Kyle Ellison, Leishman’s commanding general, learned that the Marine was missing his Purple Heart. Leishman is now a commissioned officer stationed at Camp Courtney, Okinawa, Japan, with the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade.Īt some point during his tour in Japan, Brig. When he returned to his unit post-deployment the matter was not addressed and Leishman went more than 16 years without his Purple Heart. Unfortunately, because he had been so hastily assigned to the 11th MEU for the battle, the unit had never received his medical records. Ignoring his burning forearm, the Marine continued the fight for several hours before realizing he was shot.Īfter returning to his unit’s camp, he applied a dressing to stop the bleeding before reporting to medical. “When you’re shooting a machine gun, you have hot brass going everywhere, and sometimes you get hot brass down your blouse.†€œI didn’t know what it was right away,†Leishman said in the press release. The Marine was manning his M240 machine gun on top of his AAV when his right forearm was hit with an enemy bullet, the release said. 10, 2004, the Marine Corps’ birthday, Leishman was a staff sergeant working as an amphibious assault vehicle mechanic for the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, attached to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, fighting inside Fallujah, Iraq, according to a press release. nearly 16 years earlier while fighting against insurgents to retake the city, according to the Marine Corps.Kevin Leishman wasn’t awarded his Purple Heart for the bullet he suffered until Wednesday †Operation Phantom Fury has taken a place in Marine Corps lore alongside the battle of Belleau Wood in France, Hue City in Vietnam and the Guadalcanal campaign in the Solomon Islands, representing the heroism, commitment and valor of the Marine Corps.īut Capt.
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