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The first time I met Pat, I was on the roof of OP Horea, and there was this guy smoking on the stairs. He hadn?t shaved in a few days, and I thought, ?Who the hell is this guy?? He is not a marine. So I went to talk to him, and bum a smoke.

From that point on Pat and I were pretty much boys. It didn?t take long for me to realize he was not like some of the other reporters that I had dealt with. He wasn?t even a reporter at all. He was a once rich (before paying his way to Iraq) Hollywood talent agent. I thought, damn why is he here? He had it all. After talking to him, I figured out he was just like me, and my fellow Marines. He was fighting a war with his camera instead of a rifle. The war he was fighting was my war, our war against the media, the biased media who only showed the bad things in Iraq and condemned the President. Well I was there since the beginning and I saw the positive changes in Iraq first hand, and that is what Pat wants to show the country. He wants to show you all how we really feel about being over there and how it really is. None of the fake Hollywood created worthless crap like Over There. ?That show is not reality; it is as fake as MTV?s Real World.

Pat is a man who believes in something, which is more than can be said about the majority of the country. I was with Pat on more than 5 missions, he never hesitated to go to the front where the action was to get the truth. I would want Pat in an ambush with me any day, because he, like us, would suck it up and wait for the enemy silently and without complaint. That I think says a lot about who Pat is.

I provided overwatch on a patrol that Pat was with when they were catastrophically hit by an IED, inflicting 2 KIA?s. Pat was thrown from the HMMWV. Yet after that he still did not hesitate to go out on missions. If we lost someone or had a casualty he would turn off the camera until we agreed he could roll film again. He felt the pain of losing a brother to WIA or KIA just like us. Until you feel what that is like you can never fully understand how we feel about being there, and that is why I believe Pat will tell our story truthfully to the best of our ability. Everyone I was close to felt that Pat was one of us. He was willing to risk all, just like us. He was willing to do whatever necessary to accomplish the mission. His mission was to get the most live footage possible in order to show the country our dedication to duty and the daily sacrifice we make on the front lines every day.

Ramadi was many times referred to as the most dangerous city in the world, and the Government Center was the most dangerous part of Ramadi. Pat lived there with us for about 12 days a month, and he visited post Charlie, the most dangerous place at the Government Center. Hence, Pat, like us has been to the most dangerous place on earth, and came back to tell about it.

Pat wants to tell my story, the Marines? story of 3/7 and 3/1. That is what you will get from Pat Dollard, and that is who Pat Dollard is!

CPT. Iglesias

SGT. Welsh