Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend is a complex holiday for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate barbecues.  I also enjoy thinking about my friends and the times we had, even if some of those memories are tinged with sorrow.

To be honest, I miss the war.

Time has stripped away the sharp memories, leaving behind the echo of friendships formed between heartbeats of trust and fear. A martial brotherhood forged by standing together with shield and spear.

How can something filled with so much loss and pain make you feel so alive?
 
To be honest, my gun truck was more often filled with laughter than with smoke and spent brass. We were young men, full of life and dreams, our futures bright with promise.

I’m much older now, but their sunburned faces still smile back at me, their spirits caught in the space between the boy I was and the man I have become. I long to join them there and reclaim the innocence we left behind at the moment of their loss.

I cannot.

All that remains is for us to remember the joy we felt when we were together.

There is no place for us there anymore. After all, we used to avoid the older Marines back when we were young.

When I was young.

They never got old.

My friends remain the way they were when we last met, their hopes and dreams etched into my memory. They will live forever now. Their smiling faces will only fade if we allow it.

To tell their stories is to keep them alive.

About a year ago I joined the MTNTOUGH podcast to talk about the Battle of Shewan with Dustin and the team. Not long afterward, Tommy reached out to us and mentioned that he was back in Montana and wanted to visit the lab in person.

This was an incredible opportunity. Tommy Hartrick personified the MTNTOUGH principles of Always Ready and Stay Dangerous. In fact, they don’t come more dangerous than Tommy Hartrick.

He was a bear of a man. We first met when I was a 1st Lieutenant fresh out of the Basic Reconnaissance Course. All Reconnaissance Marines seemed larger than life to me at that point in my career, but Staff Sergeant Hartrick was literally one of the largest men I ever met in my life. He towered over most Marines and his muscular frame was equally suited for the NFL as it was for combat.

Joining the Reconnaissance Community is a humbling experience. There were no rookies at the 1st Force Reconnaissance Company. Every Marine who served there was a top performer with multiple valor awards on their chests and numerous combat deployments under their belts. Professional excellence was everyone’s minimum expectation, and it was hard to stand out in such elite company.

Well, it was hard for everyone who wasn’t Tommy. Hartrick had an impressive resume, even as a young Reconnaissance Marine. He made a name for himself as a machine gunner in Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines in both the invasion of Iraq and the battle of Fallujah. He snuck out of the battalion aid station after he was shot and finished Operation Al-Fajr with a bullet in his leg. Tommy was a Staff Sergeant, and a team leader, by the time we served together at 2nd Platoon, 1st Force.

He was a force of nature. There was no stopping Tommy in battle. He performed the impossible so often that I started to believe he could not be killed.

Unfortunately, it turns out I was wrong. Master Sergeant Thomas Hartrick never made it to the lab. He was going to swing by MTNTOUGH after he finished an overseas assignment but he never made it back. He died two years ago due to complications stemming from a trip to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

I still can’t believe that my friend is gone. He was one of the bravest, and toughest Reconnaissance Marines I ever met.

 Fair winds and following seas Marine, you are missed.

Tommy’s story deserves more space than I can give it here. I encourage you to read his memorial, along with the MTNTOUGH articles covering the Battle of Shewan and other heroic operations he conducted in Afghanistan.

Byron Owen is a Reconnaissance Marine with tours as both a platoon commander and commanding officer at the elite 1st Force Reconnaissance Company. He also had the honor of commanding several intelligence and cyber units to include Cyberspace Warfare Task Group 1, and 3d Radio Battalion. He writes about leadership at www.rucksackleadership.com, information warfare at keyterraincyber.com, and is the author of the upcoming book Bury my Heart in Baghdad.