Park Semper Fi was packed on Saturday morning, April 6, as Gold Star Families, current and former military servicemembers and hundreds more gathered to remember the lives lost 20 years ago in Ramadi, Iraq.
The Heritage of San Clemente Foundation dedicated a memorial plaque to those from the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines’ First Marine Division of the Fifth Marine Regiment, who were deployed to the Battle of Ramadi from February to September of 2004 and were killed in action.
According to the First Marine Division unit, 13 servicemembers were killed and 25 were wounded on April 6, 2004, as the Marines were ambushed by insurgents. The total number of deaths 2nd/4th saw during its deployment numbered 33 Marines and 1 Sailor.
The ceremony served to ensure the servicemembers’ sacrifices would never be forgotten, wrote Sgt. Matthew Boelhower in the event program, a sentiment repeated by many throughout Saturday morning.
“As our 20th reunion of this fateful deployment encroaches on our youthful souls, we are committed to honoring these brave men and what they accomplished,” Boelhower wrote. “Their spirits left behind memories of love, brotherhood, courage, grit, and a fire that burns inside all of us.”
Although San Clemente Mayor Victor Cabral and Wayne Eggleston, executive director of the Heritage Foundation, spoke of the unforgettable nature of the sacrifice and the everlasting legacy, it was the words of Sgt. Joe Hayes and Gold Star mothers Pamela Hallal and Diane Layfield that provided the most poignant moments of the event.
Hayes, who served in the Golf Company’s Third Platoon for 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines—also known as the “Magnificent Bastards”—talked about the servicemembers’ call to fight in a “historic and brutal” battle. During their deployment, the Marines contended with Mujahideen guerrilla fighters whose values opposed the Americans’, who didn’t maintain rules of engagement, and who didn’t value life the way the Marines did, according to Hayes.
“Our enemy had no honor,” he said. “The Marines kept their honor clean.”
As the battle in Ramadi raged on, the Marines took heavy casualties but kept fighting up until, during, and after the day of April 6, Hayes continued, a day in which many present at Park Semper Fi lost loved ones. April 6 was the worst day for 2nd/4th since the Vietnam War, he claimed.
Still, the Marines responded with high-level organization and training over the coming months, eventually “decimating the Mujahideen” and riding through the streets of Ramadi in victory.
“They did not wish to die on the sorrowful day that they fell,” Hayes said of his fallen brothers who would not be forgotten. “They wished for life.”
Those who died loved their families, their country, and freedom, yet were willing to sacrifice themselves and give up everything on the battlefield, he continued.
“To the families of the fallen, you lost a son 20 years ago,” said Hayes. “But you know well (that) you’ve also gained many sons in doing so. …You are loved, you are respected, and you are revered by us all.”
Hayes also thanked the City of San Clemente for its hospitality and position as a new home that embraced many who found themselves far from their original hometown.
Diane Layfield, mother of fallen Lance Cpl. Travis Layfield, her third child, spoke about the positive experiences that came her way even after her son’s death. She reminded the audience to embrace the blessings that happen despite the other devastating events that may occur.
“I am so thankful and blessed you are all in my life; you have no idea,” she said. “I’m always telling Travis every day (that) he brings someone or something into my life to let me know he is right here with me.”
Just over two years after her son’s death, the Layfield family discovered he’d unknowingly fathered a son, now 23 years old and expecting his own firstborn child. In 2014, Layfield learned from a few Marines that the way they found her son was by conducting a sweep through Ramadi and finding an antenna, the only thing left on his person after he was stripped by insurgents.
That revelation hit her “pretty hard,” she added, saying she didn’t think she could’ve lived with the notion that her son was missing in action and that she was blessed to be able to provide a proper burial.
The Layfield family also learned at Travis’ funeral service that the feather tattoo he got to honor his Lakota Sioux heritage did not signify “firstborn son,” but rather, a “fallen warrior.”
“I still get chills to this day speaking of it,” Layfield said. “Travis is our fallen warrior, (and I’m) so proud of his unselfish service to our country, for you and for me, and the Marines and Navy Corpsman who all perished that day.”
She added that she talks about her son, because he deserves to be remembered and is always on her mind, and that she is grateful for the journey his path put her on.
“I am ‘Mama Layfield,’ and I am always just a call away,” she concluded.
Pamela Hallal, mother of Pfc. Deryk Hallal, recalled how her son’s life trajectory was altered after 9/11 and fueled his existing desire to join the military. Deryk was nine weeks from completing his degree in computer programming when he left college, Hallal said, a decision that shocked her.
A few months later, Deryk informed Hallal he had joined the Marine Corps as he, a Christian, wanted to honor God by helping the Iraqi people.
“I said, ‘OK, if that’s what you want to do, Dad and I will honor you and glorify God in your journey,’ ” Hallal continued, adding that her Christian faith plays a large role in her life to this day.
Leading up to April 6, 2004, Hallal and her family were in church when she felt a deep disturbance inside that caused her to sit down and pray for guidance in the form of a Bible verse. Flipping through the pages, she stopped at Luke 21:10-12, a passage in which Jesus told his disciples of wars soon to come that would put the disciples in jeopardy and force them to testify on behalf of Jesus’ name.
“I didn’t know what that meant until two days later, when I made a promise and commitment to my son that we would honor him and glorify God in his life, in his career in the Marine Corps, and now in his death,” said Hallal.
She challenged the audience to think about their own commitment to life and to one another, praised the former Marines for their bravery, and challenged the audience to reach within themselves to find the strength needed to continue enduring each day.
“You can continue to honor your family, honor yourselves, honor God and honor our country,” she said. “But most of all, have peace in doing it, and don’t forget you are part of the United States Marine Corps. Oorah!”