For two Marquette veterans of the Iraq war, their tours gave them a strong sense of satisfaction that they made a positive impact while they served.

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Iraq and Milwaukee may seem like different worlds, but some Marquette students have belonged to both.

For two Marquette veterans of the war in Iraq, their tours gave them a strong sense of satisfaction and a feeling that they made a positive impact while they served.

Cpl. Dave Warnacut, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, was in Iraq from September 2004 to March 2005.

Warnacut is a member of the 2nd Battalion 24th Marines.

Warnacut's platoon and two others, about 180 Marines, were charged with securing and maintaining order in Yusufiyah, a town of about 20,000 people, 20 miles southwest of Baghdad.

Warnacut said his squad's morale was mostly good, but its numbers kept changing as soldiers were injured or killed. It was upsetting, but he said the squad learned to adjust to the unpredictability of its surroundings.

Warnacut's biggest fear was that something would blow up right in front of them, he said.

The entire week of the battle in Fallujah was the hardest week of Warnacut's tour. In November 2004, U.S. forces made the push in Fallujah to take back the city.

"I had a lot of close calls that week," he said.

At one point in the week, 120 insurgents attacked one platoon and Warnacut was sent in to evacuate the wounded.

Of the five Marines in the Humvee, the squad leader was hit with shrapnel in the face and in the neck, the medic was shot in the arm and side and another marine was shot in the neck. Only Warnacut and the driver remained to reinforce the platoon and to evacuate any wounded they could still fit in their Humvee. Everyone in the Humvee survived the attack.

"The entire operation lasted six hours," he said.

A few days later, an improvised explosive device blew up right under Warnacut's Humvee as they drove over it.

"I nicked my thumb and I couldn't hear for two days straight," he said.

His friend Adam, sitting next to him in the back seat, was not so lucky.

"He fractured four vertebrae, lacerated his kidney, lacerated his liver, bruised a lung and got shrapnel in his shoulder," Warnacut said. "He is OK now but they had sent him home."

Sgt. Mick Gall, 1999 College of Communication graduate and second-year law student, served in the 128th Infantry Army Division from November 2004 to November 2005 in the Wisconsin National Guard. Gall spent the majority of his time working in Ad Dujayl, a town 45 miles from Baghdad. He worked as an army paralegal, investigating claims from Iraqis whose property had allegedly been damaged or destroyed by U.S. forces.

"You get a tip that a guy is an arms dealer and you raid the house, knocking down the door, only to find you went to the wrong house," he said.

According to Gall, that would happen frequently because there are no street signs and no numbers on the houses.

"The Iraqis could then come to me and I would repay them for the door," he said. "It gives off a good image of the armed forces."

Gall said the Iraqi people were very understanding and when he was allowed to help them he "got a great deal of satisfaction from that."

Warnacut also said he was moved by signs of gratitude from the Iraqi people.

"People would thank us every day," he said. "I miss feeling like I made a difference."

The most telling moment for Warnacut was when an Iraqi man used a grocery cart to push his father to the election booths because his father could not walk.

"The dad said he wanted to vote because it would be the first time in his life he would have the right to vote as a free man," Warnacut said.

According to Warnacut, in the first month he lived in a bombed-out building, the temperature was 120 degrees every day and he only got one or two hours of sleep a day.

"You tried to get a nap in wherever you could," he said.

The food supply was low too. In the first month, the Marines in Yusufiyah only got one MRE, Meal Ready to Eat, a day.

"About a month later, once our letters got home to our families, they sent so much food that we never ate another MRE again," he said.

Gall said he enjoyed the sense of camaraderie among the troops but he is happy to be back in Milwaukee. He wants to complete his law degree and start a family with his wife.

Warnacut came back to Marquette in March 2005 but said he is anxious to get back.

He is going back with his platoon in spring 2008 even though his tour will be over.

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