In the line of hostile fire

Last Easter, Lance Cpl. Dustin Pangelinan of the U.S. Marine Corps was a long way from where he grew up in Tanapag, Saipan. He was in Fallujah, Iraq, a city that has seen some of the fiercest fighting from terrorists and insurgents during Operation Iraqi Freedom. A typical day for a member of the military has bullets zipping every which way, and the nights are no different.

On that particular day, April 11, 2004, the former Commonwealth Utilities Corp. lineman awoke in Fallujah and began doing his normal routine, not knowing that in just a matter of an hour or two, he would be faced with a situation that would later earn him a Purple Heart.

He had just finished attending to his personal hygiene and was about to get something to eat for breakfast when all thoughts of food were driven out of his head; the company executive officer had received a report that insurgents in the area were transporting weapons and his squad had to be quickly assembled and sent out for patrols.

The Marines of Bravo Company set out find the insurgents, bounding along both sides of the streets, house to house, building to building. As they made their way to a building where the insurgents were suspected of being holed up, the street came to an “L” to the left. That’s when they came under fire.

Pangelinan was on the right side of the street and his group was supposed to cross the street. Due to the incoming fire and the lack of proper cover, they were all bunched up along the left side because they didn’t want to cross.

To get a better vantage point on the other side, one Marine, PFC George Torres, took off running across the street to get behind a water tank that was on the side of a house. When he was out in the open, the enemy keyed on him, but he made it to the tank unscathed. When he got behind it he took a knee to see from where the shots were coming.

Torres and Pangelinan had been roommates in Okinawa since the previous December and had become the best of friends. He was one of the guys that Pangelinan was assigned to prepare for the deployment. While training him, Pangelinan was impressed with his willingness to learn.

Seeing his friend and fellow Marine alone and under fire, Pangelinan gathered his strength and made his way to the same position.

“It was kind of spontaneous. A hundred thoughts went through my mind in one split second. He was a good buddy of mine. It was scary to cross, but I didn’t want him to be alone over there,” said Pangelinan.

Torres was surprised to find that Pangelinan was next to him. At that moment, the insurgents let loose a flurry of bullets that pinned down the Marines. To make matters worse, bullets were passing through the water tank that was supposed to provide them cover.

“I thought we were going to be side by side shooting the bad guys, but they saw us and just opened up. We couldn’t move an inch. Rounds were landing all over us. Before it hit us they were right next to us. They were all over, like they could outline our bodies. There was nowhere we could move. Pick up your hand and you’d get hit. Wiggle and you’d get hit. That’s how it seemed, and we still got hit, as still as we were. We were laying down, praying, laying there still, like a house, like cement, not moving at all.”

Pangelinan remembered looking at his squad, but there was nothing they could do. He yelled to Torres to tell him that the rounds were coming through the empty tank. As Torres turned to look at him, their eyes met at the moment that a bullet hit Pangelinan in the face.

“When the round hit my face, it was like two cars colliding—like a big boom. Blood squirted out and [Torres] yelled, ‘Pangelinan,’ and I started yelling ‘Corpsman up, Corpsman up!’ and I kept passing out and waking up,” said Pangelinan.

He then opened his eyes to see the casualty evacuation (CAS EVAC) vehicle and the rest of his platoon coming to the rescue before passing out again.

“When I woke up again, all I know is that I was in the worst pain in my life. My face wasn’t hurting me but both of my legs were.”

His buddies carried him into the CAS EVAC vehicle that would later take him and Torres to the Battalion Aid Station (BAS). Pangelinan realized that his best friend was wounded as well when he woke to the sound of another buddy’s voice, “Torres, Torres.”

While racing along to the BAS, Pangelinan was being comforted by one of his friends who was letting him know that everything would be alright, when everything faded to black.

Five days later, Pangelinan woke up in the intensive care unit. As he lay there, he knew that he had been shot and was hoping that he would stay alive. Every time he was awake he would stare at the ceiling, not wanting to see the condition that his body was in. He knew he couldn’t talk and he could feel the breathing tube in his neck, but fearing the worst, he never looked at his legs.

“I never wanted to see what was on me. I just kept staring straight for the most part to keep myself asleep. The only thing on my mind was to stay alive. I kept thinking about my kids, I wanted them to have a father, I wanted me to be their father, I wanted them to have me.”

Pangelinan’s memory of the time that he spent at Brooke Army Medical Center is still not entirely clear, and he was told most of what had happened to him by the doctors and nurses that cared for him.

“They told me I was awake the whole time and I was answering questions. I had a phone call from my wife, my mom, and my brother. They said I wasn’t talking but I was responding by nodding my head. I couldn’t talk with the trache, they told me I was awake and responding to them but I have no memory of it. The nurse asked me if I knew where I was, and I shook my head no. He said San Antonio, Texas. I wanted to laugh, but in a mad way because I didn’t think that it was a nice way to try to get my hopes up by lying to me like that. I thought I was still in Iraq and that I had just gotten shot yesterday.”

While in the hospital, Pangelinan received a call from his unit. His First Sergeant called to see how he was doing and to wish him well. He also found out that his best friend Torres suffered bullet wounds to the head and had died two weeks after the attack.

In the days before this mission, Pangelinan’s platoon had suffered five casualties, two were fatalities, including their platoon commander, with another Marine received shrapnel wounds from a rocket propelled grenade.

These days, Pangelinan is convalescing at his house on Camp Pendleton, and enjoying the company of his wife Silvia, four-year old son Don Juan, and one-year-old daughter Nolana. This is one benefit of the ordeal as Pangelinan hasn’t been able to spend much time with his family since he joined the Corps.

For his first three months, he was in boot camp. His next three were served in the School of Infantry. Afterwards, he was reunited with his family, but the time would be short lived. Only two months later he was deployed on his first tour in Iraq.

“Now they are just worried about fixing me. I walk on crutches right now. I’ve got an aneurysm in my neck and the bullet that went in my face is still stuck next to my second highest vertebrae. The bullet has to stay in there because it’s too risky to take it out. My left leg is pretty good, but the right leg is missing a lot of bone. They told me I could probably walk in 6-10 months.”

The prayers he said while under fire must have been heard as he was able to tell his story. The bullets that hit him missed all major organs. The doctors told him that he would have been killed if the bullets have been off by a fraction of an inch.

Still, after all that he’s gone through, Pangelinan’s passion for the Corps hasn’t wavered. When asked what being a Marine means to him he said, “To live with honor and pride. I remember our old squad leader told us, ‘If there’s no honor in it, if you’re not going to be proud of what you’ve done, then don’t do it.’”

Pangelinan still believes in the mission of the United States and the role that it must continue to play in Iraq.

“The Iraqi people do like us. Some of the terrorists and insurgents are from other countries. They’re using Iraq as their battle ground to attack us. The only reason the Iraqis don’t want us there is—they still like us, but they wish we would go home because of the violence. It’s not that we’re causing it, but because we’re around, and they believe that we’re attracting the aggressors. You can’t really blame them. In WWII, war was in Saipan too, and it wasn’t nice for my family, having a war around them, even though they were neutral. It’s like, ‘We like you, thanks for saving us, but if you go home maybe the fighting will stop.’ Then again if we go home now, maybe in another 10 years we’ll have to go back in. If we do things right this time, then we won’t have to go back there any more.”