Yellow Schoolhouse

Browsing: Yellow Schoolhouse

Progress in Afghanistan, one Yellow Schoolhouse at a time

By Dan Lamothe on September 12, 2011 Afghanistan, Infantry, Marjah

In the fog of war, progress can sometime be hard to measure. With that in mind I’d like to submit the following: That’s Lance Cpl. Joseph Starrett re-enlisting recently at the Yellow Schoolhouse, a facility in Marjah, Afghanistan, that served as a staging ground for two squads of Marines last May when I embedded with 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines. I believe I crashed on the floor of the room with the open doorway in the background. Regular Battle Rattle readers will probably remember the schoolhouse well. It was in one of the most violent neighborhoods in Marjah at the time,…

Reflecting on the suicide of a Marine friend made in Afghanistan

By Dan Lamothe on July 14, 2011 Afghanistan, Embedded journalism, Infantry, Marjah

This is one of the hardest pieces of journalism that I’ve written in a long time. As it appears online, the family members of a friend of mine — Sgt. Ian McConnell, 24 — are traveling today from Camp Pendleton, Calif., to his hometown in Woodbury, Minn. They’re preparing for his funeral at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, a U.S. cemetery in nearby Minneapolis. It’s common that when a person dies with most of his or her life seemingly ahead of them, friends and family create online memorials. Ian is no different. His sister, Meg, posted one on Facebook over the…

Browsing: Yellow Schoolhouse