Echo Company

Navy Corpsmen Deramichaeleous Daniels, 21, left, from Chicago, and Marine Jerod Brown, 19, from Charlston, W.V., have fun sharing wallet pictures with an Iraqi man and children during a patrol by Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, of a small village next to the Euphrates River on Thursday, March 25, 2004. Aaron was assigned to Echo Company, and he was killed April 26, 2004. Hayne Palmour, a photographer with the North County Times took the picture. The North County Times serves San Diego and Riverside counties in California. Palmour was accompanied by reporter Darrin Mortenson. This is an excerpt of Mortenson's coverage of Camp Pendleton's I Expeditionary Force.

"When Echo Company tried to emulate Fox's success two days later, they suffered a defeat that sent them and the brass reeling. After Marines sneaked about 300 yards into the city, rebels slipped in between Echo's troops and attacked them at close range, tossing grenades through the windows and firing on them from the roof next door. One Marine was killed (it was Aaron) and about 15 were wounded in two hours of brutal fighting.

Survivors told tales of Marines who fought fearlessly to regain the upper hand and Navy corpsmen who braved the fire to pull the wounded men back to safety.

It was the 'belly of the beast,' said Navy Corpsman Jason Duty hours after the fight, his beige boots still covered in black blood.

Men recounted how Duty fought his way into the house to evacuate the wounded and then tried desperately to pound life back into a dying Marine as they rushed him down bumpy roads in the open back of a Humvee."

That dying Marine was Aaron.