Bravo Company mourns its fallen

As a significant new offensive to invade Fallujah looms, US Marines seeking closure over recent casualties held a memorial service Wednesday for eight comrades killed in a suicide bombing over the weekend.

Holding back tears, and at times letting them flow, Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion 3rd Marines gathered in a rudimentary dining hall to remember fallen colleagues.

Mixing the sacred and profane, marines told heartwarming and heart-breaking stories about young grunts and husbands, sons and fathers, whose lives were stopped short while they were still being built.

As US and Iraqi forces gear up for an expected invasion of Fallujah that they hope will crush a spreading insurgency, survivors vowed to leave their grief behind and get back to the battlefield.

"I want to get back out - they all want to go," says Staff Sgt. Jason Benedict of West Milford, N.J., whose wounded left hand is bandaged. He was in the troop carrier hit by the bomber. "They don't want their brothers going out without them.

"It was an eye opener - a tough lesson learned," says Sergeant Benedict, holding his injured hand. "The day after, I was full of rage at the Iraqi people. I got that out of there. [These marines] know that fighting with revenge in mind will cause more problems. We've talked a lot about that."

While some 150 marines sat silently, trying to keep their emotions in check by steady sniffing, one officer said that "hate consumes, and hate will not let us focus - focus like a laser on our enemy."

The marines were remembered individually - often as fun-loving, family-loving, God-fearing, and rule-breaking model marines - by those who knew them best on their squads and their platoons.

But thoughts of revenge still bubbled up for one marine remembering Lance Cpl. Michael Scarborough from Washington, Ga.

"I know, where he is now, he'd want us to burn Fallujah down for what [they] did to him, and that's exactly what's going to happen," the marine vowed.

The service is part of a healing process aimed at letting out marines' grief while controlling the reaction and drawing focus back to the battlefield, says US Navy Capt. Bill Nash, a marine division psychiatrist from Cardiff, Calif.

"They are supporting each other, healing each other, and trying to figure out how in the world [they will] go back out there and take the same risks, knowing that this can happen," says Captain Nash, who has been meeting with small groups from Bravo Company.

"One of several tools that warriors use to do the work they do, is denial - that's the No. 1 primary defense," he says. "But once that denial is blown away - literally - by something like this, it's harder to get back out."

Coping with trauma, or even recognizing it as a problem, has historically been stigmatized in militaries around the world as a sign of weakness. But US military officials increasingly recognize that post-traumatic stress must be dealt with early on.

In Iraq, insurgents have killed more than 1,100 US troops since the war began - a fact that weighs heavily.

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