MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii -- First Sgt. Gerard Calvin, first sergeant for Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, sat behind his desk aboard Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, exuding the air of a man who knows his stature and power, yet does not throw it around for its own sake.
When he speaks, people listen. In fact, they do more than listen — they act. His every word to the Marines in his combat line company is obeyed like a sacrament.
As he readies himself, and his men, for their upcoming deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom — Calvin’s third such visit to that country — he spoke of one of his Marines in a way a father might speak of a son who has just graduated from college, or a daughter who was about to wed her “Prince Charming.” In a word, he was proud.
Proud that one of his Marines — Sgt. Michael Chambers — a platoon sergeant in Charlie Company’s 3rd Platoon, had just been awarded the Bronze Star with combat “V” for his heroic actions during the battle for Fallujah, Iraq, while serving in the same billet with 1st Platoon.
“I feel blessed to have a Marine like Sergeant Chambers in Charlie Company,” said the Richmond, Va., native, as he went over a laundry list of reasons why he had recently recommended Chambers for meritorious promotion to staff sergeant. “Sergeant Chambers gets it. He understands. A Marine like him knows that it’s not about him. It’s about the Marine to the left and right of him. He puts his own personal safety aside for his fellow Marines. He goes beyond just the textbook training.”
Indeed.
During a recent ceremony aboard the base, Chambers was presented the Bronze Star with combat “V” as 1,000 of his fellow Lava Dogs looked on. The citation, in part, read:
For heroic achievement in connection with combat operations involving conflict with an opposing force while serving as platoon sergeant, 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 1/3. The platoon came under a heavy barrage of enemy hand grenade, rocket-propelled grenade, machine-gun and small-arms fire. Seeing a wounded Marine trapped in the impact zone, and with total disregard for his safety, he charged through a hail of machine-gun fire and shrapnel, and pulled the wounded Marine to safety. While assessing the wounded, he saw another wounded Marine trapped across and open field, directly in front of the enemy positions. Ignoring his own shrapnel wounds, he crossed the field through a barrage of machine-gun, small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire, hoisted the Marine on his shoulder and carried him to safety.
The Bronze Star and the Purple Heart medals he received from his tour in Iraq only begin to tell the story of that fateful day. Perhaps none know that more than the men who served with Chambers and witnessed his valor.
“When we saw the Marines wounded out there in the open, there was no question that we were going to go out there and try to save them,” said Staff Sgt. Ralph Scott, 1/3 assistant operations chief who was then serving as the platoon commander for 1st Platoon.
“Sergeant Chambers and I never had to speak. We just looked at each other. The look said, ‘This could be it.’ Meaning, basically, we’re probably gonna die. That look only lasted a split second. We both knew what we were going to do. We weren’t going to leave those Marines wounded and pinned down in an open field to die,” admitted the Tallahassee, Fla., native.
And, go get them they did.
“He threw that Marine on his back and saved his life,” said Cpl. Chris Doucette, a 1/3 rifleman and squad leader with Charlie Company’s 1st Platoon, 2nd Squad. “Then he went out and did it again for another wounded Marine. When you are in combat, it builds your confidence, knowing there are Marines like Sergeant Chambers out there who have your back.”
“Having served in Fallujah with him, I’ve seen what kind of Marine he is, what kind of a man he is,” added the Norco, Calif. native. “He’s a Marine’s Marine.”
For his part, Chambers is quick to diffuse any praise thrown his way.
“I didn’t do anything that any other one of those Marines wouldn’t have done, given the same circumstances,” said Chambers, a native of Lexington, S.C. “It just so happened that everyone else, besides me and Staff Sergeant Scott, was pinned down. It could have been anybody. I don’t hold myself to a higher standard. I’m a Marine. I do what I gotta do, ‘cause that’s what I do.”
There are those who would argue that Chambers is a cut above, but he said he has never seen himself in those terms.
Born in Black Mountain, N.C., Chambers moved with his family to Lexington, a small South Carolina town where patriotism runs high, and where the townsfolk aren’t afraid to show it.
“I was raised on the outskirts of town, basically in the woods, and there’s no way I’d ever live anywhere else,” said Chambers, a brick of a man who wouldn’t look out of place on the field of any football team in the NFL. “South Carolina is home. Lexington is home.
“The Marine Corps can send me anywhere they want, and I’ll happily go. But when it’s all said and done, after I retire from the Corps, you’ll be able to find me in Lexington — hunting deer, fishing, spending time with my family. South Carolina — that’s where I belong.”
After graduating from high school in 1992, Chambers took jobs as a machinist and carpenter. Then, one day, four of his buddies got together, with Chambers in tow, and headed down to the Marine Corps recruiting office.
“It was one of those deals where we were all going to go in together on the buddy system,” recalled Chambers, half laughing with the knowing smirk of a man who knows better now. “Of course, only two of us ended up actually going in, and it wasn’t on any buddy system. Still, my friend who did sign up did his four years honorably, and now he’s out. Eleven years later, I’m still here, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
After graduating boot camp, which is literally down the road from Lexington at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C., Chambers completed his first enlistment at Camp Lejeune, N.C., before heading back to Parris Island, this time as a drill instructor.
“When I got the opportunity to become a drill instructor, I jumped at it. It was a great feeling seeing the recruits develop into Marines.”
After his stint on the drill field, Chambers stayed put at Parris Island where he served with Weapons Training Battalion before making a permanent change of station to 1/3 in Hawaii.
Since then, Chambers has spent precious little time on 1/3’s home island Oahu, spending the majority of his time on deployments to the Big Island for combined-arms exercises and to California for the Infantry Leaders Course and Mountain Leaders Course. And, of course, the 10 months he spent deployed during Operation Iraq Freedom II.
Through it all, Chambers said he credits his wife, Michelle, a native of Gaston, S.C., for keeping the family strong.
“My wife is an amazing woman,” said Chambers. “When I left for Iraq she was eight months pregnant; plus she had our boys, Trevor, 12, and Tyler, 8, to raise. During that time she also moved us out of our old place and into our new house, packing everything herself and basically just getting it done. Then, she went and gave birth by herself and brought the baby, Triston, who’s 15 months old now, home by herself. She still found the time to take our two older boys back and forth from football, baseball and basketball practice and do all the other things mothers do. My hat really goes off to her.”
For the Lava Dogs of 1/3, it seems their hats, or covers, are the ones going off to Chambers anytime his name is mentioned.
“His professionalism is beyond reproach,” commented Staff Sgt. Mark Robinson, acting company gunnery sergeant for Charlie Company, 1/3, and a native of Newark, N.J. “He’s an awesome Marine. He knows what to do in all facets of Marine Corps training; he’s proven he knows what to do in combat, and I don’t think there is another Marine out there who could do a better job.”
“Sergeant Chambers loves the Marine Corps, and he loves his Marines,” added Lance Cpl. Chris Berggren, a 1/3 rifleman from Lincoln, Neb., who served with Chambers in Iraq. “He sacrifices for his Marines. His Marines always come first. Anybody who serves with him, especially the other Fallujah vets, can’t help but be proud to say they served with a man like Sergeant Chambers. I’ll remember him long after I’ve left the Corps.”
Other Lava Dogs who served with Chambers in Iraq said they couldn’t agree more.
“If his Marines need something, Sergeant Chambers gets it, whether it’s ammo for a SAW (squad automatic weapon) or a Pepsi,” said Lance Cpl. Christopher Harris, a 1/3 rifleman from Jasper, Texas. “If his Marines say they need it and, of course, if Sergeant Chambers agrees that they need it, then he finds a way to produce it. You can just tell he cares about his Marines. He’s hard on us, but he won’t let anybody else mess with his guys.”
“He’s hard on everybody,” agreed Lance Cpl. Justin Deleon, a 1/3 anti-tank assaultman from Marquez, Texas. “But he’s hard on everybody equally, including himself. He pushes himself as hard as he pushes us. He challenges us to be the best Marines that we can be. Serving with a Marine like him, it makes you want to be a better Marine — to live up to the example he sets.”