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Memorial
212rowboat
Member Posts: 2,591 ✭✭✭✭✭
Valhalla.. I see you... rest easy.
Most likely will fall deaf here, but at least not from effort.
I've known heroes. I hope their families are as secure and happy as mine. I thank them and hope they know that...
Most likely will fall deaf here, but at least not from effort.
I've known heroes. I hope their families are as secure and happy as mine. I thank them and hope they know that...
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Gunnery Sgt Jeff Bohr, who is the man who had the single greatest impact on my life, gave his in the siege of Baghdad... He earned a silver star as a result, but speaking to the men who were present- awards just don't matter. the man saved the lives of at least 20 men that day with his actions, and there is likely little doubt in his mind what it was going to cost him.
survivors said it was as if they'd kicked several hundred hornets nests in the same location, and that it was the most intense firefight they'd ever hears of, at least equal to the first Fallujah.
We've, as a collective, done all kinds of things in effort to remember him- and not a day goes by that I don't think of him.
So Saturday my Facebook lights up with news that the driver of the 78 nascar car chose Jeff's name and had it plastered across his windshield in remembrance. THE FRIGGIN CAR WON!!! AND I gotta tell ya, that SoB was as friggin' tough as they come... he didn't look it- he looked like a keg on pegs but he would run your **** deep in the dirt, and curse in ways I still can't match... he was hard as woodpecker lips, and knew his business inside out- demanding excellence from us and accepting no less- if he had anything to do with it, and he just may have, THAT is the cause that car won the race.
I recall him clearly on a 35 mile hump with full gear in sub zero conditions, the core of your body is on fire from sweat and exertion, while your hands, face, or anything else exposed are about to freeze off... you want to know what a man is made of? THOSE are teh conditions to find out... my team of 12 other operators were making good time, putting in 100 plus percent, and all about to fall over... we reached the 35 mile mark in about nine hours, carrying excess of 100# each... that's when the command told us to keep going- five more miles... people were about to lose their minds- physical condition is deeply reliant on mental toughness- and he had that in spades... he announced to all of us "eff them... we got sixty percent left in the tank!!" which echoed his mantra when the going got tough, so it rung true to us- he would always say "when you're ready to quit, you got sixty percent left- that's just your brain playing games with you"... we packed back up and ripped those extra five laughing and joking like madmen... we paid for it in the days following, but not that night....
He CHOSE to lead a soft skinned hummer back into a nest in Baghdad in the opening hours of the siege... He knew what that meant.. the occupants of the hummer did too, but men needed a diversion- they needed somebody to 'run the rabbit' to draw enemy fire so they could escape... Gunny sacked up, took a few of his men- and charged back in... all occupants of that hummer lived except for gunny. he took several rounds, and one was in the brain housing group... lights out... he didn't suffer... someone grabbed the mic and gave notice they'd freed up the pinned unit, and were returning with casualties... Oscar Six asked for names, and they said Gunny Bohr- in all that fruckus over the radio, and you can imagine how crazy that freq must have been, all went dead silent... a questioning voice returned "gunny BOHR?" then dead silence for a full minute before Oscar Six started directing traffic again... nobody could believe it.... If Bohr could die, any of them could... How were they gonna make it out without him?
you dang right we made it... how? why? because Gunnery Sgt of Marines Jeffery Bohr Jr had taught us through all odds and often against our will- there was and could be no better teacher... and because of his lessons in life and the art of war, we (most of us) live...
there has been talk of a CMH for him while reviewing the actions of that day, and I'd friggin LOVE to see it... the man was an Angel and a god for us.... and the bane of our existence at times, but he MADE many of us through his shear will... and I thank him every day.