BlackFive

Update: For Steve Cochran's listeners on WGN Radio, here is the link to the original story now on HBO - "Taking Chance".

Update 2:  From Doc Peabody, the US Navy Hospital Corpsman who attended to Chance Phelps:

I am the corpsman who was sitting next to PFC Phelps when we got hit on April 9th 2004. I was sitting right next to Phelps in the vehicle as the enemy initiated the ambush. I am convinced that Chance died instantly but his head was in my lap and cradled in my arms just seconds after he was hit.

After the firefight, I held his hand as our convoy limped back to the FOB. I knew he was gone but I still felt the need for him to know I was still there with him. I think about him every single day without exception...

Dulce Bellum Inexpertis,

Doc Peabody.

Corporal Seamus sends us this message from April 2004 about Lance Corporal Chance Phelps.  It is the message that Major General John F. Kelly (then a Brigadier) sent to Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl after the General had read LtCol Strobl's trip report which you now know as "Taking Chance".  Both officers have cleared the release of their email:

From:   Kelly BGen John F
Sent:   Wednesday, April 21, 2004 5:38 AM
To:   Strobl LtCol Michael R
Subject:   Trip Report

Mike,

I just read your trip report forwarded to me by CO, 11 th Marines, and having done the kind of duty you report about I know the emotions and pride.  I was with the Marine you escorted, nearly right next to him, when he was killed instantly along side a road named ASR San Juan .  The closest village is Jurf as Sakhr, and it sits right on the Euphrates River with Fallujah 25kms to the N, and Baghdad perhaps 45 to the NNE.  This is an ugly little section of Iraq and full of extremists that hate us for some reason.  Don’t know why, but that’s the way it is.  We were in five vehicles and were caught in a complex ambush.  They initiated it with an IED that caught the lead vehicle, disabled it, and wounded two of the three Marines inside.  After the IED there was immediate massed MG, AK, RPG, and mortar fire that certainly defined for me the term “withering.”  The second vehicle was also caught in the kill zone, but they it did a 180 and out – two WIA aboard from the initial volley.  The third vehicle was outside the KZ, but seeing #1 disabled and the Marines in extremis drove in, dismounted, set up a base fire, and started to work the comms. The other vehicles dismounted outside the KZ and began to seek the flank of the ambush.  Your Marine’s vehicle was called forward to try and close the back door and prevent the guerrillas escape so we could kill them, and after accomplishing the maneuver and putting his gun in action, he was hit.  Over time we shot our way out of it.  We collected up wounded, dead, and all equipment from the destroyed HMMWV, then walked out of the KZ shooting the entire time until we were clear.  All the Marines in the patrol did what we trained them to do, did it instinctively, and as if they were born to it.  Every one of them returned fire, moved to the sound of the guns, and took action.  There was certainly nothing special about any of  them, by the way, other than they were MARINES.    

Your charge started this return home with the same kind of reverence and honor you describe in your trip report, only in a very, very different way.  When we rushed into the combat base in Mahmudiyah it wasn’t for him, we knew he was already with God, but for the WIAs we had aboard.  The entire camp knew he was with us, however, and they all stood tall and were proud to simply be in the same shit hole with him and doing what they joined to do.  The Navy Docs went right to it with the WIAs and saved lives, at the same time we removed him from the vehicle it’s turret having been immediately manned by another Marine who’d himself been hit in the face, but pressed with the mission and the gun never went quiet in the process.  The dead Marine, only just out of high school last May, was of course filthy dirty and his uniform vastly different than the one you saw him in. He obviously was not wearing any ribbons, but did have his flak and all the other accoutrements of a field Marine on when we removed him.  He was also still soaked from the unbelievable sweating a fight brings on.  His buddies spent a few quiet moments and we talked about the loss, and what he meant – what he was like – to them all.  Everyone offered a vignette, most were silly or funny, but that’s the kind of guy he was.  We then withdrew as there was a detailed critique to conduct (actions on contact, who did what, what worked, what didn’t work, what could have done better, and all the what ifs that go with learning the trade and getting better), and then the platoon commander (himself quite a guy) got right to it as there were also weapons to clean, and preps to be made for the next patrol.  Life goes on doesn’t it.  This all took place, by the way, at about 1500 local on Good Friday.  Thought you should know the rest of the story.  Thanks for taking care of our Marine.

Semper Fidelis,

Kelly

Major General John F. Kelly is someone you should know (or at least read).  Our other items from the general are here, here and here.

Update:  LtCol Strobl gave a podcast interview to Military.com.

Below is a re-post about the movie that airs on HBO on the 21st:

"Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday.  Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn't know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him." - LtCol Michael R. Strobl, USMC (Ret.), “Taking Chance”

Four and a half years ago, I was asked to post "Taking Chance" by LtCol Michael Strobl.  It evoked one of the strongest reactions on BlackFive that I have seen since starting the blog in mid-2003.  The story also gave me the honor to get to know some of the friends and family and Marine brothers of Chance.

I included Taking Chance in the Blog of War (Chance is one of the men that the book is dedicated to) and we have followed it's trajectory until, finally, it will be aired as a movie on HBO on February 21st.  Kevin Bacon will portray LtCol Strobl.

Here is the trailer:

It sure seems like HBO stayed true to LtCol Strobl, and, more importantly, Lance Corporal Chance Phelps.

Thanks to LtCol Strobl, we all miss Chance.