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Luis
Fonseca, from the 2nd Marine
Expeditionary Brigade's Task
Force Tarawa, was awarded
the Navy Cross for bravery
during the battle of Al-Nasiriyah,
Iraq, on March 23, 2003.
On that day, Fonseca was a
hospitalman apprentice on
his first combat deployment
with the U.S. Marines. His
unit, Company A, 1st
Platoon, was attached to the
2nd MEB's 1st Battalion,
Company C, 1st Platoon,
which was tasked with
capturing and holding the
northernmost of Al-Nasiriyah's
three main bridges.
As the unit's corpsman,
Fonseca was aboard an
amphibious assault vehicle,
or amtrack, reserved for
evacuating battle casualties
quickly to the rear.
“I was supposed to stay
back,” away from the
fighting, Fonseca said in a
telephone interview from Al
Asad, Iraq, where he was on
his third deployment (Iraq,
Afghanistan, Iraq) in three
years.
The Marines took the
northern bridge at about
11:30 a.m., and almost
immediately started taking
rocket-propelled grenade and
mortar fire, Fonseca said.
Within moments, a call came
over the radio reporting
that an amtrack had received
a direct hit with an RPG,
wounding five Marines.
Grabbing his
bag of medical supplies,
Fonseca jumped from his
track and raced to assess
the condition of wounded
Marines who had been
pulled from the smoking
vehicle and laid out on the
ground by their comrades. |
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Without concern for his own
safety, Fonseca calmly and
methodically stabilized two
casualties with lower limb
amputations. He continued to
treat and care for others
who were wounded and
awaiting evacuation until
his vehicle was immobilized
by enemy direct and indirect
fire. Under enemy fire, he
directed the movement of
four wounded Marines and
personally carried one
critically wounded Marine
over open ground to another
location. All five Marines
survived.
Fonseca was awarded the Navy
Cross August 2004 at Camp
Lejeune, N.C
Excerpts from
Stars and Stripes - June 14,
2005 | Photo and information courtesy of the
Navy and DoD |
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