As a lot of you know I served in Iraq as an International Police Advisor (IPA) with the Dept of State from Feb of 2007 to March of 2008. My mission was to act as an advisor to Marine and Army Police Transition Teams who were tasked with the extremely difficult task of establishing democratic law enforcement in western Iraq. Myself and other advisors were embedded with the teams and assisted them with setting up police stations and training the new police officers. My first team was call sign “rogue”. This required daily convoys to the police stations in small convoys. Our team handled several cities around the city of Hit so we spent numerous hours a day in “Indian country”. Usually the other advisor and I rode in gun truck 3. Not sure why they referred to them as gun trucks, In Al Anbar every truck is a gun truck. Anyway we usually rode in 3 and whoever got to the truck first rode driver side. The gas tank is under the seat on the passenger side so you can imagine why I liked driver side. I had been in country for about two months and was settling into the routine if there is such a thing there and all was going as good as can be expected in a country like that. Our team had been out for a couple of weeks and was due for a run to Al Asad for haircuts, showers, and a PX run and all the usual things that a big base offers. It was going to be a quick turnaround due to having about 100 Iraqi’s starting an academy class on Monday so we advisors caught a flight in a CH53 on Thursday night and the rest of the team was convoying in on Friday. The plan was to ride back out with the team on Sat. I’m not sure if it was a mechanical issue or supply issue but there ended up not being enough room in the convoy for both IPA’s so we scheduled to catch the first thing screaming back out to Hit on Sunday afternoon……….all things happen for a reason……..About 2 am my team leader work me up with the news nobody wants. “Rogue got hit” I was confused, they should have been in Hit hours before. Sandstorms had delayed the departure and during the run to Hit they had hit an IED. News was sketchy but we knew somebody was hurt bad because the military’s internet had been shut down. SOP whenever something big was happening or someone was killed in action. The next morning we got the rest of the news. Several miles out from Hit truck 3 rolled over a tank mine Trevor was killed instantly and everyone else in the truck was hurt. He was riding passenger side rear.The team was about 3 weeks out from heading home.
I had only been on the team for a short time and didn’t know him well but the Marines on the team respected him as a great person and outstanding Marine. He had been active in his church and was usually reading his Bible while everyone else was finding other ways to amuse themselves. Prior to deploying he had done missionary work with a group from his church. During his memorial SSG Garner simply said Trevor was taken because he was the only one of us who was worthy.
As you celebrate Memorial Day take a minute to say a prayer for Trevor and his family. They have earned it.
I had only been on the team for a short time and didn’t know him well but the Marines on the team respected him as a great person and outstanding Marine. He had been active in his church and was usually reading his Bible while everyone else was finding other ways to amuse themselves. Prior to deploying he had done missionary work with a group from his church. During his memorial SSG Garner simply said Trevor was taken because he was the only one of us who was worthy.
As you celebrate Memorial Day take a minute to say a prayer for Trevor and his family. They have earned it.
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