing many people in the streets. Everything seemed tranquil and peaceful, a scarce sight in Iraq today. Little did he know that this was the calm before the storm.




“We went back downstairs to the radio room to continue the installs, and after about twenty-minutes we finished up everything. I then grabbed all of our gear and took it back outside to the five-ton truck.”
“Since we were about twenty-minutes from chow time, I removed my cammie blouse and caught a quick 10-minute nap in the back of the truck. Andy, a civilian contractor, came outside, woke me up, and exclaimed that we were not getting a good signal on the radio and that we need to fix it. I told him that I would be right in to help. I got dressed, grabbed my weapon, and was about to get out of the truck when I heard the unmistakable sound of an AK-47 rifle fire a few rounds out in the street in front of the base.”

The shots Young heard fired were just the beginning of what would turn out to be a brutal four-hour firefight between eight commandos from Blackwater Security Consulting, a handful of U.S. and coalition force troops, and approximately 800 anti-coalition militia members.

Upon hearing the shots, Young threw on his gear, grabbed his M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW), and assumed a clear vantage point atop the roof alongside his comrades. He peered through his rear site aperture at the armed mob below, awaiting further orders to engage.

“After what seemed like an eternity, which was maybe just a few seconds, I could see people getting out of the truck and start running. One of the Iraqis quickly dropped down into a prone position and fired several round at us. I started yelling that I had one in my sights and asking if I could engage. ‘With your permission Sir, I have acquired a target’, I yelled over and over until finally, the Blackwater Security guys gave the call of commence firing,” Young explained.

“I leveled the sights on my target and squeezed the trigger. I could see that the man had on an all white robe and was carrying an AK-47 rifle in his right hand. He seemed to be running as hard as he could when I fired off a short burst of 5.56 mm rounds. Through my sights I could see the man fall onto the pavement. I stopped for a second, raised my head from my gun, to watch the man lay in the street motionless.”

“I had a weird feeling come over me,” Young recalled. “I had many emotions kick in at once. I felt a sense of purpose, happiness, and sorrow, which all hit me at once.”

The battle raged on with rounds whizzing closely overhead, Young unrelentingly fired belt after belt of ammunition and suppressing fire, deterring the rebel fighters.

“I was getting ready to make an ‘ammo’ run when out of the corner of my eye, I saw Capt. Eddy get hit and fall to the cement rooftop,” he explained. “He made a short scream and then yelled for a medic. I leaned my weapon up against the wall and dove to his side. I started to remove Capt. Eddy’s gear carefully one piece at a time.

“At that moment, I could hear bullets ricocheting off through the air and smacking a tin air duct. I removed Capt. Eddy’s Interceptor vest and continued to cut off his brown T-shirt. I could see a small hole in his left arm that was gushing blood. I looked around him and shortly thereafter found another hole close to the center of his back. Quickly grabbing my medical kit from my load bearing vest (LBV), I dumped it out onto the ground and started to search through its contents.”

Young grabbed a couple gauze patches and applied pressure to the blood spurting wounds.

“We came up with a plan. He said that he could run, so I put his right arm around my neck and called for covering fire. I heard everybody firing their weapons rapidly as we made our run for the door. The sounds were ear piercing and very intense. I continued on and carried Capt. Eddy down the stairs and into the tactical medical room they had set up on the first floor.”

“I then saw a beautiful sight. There were two tanks rolling out into the drive that leads to the front gate. I could hear their machine guns lighting up and their tracks slapping the pavement as they moved. You could sometimes see sparks come off of the tanks as bullets ricocheted off of its heavily armored hull. It was a great sense of relief to see them out there. It gave me motivation to continue on without noticing any kind of fatigue or pain that was throbbing through my knees from diving around and trying to dodge bullets.”

Young loaded up a few magazines and returned back to his rooftop position. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something red flash out in front of him…. SMACK! Again, the unforgettable sound of bullets ripping through human flesh rung in the young corporal’s ears.

“It sounded just like a bullet smacking a target at the rifle range -- a really sharp crack. I had heard that same crack when Capt. Eddy was hit. I looked down and to my left, and saw a horrific sight. I saw blood gushing and squirting out the side of a guy’s face.”

That guy was a linguist for Blackwater Security. To this day, Young has yet to figure out his name. It was the first time that he had ever seen the man, but he still considered him to be a brother. He set down his weapon and leaped to the injured man’s side.

“I could see a quarter-sized hole in his jaw. By this time, the guy had lost about a pint of blood. I tried to press on the wound and stop the bleeding that way, but the blood was squirting out between my fingers. I had thought to myself that his carotid artery had to be cut. Using my index finger, I reached inside the hole and began to feel around. It took a few seconds to find it, but finally, I felt something like a large vein. I wrapped my finger around it and pinched as hard as I could.”

With bullets raining down on them, Young grabbed the guy by the back of his Interceptor vest and began to drag him. As he was dragging him, the Marine heard an ear-piercing smack, much like the all to familiar smack that he had earlier when the guys beside him had been hit. He then found himself hurling through the air and collapsing to the concrete rooftop.

“I had a burning sensation like I had never felt before on the backside of my left shoulder. My left eye was throbbing as I tried to rub out what I thought was dirt. I could no longer see out of my left eye. I picked myself up and looked around for who had been hit. I knew that I heard the unmistakable smack, but no one appeared to be shot. I went back to the guy that I was previously dragging and moved him on in behind a concrete air duct in the center of the front wall. There, the Blackwater medic came sliding in by the guy’s other side. I reached back inside the hole in the guy’s neck and pinched once again.”

With every once of energy left in the weary Marine’s body, he hauled the badly injured man down off the rooftop and into the floor below where medics were still administering first aid to the wounded captain. As the battle raged on outside, the Marine grabbed his SAW and some more ammunition and ran back to his rooftop perch.

“I gazed over the streets with straining eyes, only to see hundreds of dead Iraqis lying all over the ground,” Young recollects. “It was an unbelievable sight; even though there were so many lying dead, the Iraqis were still running towards the front gate. I opened fire once again. Emptying magazine after magazine, I watched the people dressed in white and black robes drop to the ground as my sights passed by them. All I could think about at that time was that I had to either kill or be killed. It felt as if we were losing ground. In many senses we were, but that feeling just made me fight harder.”

Suddenly, Young felt a tugging on his back. He turned and looked over his right shoulder to see one of his officers yelling at him, ordering him off of the roof. It was then the Marine realized he was standing in a pool of his own blood. The last smack he heard was in fact his own flesh being torn.

“Still a little confused about what was going on, he asked me where I was hit. I told him that I wasn’t sure but I thought that it was my back. I was sweating heavily and it was getting in my eyes. I took off my Kevlar helmet and wiped the right side of my face. I could feel the sweat dripping off my hand, so I flung my hand really quickly, as to fling all the water off…. my hand was painted bright red from fresh blood,” said Young.

Feelings of dread overtook Young as he frantically felt around his face for a bullet hole.

Ka-Bar in hand, they cut the Marine’s green T-shirt to expose the bloodied wound. One entrance hole was found, right in line with his heart and there were no exit holes.

“I said to the captain that I was good to go and started to put my Interceptor vest back on. I felt that I was able to get back in the fight, but the captain thought differently. After a short argument, the captain convinced me to get down off the roof.”

“A small bit of time passed and the room started spinning. My eyelids felt like they had bricks tied to them, and I was hot all over. I heard the ‘doc’ say that they had to get me out of there. They started to pick me up and I gained enough sense to walk on my own. We ran outside and I saw three Blackwater helicopters sitting there. I ran to the farthest helicopter and got inside the front passenger seat. I felt very nervous as we took off from the ground. I didn’t have any body armor at all, nor did I have a weapon. I looked all around the base and saw that everybody was firing their weapons…. I felt almost helpless sitting there.”

Young explained that the helicopter ride to the hospital in Baghdad seemed like an eternity. Upon arrival, he went straight into surgery. After a successful operation, the round was removed from his back, and piece of shrapnel was removed from his left eye, but no major damage was done. The doctor even let Young keep the troublesome hunk of metal as a war trophy.

In the words of Maj. Douglas Fordham, the only other Marine attached to the DMS team of technicians, Young was critical to the success of the militia deterrence.

“I can tell you this, before this attack ever broke out in the two days of operations that preceded it, I was very confident placing the security of my team and indeed my own life in the hands of this corporal,” explained Fordham. “I had no doubt in him. He exuded a level of confidence and professionalism found in few seniors and even fewer peers. As I look back on all of this, I believe that I have Cpl. Young to thank that I am still alive. Period.”

Young has seen the horrors of war; he’s experienced hell firsthand and learned the hard way that truth is far stranger than the fiction of movies. What could possibly make a man sacrifice his own well-being for the safety of two complete strangers? The answer is simple…. The title Marine.




The title Marine - earned, never given - has inspired ordinary men and women to do extraordinary things for 228 years. Cpl Young isn't the first and he won't be the last Marine to ignore his own injuries to protect others, but this remarkable account deserves to be shared.

marinecorpsmoms.com/archives/000318.html#more

He'll get a REAL purpule heart.  

Nice work and Semper Fi (can I say that as a non-Marine?)

outstanding....you think the guy just finished a beer bong...

I, for one,  would like to shake his hand and buy him a drink!

OOOHRAH! I wonder how a case of beer would hold up getting to that Marine! Looking at this picture literally raises the hair on the back of my neck and I 'm not ashamed to say that there is a small lump in my throat for this kind of guts! This is the kind of picture that could be used as effective on both sides. For us as insperation and against them to show that they are'nt going to beat us! Great post die-tryin! Great motivator!

Thats powdered collegen that they used to stop the bleeding.  He got lucky that nothing real vital was hit.  Thats the typical gunshot wound we see in LEOs who come in.  Its from the side or under the armpits.  The trauma plate in front and back usually protects them but they are still vulnerable from the side.

He isnt a badass, he is a hardworking, dedicated and a brave patriot.

Semper Fi, Marine!  HOORAH!!!

HOOORAAAH!!!  DEVILDOGS!!!

Cool!  I tried to join the Marines before I entered the Army but I couldn't pass that test....
I couldn't fit my head in the jar.



 Semper Fidelis, my friends.  Glad to have you.

Hmmmmm...I wonder what "the other" award is going to be?

Certainly sounds like Navy Cross or better to me.  He certainly has the endorsement of several others that he is directly responsible for them being still with us and LOTS of enemy rotting in hell is search of the 72 virgins.

Anybody else thinking what I'm thinking???  

Shit!!!

I just read the Wifey a quick synopsis and her comment was, "At least we know HE got his Purple Heart for a REAL battle!  

DAMN I love that womanz!  

My eyes watered up reading the accounts of his actions.

It's an awesome feeling to know that this man and I are both brothers in the same Corps.

I hope he so deservedly gets awarded for this, and not some stupid NAM or NCM.  I know he didn't do it for the medal, but he certainly deserves one.

We don't get to see heroes often: today, we did.  GOD BLESS HIM!

he probably won't admit it, and say he was just doing his job, but THAT man is a here, along with ,many others serving our country.

HOOAH!

Blood thirsty and Kill Crazy!  That's the Marines!

...and people wonder why I would go USMC if I had to do USNA all over again.....

Semper Fi, shipmate!

Good job DEVIL DOG!!!! Chesty would be proud.

FREE

Quotes from former Marine Ernest Langdon:

# Your focus in a fight must be on taking out the threat, not worrying about how not to get shot.  You must work from the assumption that in a gun fight, you will get shot but must fight on anyway.

# "The best cover is rapid accurate fire directed at your enemy."

# When you need to be shooting, you need to be shooting.  Anything that takes time and effort away from that is a drain on precious resources.

Looks like Young followed this and prevailed, OUTSTANDING!.  SEMPER FI Marines!

Well, he's a Marine, but he's also from Kentucky.

Quoted: Hmmmmm...I wonder what "the other" award is going to be? Certainly sounds like Navy Cross or better to me.  He certainly has the endorsement of several others that he is directly responsible for them being still with us and LOTS of enemy rotting in hell is search of the 72 virgins. Anybody else thinking what I'm thinking???

He has been put in for a Silver Star and he deserves it, not like that bastard SKerry.
www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=2285582

Hard Corps! America is lucky to have men like him.

Quoted: Cool!  I tried to join the Marines before I entered the Army but I couldn't pass that test.... I couldn't fit my head in the jar.

bah. That's what the haircut is for!

Quoted: Young, a Defense Messaging System administrator by trade Atta boy!  Who's a REMF????

I'll put a Marine 'REMF" against a hundred jihadis ANY day!

Semper F  i Devil DAWG!!

Semper Fi.

Quoted: God bless the USMC.  They done more for civil rights and human rights than every NGO combined.

Truer words are seldom spoken on the internet.

Wow.

“I thought, 'This is my last day. I’m going out with a bang.’ If I had to die it would be defending my country,” Young said Friday."

That's what I'm talking bout

Salute!

Thank you, Cpl Young!

btw - I love the look on the USA captain's face too.  Just been shot twice, but looks like he just got laid!

FU muzzies!

That's what happens when you wake a Marine up from his nap, lol.  Great  job!!

Yep, hardcore!

Semper Fi!

Thats what is called a flesh wound,no organs,and he is smiling because he knows it could have gone either way!  He has some muscel damage(remember when you stepped on that 16 penny nail and ran it plumb trough your foot)he will be supper sore for a while!

But damn Simper fi  dude heres to you,God bless!!

Bob

i, with all the respect i would give to a 5 star genral of the Armed forces, salute these brave men of war, those who give their lives for the flag, and in the same breath are mocked and ridclued by those who hide under the flag....i do salute you mariens! Sempter Fi  Do or Die!

As sweet as that is, you have to be smart enough to get that out and dressed soon.  Leaving that in is about one of the worst things you can do over a long period.  

That my friends is the reason I joined the Marines, - the 10% I was surrounded by guys like him.

Damn, that's hardcore!  I know those Blackwater guys are pretty serious too!  That guy deserves his medal!

Quoted: Cool!  I tried to join the Marines before I entered the Army but I couldn't pass that test.... I couldn't fit my head in the jar.  Semper Fidelis, my friends.  Glad to have you.

I was going to join the Army but at MEPS they told me my DICK was too big...So, I went to the MARINES...

This is a TRUE Purple Heart winner...Kerry ..take notes...you pussy!!

He will be back in the shit ASAP..I'd bet anything on that!!

HOOORAAAH!!! DEVILDOG!!!!!!!

+1000

What makes the grass grow!


Oohrah Marine! Semper Fidelis!

News anchor Dan Rather, The Reverend Jesse Jackson, NPR reporter Cokie Roberts, and an American Marine were hiking through the jungle one day when they were captured by cannibals.

They were tied up, led to the village and brought before the chief. The chief said, "I am familiar with your Western custom of granting the condemned a last wish. Before we kill and eat you, do you have any last requests?"

Dan Rather said, "Well, I'm a Texan; so I'd like one last bowlful of hot, spicy chili." The chief nodded to an underling, who left and returned with the chili. Rather ate it all and said, "Now I can die content."

Jesse Jackson said, "You know, the thing in this life I am proudest of is my work on behalf of the poor and oppressed. So before I go, I want to sing "We Shall Overcome" one last time." The chief said, "Go right ahead, we're listening." Jackson sang the song, and then said, "Now I can die in peace."

Cokie Roberts said, "I'm a reporter to the end. I want to take out my tape recorder and describe the scene here and what's about to happen. Maybe someday someone will hear it and know that I was on the job til the end." The chief directed an aide to hand over the tape recorder, and Roberts dictated some comments. She then said, "Now I can die happy."

The chief turned and said, "And now, Mr. Marine, what is your final wish?"

"Kick me in the ass," said the Marine.

"What?" said the chief. "Will you mock us in your last hour?"

"No, I'm not kidding. I want you to kick me in the ass," insisted the Marine.

So the chief shoved him into the open, and kicked him in the ass. The Marine went sprawling, but rolled to his knees, pulled a 9mm pistol from his waistband, and shot the chief dead. In the resulting confusion, he leapt to his knapsack, pulled out his M4 carbine, and sprayed the cannibals with gunfire. In a flash, the cannibals were dead or fleeing for their lives.

As the Marine was untying the others, they asked him, "Why didn't you just shoot them? Why did you ask them to kick you in the ass?"

"What!?" said the Marine, "And have you jerks call ME the aggressor?!"