EL TORO MARINE BASE : 2 Marines Honored for Somali Tour

They went in as heroes and left with the sound of gunfire ringing in their ears.

For Marine Corps sergeants Brian Busch and Ronald Rowe, tours of duty in Somalia ended early when they were wounded in separate incidents last year.

Both Purple Heart recipients were honored for their service Monday with American flags presented by Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

After visiting Somalia in October, Dornan had 196 U.S. flags flown over the Capitol in Washington last Thanksgiving to pay homage to men and women who died or were wounded in Operation Restore Hope. He has mailed or personally delivered the flags to each of the soldiers or to their families.

“These men are heroes,” Dornan said Monday. “Their mission was one of mercy: to feed women and children.” To Rowe and Busch, his message was short and simple.

“Thanks for giving so much for your country,” Dornan said, shaking their hands as he handed over the flags.

The brief ceremony at the base brought back bittersweet memories of Somalia for both men.

“They cheered for us when we got there,” said Busch, 24, a South Dakota native now stationed at Camp Pendleton. “Then (the Somali people) did a 180-degree turn. When I left, they were throwing stones.”

Busch and his unit, an El Toro-based counterintelligence team, were searching the narrow streets of a Mogadishu market area in March last year, looking for weapon caches collected by Somali warlords.

A short distance away, they could hear the sound of Russian-built AK-47 automatic weapons being fired. The unit turned back to find reinforcements.

“When we turned the corner, we surprised this lone Somali gunman,” Busch said. “He just turned around and fired.”

Busch felt a bullet rip through his shoulder, splintering his clavicle. The gunman died in a hail of return fire from the Marines. Busch was flown to a Swedish hospital before finishing his rehabilitation stateside.

Then he signed up for another four years of military service.

“I never thought I’d being facing gunfire when I first joined the Marines,” he said. “But we’re doing an important job, and I can’t walk away from that.”

Rowe has vivid memories of being hit by a sniper bullet while guarding the Mogadishu airport. The projectile remains buried in his forearm.

“It would take another surgery (to extract the slug), and the doctors said it’s OK as long as it doesn’t bother me,” said the Costa Mesa resident.