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tion, they didn’t know where we were,” he said.
His platoon of 40-60 people lost Lance Cpl. P.L. Gregory to a landmine that first day. He was one of the war’s few American casualties.
After making their way through the land mines and other obstacles, the Marines of Cpl. Dodson’s division continued their leapfrogging into the airport, where they witnessed the toughest fighting of the war, a tank battle only 1,000 yards in front of them.
That night serendipity again smiled on the Marines. They settled in for the night, unknowingly, between two two anti-tank mines.
“How we didn’t hit them in the middle of the night, I don’t know,” he said.
The morning of Feb. 28 the word of the ceasefire came down. “We felt pretty good, but we were skeptical,” said Cpl. Dodson. Only 500 meters to the left of their position they found an “extremely large” Iraqi bunker that the “grunts,” Marine infantry, had cleared out.
“They left a lot behind, weapons and tanks. Everybody thought they were poorly equipped. They weren’t. If they had been given a chance to use their weapons it would have been a different battle,” he said.
Cpl. Dodson credited the strategy of throwing an overwhelming force at the Iraqis with the victory, even though it meant four days without sleep for him and fellow Marines.
They returned to Saudi Arabia March 4, then on April 10 they caught the “Free Bird” home to Camp Lejeune. His girlfriend Donna Bradman and friends Kemp Pullen of Culpeper and Lee Hitt of Castleton were there with his family to welcome him home.
Cpl. Dodson was discharged this week, and returned to hanging sheetrock for L. White General Contractors in Culpeper.
“The whole nine yards just got the heartrate going. It was all pretty intense, and it was all really real,” he said.
Riding around Virginia he has taken note of the support he and fellow troops were getting stateside. “I’m seeing all the ribbons and flags and it’s great to see all that support. It’s a proud moment for me, that’s for sure.”
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