Return to Ramadi
A father journeys to the spot in Ramadi, Iraq, where a jihadi sniper killed his son.
John Walter Wroblewski said his heart beat faster as the Humvee turned right into a narrow alley in Ramadi, Iraq. He got out of the vehicle and noticed rooftops that looked like a good spot for snipers.
A Marine holding a GPS device told him to take two steps to the right. After traveling 8,000 miles, he was almost there. He was told to take one step back. That put him on the exact spot on which his son, Marine 2nd Lt. John Thomas Wroblewski, was fatally wounded almost four years ago.He used to daydream about his son, known as J.T., coming home from Iraq and sitting down at their kitchen table in Jefferson. He imagined that J.T. would talk about his war experiences. After J.T. was killed, he and the rest of his family wanted to know more about how he died. They talked to Marines who were with him in Ramadi. They were contacted by a nurse who sat by J.T.’s bed in a Baghdad hospital.
But they had a hard time visualizing the place where J.T. and his unit were ambushed after racing through the streets of Ramadi, in Al Anbar Province, to help another group of Marines.
John Wroblewski, 56, got there on March 6, on his second trip to Iraq, two weeks before the March 19 fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion and a little less than four years after his 25-year-old son died on April 6, 2004 — one day after being shot in the head.
Surrounded by Marines, John Wroblewski read the names of military personnel, including his son, killed on the same day.
Yes, I’d like to see this debate:
When Cindy Sheehan, whose son also died in Iraq, protested against the war, Wroblewski offered to debate her. He has met President Bush three times. He went to Iraq last year with press credentials as guest of Georgia radio talk show host Martha Zoller. He went back a few weeks ago with press credentials obtained by a freelance photographer who had been part of his first trip to Iraq.
Wroblewski said he wanted people to know that Americans are helping Iraqis, that the news from Iraq is not all bad. He brought back stories of Marines escorting an Iraqi doctor to a 2-year-old girl who had been wounded when some of her neighbors fired guns as part of a celebration. He said he watched Marines hand out kerosene generators and space heaters to residents of Ramadi.
But the purpose of the trip was personal — to see where his son died.
***
Related: Michael J. Totten reports on the liberation of Karmah.
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Tears. May God comfort him and his family.
Mr. Wroblewski my prayers are with you and your family. It takes a strong person to endure what you have and continue on. May God be with you always.
Your son is my hero.
In God’s love.
30pcs
What an uplifting story. However, I’m sure this is the only place we’ll see it.
Agreed. Nothing else to say.
May God be with him and his family.
Isn’t it too bad that a certain other gold star parent(who will remain nameless because her 15 minutes of fame was up long ago) can’t show that kind of strength and dignity.
tre,
Yes. Her pain I don’t question for a minute but this stopped being about Casey a long time ago.
One parent driven by love, respect and admiration.
One parent filled with hate driven by the Dems and the left.
Two absolute opposites in their results.
Love vs. Hate.
To the Wroblewski family, you and your son are what drives this great country and we honor and appreciate that.
Bless the Troops. Bless their families.
My 3 years at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center ending in the summer of 2006; I tracked all evacuees from Iraq and Afghanistan. I rarely met a troop, whether wounded,sick or accidental injury that did not want to get back down range with his buddies!
God Bless our Troops and their allies
What an amazing story. 30, like you, I don’t question her pain. But, I agree, it stopped being about Casey a long time ago.
Mr. Wroblewski, we honor the service and sacrifice of your son and your family.
Jim C
The hard work of thousands of Soldiers and Marines brought Ramadi to the point where it is one of the safest places in Iraq. Forget what you thought you knew about Ramadi; it is safe to walk the streets, just like most places that the Army works. Don’t be fooled by the MSM. I am proud to say that I was part of bringing that peace and stability by following up on what my predecessors in First Armored Division did, and finishing the job. 15 months ago, we saw 35-40 attacks a day and within months, it was stable enough that we moved to Fallujah. Spent 9 months there, and moved again, to near Baghdad. And, stablized there, too. Now, we are under two weeks left in this trip. Because of our efforts (as an army), a man like this can walk the streets and visit the place of his son’s sadly lethal injury. It is up to all of us to apply pressure and make it known to our elected officials, that we must finish the job we started.
P.S. If that means voting for McCain because this is one of the most significant differences between he and those chumps on the other side, then please get past the negatives and plan to cast your vote.
As the photojournalist that arranged and facilitated John Wroblewski’s embed, it was an honor for me to have been a part of realizing John’s dream to get to the site where his son J.T., ten other Marines, and a Navy Corpsman were killed in that narrow, walled alley in Ramadi on 6 Apr 2004.
This historic first visit to the actual site where a loved one was killed in action in Iraq is a memorial to those families that have lost anyone, AND a tribute to those soldiers and Marines whose hard work has restored order, trained Iraqi forces that now provide security, and enabled Anbar to return to a way of life free from fear.