Los Angeles Times
May 24, 2006
Window Opens On Marines' Thoughts
'Combat Diary' visits Lima Company in Iraq and afterward, seeing their best and worst.
By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer
Marine Sgt. Phillip Jolly, in the masterful documentary "Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company," set for Thursday on A & E, explains the exhilaration of combat — and the horror that soon follows.
"In the beginning," he says, "it's the best thing ever, it's awesome, you want it every day. But once the bad stuff starts happening, you'll have some of the worst days of your life."
Lima Company, reservists based in Columbus, Ohio, had both experiences during the unit's deployment to Iraq last year. Of 184 Marines in the company, 23 died in combat and 36 others were wounded badly enough to receive Purple Hearts.
As part of the 3rd battalion, 25th regiment, the Marines patrolled insurgent strongholds along the Euphrates River Valley and the Syrian border, a region that gets scant news coverage but is referred to by Marines as the "wild west."
Veteran filmmaker Michael Epstein, in researching the story of Lima Company, found a journalistic mother lode: amateur video shot by the Marines of their training, their off-hours horseplay, their firefights and even the flames that engulfed one of their vehicles after it hit a hidden roadside bomb, killing 11 Marines.
From those videos, and their own long, thoughtful interviews with the returning troops, Epstein and co-producer Jonathan Yellen have created a two-hour documentary of young men and war that tells not just how Marines fight but, in large measure, why. Yellen, a former Marine, is a veteran of the Persian Gulf War.
Attention to detail is an Epstein trademark. His "Antietam" was the first and best of the recent 10-part series on the History Channel, "10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America."
"Diary" is right in its details about combat in Iraq and, more challengingly, pitch perfect in its nuance in what makes the Marine Corps, active-duty or reserve, unique as a military service.
The Marines of Lima Company enlisted to fight. And were disappointed when they figured deployment to Iraq would be boring sentry duty. "We were going to be stuck on the wire," one says.
It didn't work out that way. "Diary" catches the rhythm of a frontline deployment, heart-pounding firefights followed by pizza-eating contests back at base, in this case the Soviet-built Haditha Dam.
"Brotherhood" is a paltry word to describe the bonds that form between the troops. Gunnery Sgt. Shawn Delgado remembered the day Navy corpsman Travis Youngblood was hit:
"His last words to me were, 'Tell the guys I will be back. Don't get another corpsman, I'll be back.' " Youngblood died within minutes.
In the videos shot in Iraq, the Marines are high-spirited and youthfully profane. In the interviews done by Epstein and crew, they've had time to reflect on the meaning of war.
Slowly, painfully, Sgt. Guy Zierk tells of kicking in the door of an insurgent house and, filled with rage over the death of his buddies, coming close to killing two women and a teenage boy. At the last moment, he pulls back.
"It would make me no better than the people we're trying to fight," he says.
"Diary" is free of politics. Epstein knows that foreign policy has little to do with why men keep fighting.
Lance Cpl. Travis Williams, interviewed while fishing in Montana, explains why he wants to return to Iraq.
"I want revenge, and I want to be there for my friends when they go back," he says. "If something happens to my friends and I'm sitting back here — I don't think I could live with that."
'Combat Diary: The Marines of Lima Company'
Where: A&E
When: 9 to 11 p.m. Thursday.
Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)
