IRAQ -- THE STORY OF COMPANY E: The New York Times today profiles the > experiences of marines from Company E > (http://www.nytimes­.com/2005/04/25/inte­rnational/middleeast­/25marines.html) > , a unit which lost more than one-third of its 185 troops during a > six-month stint in Ramadi, Iraq last year. After returning to the United > States, members of the company, part of a battalion nicknamed the > "Magnificent Bastards," have broken with the traditional code of silence > to tell their story, "one they say was punctuated not only by a lack of > armor but also by a shortage of men and planning that further hampered > their efforts in battle, destroyed morale and ruined the careers of some > of their fiercest warriors." They tell of the four marines who died > because their unarmored Humvee was only rigged with enough scrounged > scrap metal shields to protect them up to their shoulders. Since the > marines of Company E had less than half the troops they needed to fight, > at times, they were forced to create "dummy marines" out of cardboard > cutouts and camouflage shirts, which they placed in observation posts. > In another tragic case, during one deadly firefight, the unit didn't > have enough vehicles to rescue fellow soldiers in trouble; while marines > tried in vain to hotwire a dump truck, 10 men in the unit died. Capt. > Chae J. Han, a member of the Pentagon team documenting Marine camps in > Iraq said, "It was pitiful. Everything was just slapped on armor, just > homemade, not armor that was given to us through the normal logistical > system." Their commander, Captain Royer, repeatedly asked for more men > and armor for his troops; his requests were denied and he was later > removed from his post.