Marines recount Fallujah firefight
By: DARRIN MORTENSON - Staff Writer
"It was total chaos," said Navy Corpsman Jason Duty, 20, of New Concord, Ohio, one of the medics who pulled wounded men out of buildings and streets during the worst of the fighting. "It was just gunshots everywhere."
"They waited a few hours after we went in and then they attacked," said a stunned and angry Skiles several hours after the fighting Monday, staring off and shaking his head slowly from side to side as he repeated his words: "They waited, and then they attacked."
Duty and Skiles said the Marine killed and most of the wounded Monday were hit with shrapnel from grenades tossed by rebels into open windows. At least two of the Marines were also shot, said Duty, whose boots were black with the blood of his comrades as he recounted the fight.
Duty said he had to fire his pistol at gunmen just to get into the building where Marines lay bleeding, still fighting off insurgents, some of whom were only 10 yards away.
"I walk into a place like that -- everyone's down -- and you just don't know where to start," he said. "You just have to calm down and think, and then it all comes to you."
Skiles said Duty saved several of the Marines, and worked to save a fatally wounded Marine by continuing CPR in the back of a humvee as it sped through enemy fire over a jarring ride to a field hospital.... [this fatally wounded Marine, most of you know by now, was Aaron.]
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