Cpl Sean Stokes - Fallujah Point Man

To be awarded the Silver Star posthumously.

Life

The Marine Corps figured it was punishing Sean A. Stokes when it assigned him to 3d Battalion, 1st Marines (3/1). He had used marijuana and left his unit for over 30 days, placing him on deserter status with his original command, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines (1/1). Usually, this would warrant Administrative Separation; the Marine Corps would essentially fire him. Instead they took his rank, made him a Private again, and assigned him to the first nearby unit that was deploying: 3/1.

Legend

On November 17, the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment was moving systematically through Fallujah, clearing houses. Pvt. Sean Stokes was point man for his platoon, which meant that on this day he was the man to kick in the door and enter the houses first.

“At each house I said a prayer,” he says. “Please God get me out of this one. When I come out of the house, I thank him, light up a cigarette and move on to the next one.”

In one house that Stokes entered first, followed by his squad, to the left of the front door there was a closed metal door.

“I got the chills,” he says. “I said, ‘We’ll open that one last.’”

Then, “the guy behind me started firing at the door next to me. He told me he had seen an AK-47 barrel sticking out of the door about knee-high pointing at my back.”

The insurgent then tossed a grenade into the room and slammed the door.

“We all took some shrapnel,” Stokes says, but nobody was badly injured.”

For Stokes’ squad it was the second time in two days that they had taken shrapnel. They were very lucky.

The Marines then decided to leave the house and call in a tank to demolish it. They began to file out, with Stokes last to leave, when another grenade exploded, knocking Stokes (240 pounds with combat gear) six or seven feet through the air.

Miraculously the young private was not badly hurt.

But he was incredibly dizzy, unable to walk or stand up. Alone in the house and sprawled on the floor, Stokes was nonetheless able to grab his rifle.

As the insurgents emerged one by one from a bedroom firing their weapons, Stokes fired back, cutting down three or four of them.

Soon though, Stokes’ ammunition clip was empty and there was no time to load another one. In desperation, he began to prep a grenade when he heard a tremendous crash and the outside door at his side, which had been padlocked, caved in. Lance Corp. Heath Kramer had gotten a running start, threw his body at the door and tore it off its frame.

A Marine machine gunner rushed in the now-open door to provide suppression fire while Kramer dragged the injured Stokes to safety.

Later, after the house had been completely cleared, the Marines found the bodies of eight Chechnyan jihadists in the ruins. Three days later, Stokes was back with his squad clearing houses. During the battle for Fallujah, Stokes would single handedly kill nine insurgents.

Reflecting on his narrow escapes, Stokes says, “There was something invisible in front of me, protecting me, it was all the people back home praying for me.”

Death

On July 30, 2007 Corporal Stokes was walking point, again, he always led from the front. He was part of the Battalion Commander's Personal Security Detachment.  His vehicle stopped at point in the road historically attacked by Improvised Explosive Devices. Cpl Stokes got out to make sure the area was clear for the rest of the vehicles to drive through and follow. An IED buried directly beneath him detonated as he moved forward, the shrapnel severing both his femoral arteries. A helicopter arrived shortly to evacuate him, but he bled to death in the arms of his Battlalion Commander.