Sergeant Bradley Adams (left) and Cpl. Sean Stokes joke during a patrol break near Karmah, Iraq. The two volunteered to extend enlistment contracts for the deployment with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, and were nearly inseparable as "brothers in arms" while serving on the battalion Personal Security Detachment. Stokes was killed July 30 in Al Anbar province here; Adams was severely wounded in the same blast. Photo courtesy of 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines
Sean Stokes enlisted in the Marine Corps shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He joined 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines Regiment in 2004 after running into trouble with his previous command. As punishment, he was busted down to the rank of private, and transferred to 3/1 – the next unit scheduled to deploy. A twist of fate perhaps, as Sean would make history in the coming months. Under normal circumstances, he would have been discharged.
“Sean wasn’t upset about it at all. He considered it an opportunity to prove himself and make new friends,” said 1st Lt. Jeffrey Sommers, Stokes’ platoon commander at the time.
Sommers’ description of Sean echoes that of Auburn, Calif., citizens who knew him. A high school guidance counselor described Sean as a young man who wanted to “develop into a real strong, ethical, moral human being."
During Operation Phantom Fury, the reserved Marine would prove himself a Spartan in the streets. Sommers said he witnessed Stokes commit maniacal acts of bravery, to the point where the platoon commander questioned his sanity.
“I would see Marines do things and think to myself ‘Hey, glad everything turned out the way it did, but what the hell was going through your head?’”
One example comes from Nov. 10, when Stokes, who served as the front-walking “point man”, and his team were ambushed by enemy forces with grenades and automatic weapons fire. Stokes sustained shrapnel wounds in his lower legs and refused to be evacuated while he provided suppressive fire, allowing an adjacent unit to destroy the enemy.
Stokes walked point each day of the battle. He was the first Marine down every street, in every house and every room – hundreds of rooms. He was the first Marine to be attacked by the enemy and the first to report the situation to his squad leader. Bullets, grenades, rockets and roadside bombs were around every corner.
When asked to describe Stokes’ motives for taking the lead into so much danger, Sommers explained: “You don’t do it because of courage, and you don’t do it because you want to. Stokes probably did it because he knew there was more to the battle than the few seconds involved in opening a door.”
He continued: “That kind of compassion … I won’t really ever understand. Human factors in those situations take a grip of you long before honor, courage and commitment.”
Bing West, author of "No True Glory:A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah" met Stokes during the battle of Fallujah and fondly recalled Stokes as “A grunt with (Lima Company) 3/1 with a great smile.
“He was then living on the third deck of a shot-out factory that I was sure would collapse around us,” said West. “Sean just laughed when I told him I was going to sleep outdoors. He had seen three weeks of non-stop action.”
According to a citation for a pending award, during the non-stop action Stokes saw the face of the death constantly and was wounded several times. What kept him going?
“At each house, I said a prayer,” Stokes later told a reporter. “Please God, get me out of this one. When I come out of a house, I thank Him, light up a cigarette and move on to the next one.”
When the dust settled and blood was rinsed from the streets, names of men like Sean Stokes who braved Hell on Earth rose from the ruins. Some Marines claim to have witnessed Stokes dispatch as many as ten insurgents, others say it was more than twenty.
After the battle, Stokes remained with 3/1, ran through another work-up cycle and deployed again in Sept. 2005 to Haditha, Iraq. During this time, he solidified his bond with his peers and built upon his reputation as the quiet warrior. He began to recover from his earlier career glitches and picked up rank and billets of responsibility. When the unit completed the deployment, Stokes was set to get out of the Marine Corps – but he didn’t.
“Sean was working at the gym on Pendleton, and I would see him every now and then and we’d talk,” said Sommers. When he told the battalion he was eager to extend his contract and deploy again with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the staff was less than shocked. Another hero of Fallujah, Sgt. Bradley Adams, had volunteered to join the battalion for the Western Pacific deployment. The bond between Stokes and Adams gave each Marine no choice but to stand by his brother.
“Basically, each Marine said ‘I’m not going without him and he’s not going anywhere without me,’” claims Maj. Shannon Neller, Battalion Landing Team 3/1 Operations Officer.
Together, Stokes and Adams were assigned to the battalion commander’s Personal Security Detachment. On the battlefield, this meant constant convoy operations down bomb-ridden highways and snap tactical decisions in the interest of keeping the movement as safe as possible. Stokes and Adams, said Neller, initially conducted operations in separate vehicles but eventually made their way to the lead vehicle. Stokes was on point again.
“The (battalion) sergeant major called him ‘The Pathfinder’ out there,” said Neller.
Stokes’ last day on Earth went like this:
Elements from Battalion Landing Team 3/1 were conducting Operation PEGASUS BRIDGE, a counter-insurgency effort in the Eastern Al Anbar province. Lima, India and Weapons companies were scattered across the area of operations, sweeping for weapons caches, roadside bombs and rooting out anti-coalition insurgents. Stokes and Adams, along with the commander’s Personal Security Detachment, were darting back and forth from company positions when the convoy stopped to sweep for IEDs near an existing crater. The Marines formed a “V” and stepped carefully along the roadside when a blast rocked the area. When the chaos subsided, two Marines were down – Stokes and Adams.
“As soon as they passed over the (radio) net PSD had taken two casualties, I knew it was those two,” Sommers said. “I knew if anything ever happened to PSD it would be those guys.” Sommers added he was almost certain Stokes walked point on the sweep.
He had.
