Page 138 - 100 Hours to Destiny

horror stories that some of the veterans had talked about. But this would be
different for Delta, all lives in the Kuwait Invasion had miraculously been
spared, despite S-2s prediction of 80% casualties. We had defied the odds.
Each man serving in this battle would return safely back to the USA to a
hero’s welcome, unlike the 11 souls – my friends and fellow Marines – who
were lost at the Battle of Observation Post 4, just weeks before.
For now, the words had been spoken… Capt Roger “Rock” Pollard led
the way, alongside 1stLt Scott Williams, 1Sgt Alfonso Villa, GySgt Steven Dell,
1st and 2nd Platoon Commanders, 1stLt G. Sadowski and 1stLt D. Kindle to
bring home a win. This grouping of perhaps what was the greatest combat
command team ever assembled on any battlefield throughout time under
the US Marine Corps flag accomplished the amazing. This team had saved
Marines’ lives. Brilliant judgment calls along the way with swift & deadly
reaction to an action overwhelmed enemy forces and caused them to
surrender.
Gunny Dell was in a dead run coming back from Missile Magnet and I
jumped down to meet him as he came my way. No more had I taken 10 steps
Gunny was with me. We both looked at the other.
“Did you hear? It’s over!!”
“I heard it all Gunns. I heard Rock's mission completion statement. I
guess this is it. We’re standing down.”
“Hey Witch, I made a promise to myself that if we survived this thing
I would go around and photograph every crew of every vehicle of Delta
Company that made it through. And by God, I’m going to do just that right
now and it looks like I get to photograph them all.”
“Hallelujah, we made it!”
So, with that Gunny climbed into his Commander's hatch of the
logistics vehicle. He retrieved the camera that had been there waiting. Gunny
was on a mission to take the historic photos of Delta Company, just minutes
after Capt Pollard gave the order for Delta Company to stand down.

[The following pages contain the photos that Gunny Dell took that day. GySgt
Steven Dell was kind enough to let me use these photos for the book. It’s
amazing how Monte and Navy Corpsman Doc Pereira had long conversations
today about one photo shown here…I hope all of the Marines and Navy
Corpsmen of Delta Company Reinforced get to enjoy the photos (and
memories) shown here.]