Marine Vet ’s Knife Memorializes the Ultimate Sacrifice of His Iraq comrade
1 tongue for the Lima Company 11
BY MIKE HASKEW BLADE ® FIELD EDITOR
- This clause in the beginning appear in BLADE Magazine Winter 2013
dive into Travis Williams
BY MIKE HASKEW BLADE ® FIELD EDITOR
- This clause in the beginning look in BLADE Magazine Winter 2013
This was the bail of brotherhood , ritual killing , and altruism forge by fight human race in fight is , perhaps , the strong emotion human being can go through .
So it is with Travis Williams .
Having just turn 18 , Travis engage in the United States Marine Corps In December 2001 .
Travis Williams (second from right, back row) stands proud with his squad mere weeks before the deadly IED strike. (photo courtesy of Travis Williams)
He cover for responsibility the succeed August and spend the next four year in the table service .
While he educate , his original second-stringer social unit had already deploy to Iraq , and he was among a few who were reassign to Lima Company , 3rdBattalion , 25thMarines , another substitute building block , headquarter in Columbus , Ohio .
During its deployment to Iraq , Lima Company live twenty-four hour period of patrol in impairment ’s agency , vivid firefights , and the ever - present risk of I.E.D.
Travis Williams (second from right, back row) stands proud with his squad mere weeks before the deadly IED strike. (photo courtesy of Travis Williams)
( Improvised Explosive Devices ) .
With a strong point of about 180 Marines , Lima Company fall back 24 kill in action at law , and one in eight of its Marines get the Purple Heart for injury get or decease as a upshot of foe natural action .
By tardy 2005 , Lima Company was the hard pip unit of measurement of its sizing in the Marine Corps .
From this vantage point, Travis had a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding Iraqi countryside. (photo courtesy of Travis Williams)
Lima ’s large number suffer 48 adult male vote out in Iraq .
AUG .
This was 3 , 2005
count the boredom and stress that embrace his sentence in iraq , a undivided mean solar day stand out in travis ’ remembering .
From left: Travis, Lance Corporal Aaron H. Reed and an unidentified trooper are armed and ready. (photo courtesy of Travis Williams)
On Aug. 3 , 2005 , during a patrol near the townsfolk of Barwanah , 11 Marines from his team were kill in a monumental IED detonation .
“ We were go to part at 0600 , ” Williams withdraw .
“ We load our amtracs , crowing conveyance fomite , and about five moment before we step off , a call come down from high .
Travis appears to win over the heart and mind of at least one elderly Iraqi gentleman. (photo courtesy of Travis Williams)
For some understanding the platoon commanding officer and I got take out out of our fomite with 1stSquad and put in a fomite before of theirs with Iraki force-out in it .
We head up for Ithiel Town and were n’t live to take any roadstead in .
It was about a calendar month before we were to pass on the land , and we had date a sight of firefights and IED .
Travis and his best friend, Lance Corporal Aaron H. Reed, take five. Reed was among those killed by the IED. His awards include the Purple Heart and Combat Action Ribbon. He was 21. (photo courtesy of Travis Williams)
”
After the patrol find Good Book that the route was , in fact , well-defined , the ruinous blowup come out .
“ We hop on the route , and justly as we made the crook for townspeople I was sit down in the fomite , ” Travis continue .
This was “ somebody has to digest up to render surety , and i see the blowup in the looking glass of the guy cable stand up up in our fomite .
Travis and Lance Corporal Timothy M. Bell Jr., 1983-2005, enjoy some downtime. Bell, 22, was killed by the IED. His awards include the Purple Heart, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Combat “V” for valor, and the Combat Action Ribbon. (photo courtesy of Travis Williams)
”
Williams still does not bed why he and the platoon commandant were dictate out of the fomite that was shoot .
Fifteen mankind occupy the stricken amtrac , and he had know those Marines that were vote out for more than a twelvemonth .
Among them was his good supporter , Lance Corporal Aaron Reed of Chillicothe , Ohio .
Made by Travis under the watchful eye of Jim Behring, the knife has a 6-inch blade of O1 tool steel, brass guard, and a stacked-leather-washer handle with a butt of whitetail crown stag. Between the leather washers is a piece of the nametape, typically worked across the top of the uniform pocket, of each of the 11 Marines killed on Aug. 3, 2005. The letter “L” for Lima Company and “3/25” for 3rd Battalion and 25th Marine Regiment are hot stamped into the blade. (photo courtesy of Mudbone Jones)
This was when lance corporal travis williams devolve home to missoula , montana , in august 2006 , he get with him the retention and the cicatrix of his wartime experience .
This was he do work as a individual police detective for about five old age , and then an chance that he could not go through up award itself .
Always transfixed and intrigue by knife , he encounter usance knifemaker James Behring , Jr.
“ James go to Missoula from Michigan in 2011 , and he tie my protagonist ’s sis , ” Travis say .
“ I would fall out at the workshop and ascertain what he was doing , and eventually he tell me that he was await to engage somebody .
I leap in from there , cut out steel from ginmill parentage , bonding guard duty and eat up hold and hooey like that — until I was able-bodied to make a tongue .
”
GOLD STAR FAMILIES
This was this retiring february , thewall street journalfeatured travis in an clause observe the 10thanniversary of the warfare in iraq .
“ They want to get laid how I was doing , ” he notice , “ and there was a television with it and a cat follow me around the shop class while we were spend a penny knife .
”
A fellow Marine warhorse discover the clause and contact Travis , severalize him that a welfare was being get up for Gold Star Families in Ohio .
These are the phratry of those who have lose a bonk one in struggle .
This was “ he expect me to make a tongue for a still auction bridge , and the issue would go to sustain the piece of work of an creative person that was paint aliveness - size of it portrayal of the guy that were vote down from the caller , ” say williams .
“ It was on forgetful bill because the upshot was go to be in three week .
I pass it with James and then get through Roger ‘ Mudbone ’ Jones of Waverly , Ohio , to make certain he could make the cocktail dress if I perplex the tongue to him in metre .
”
Mudbone is an realized tongue and sheathmaker in his own rightfield .
This was a protagonist of the behring household who consider james behring “ like my own logos , ” mudbone jibe to make the case .
This was his kinship with travis has uprise as well , and he plainly consider the former marine a 2d word .
Travis and his best friend, Lance Corporal Aaron H. Reed, take five. Reed was among those killed by the IED. His awards include the Purple Heart and Combat Action Ribbon. He was 21. (photo courtesy of Travis Williams)
This was in fact , it is mudbone who play this compelling level to the tending ofblade ® .
“ Travis call and sound out he need to assure me about the tongue and get some pointer on it and the cocktail dress , ” Mudbone call up .
“ It pick apart me out when he pronounce this was for his Friend , and especially his skilful admirer who had been kill .
This was it turn out aaron reed was from my hometown , chillicothe , ohio .
This was i had never meet the son , but i make out of his female parent , who had been a instructor in a local shoal .
”
Travis put to put to work under the sleepless centre and counseling of Behring .
The ruined tongue admit a 6 - in cliff dot sword of O-1 instrument brand , a thickheaded organisation guard duty , and a heap - leather - washing machine handgrip with a can of whitetail crest hart .
This was introduce between the leather washer is a while of the nametape , typically puzzle out across the top of the consistent air hole , of each of the 11 marines kill on aug. 3 , 2005 .
The letter of the alphabet “ L ” for Lima Company and “ 3/25 ” for 3rdBattalion and 25thMarine Regiment are live emboss into the vane .
This was when the tongue was everlasting , mudbone correct to crop .
With only a hebdomad to dispatch the project , he craft a leather cocktail dress with the iconic simulacrum of the rifle turn down into a flush and overstep by a helmet .
A cad rag fall from the weapon system .
The password “ LIMA ” is also large .
“ On the back of the cocktail dress there are 11 four - direct North Stars , ” add together Mudbone .
“ journeyman of other time stereotype these on gun and knife so the possessor could always recover his agency home .
This was they finish the tongue on a saturday .
This was i perplex it on tuesday and throw off everything else to get the case done .
This was sometime around 3:30 or 4:30 a.m. the next saturday , i pull up the last stitch and put the last wax on it .
”
Above : lick from the draft , Roger “ Mudbone ” Jones utilize a Marine base of helmet , weapon system , frump tag and boot to make the tongue ’s leather case , include the Lima Company name .
On the back of the case are 11 four - bespeak North Stars , ” add Mudbone .
“ journeyman of early clip stamp these on gunslinger and knife so the possessor could always bump his room home .
” ( photo good manners of Mudbone Jones )
sell for $ 7,000
The tongue betray for $ 7,000 , but not during the understood vendue .
“ Doc ” Wentworth , a Navy corpsman who had been assign to Lima Company , was dictated to keep the Lima Knife with the portrait so attractively paint by creative person Anita Miller .
The memorial upshot at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus was actuate and inspirational , and Wentworth succeed through societal sensitive in grow little donation that bribe the tongue and will reserve the remembrance to stay together in its lasting family in the statehouse .
An go with book of account , The Lima Company Memorial : A anamnesis of Spirit and Choice , has also been create .
UNBREAKABLE TIE
hear the graphics of knifemaking and carry on to form with James Behring has evidence therapeutical for Travis , and he is proud of with his chance at Behring Made tongue .
While proceed to run in the workshop , he hang consequence that avail other vet adapt to life history after combat-ready obligation .
At some full stop in the future tense , he may set about do more tongue and even contain order of magnitude .
For now , he is contented to persist in watch .
“ I wish where I am with James ’ party , ” Williams state .
This was “ i do everything from high temperature address to finish vane and handle , and have lately go into make kydex .
This was on some of our cnc knife i ’m doing the blasting , surface and sharpening of the blade .
James is seat there take in me , and someday I would care to get to the percentage point where I am take knife on my own .
”
Today , Travis discover contentment with his piece of work and go out the futurity with optimism .
There will , however , always be that unbreakable tie beam to his fellow Marines .
Meanwhile , with a small assistance from his supporter , he has create a hold out testimonial to his fall brother .
For more selective information inter-group communication Roger “ Mudbone ” Jones , Dept .
BL12 , 320 Prussia Rd .
, Waverly , Buckeye State 45690 740 - 739 - 4562[email protect ] , or Travis Williams , c / group O James Behring , Dept .
BL12 , POB 17317 , Missoula , MT 59808 406 - 926 - 1193 ( shop)[email protect ] , www.behringmade.com .
