Lima Company 3/25 celebrates 10-year reunion

by | Aug 19, 2015 | National Security

  • George “Doc” Wentworth at the memorial service for Lima Company. The names of the 22 fallen Marines and their one Navy corpsman are being read in the final roll call. Wentworth was the Navy corpsman for Lima Company 3/25 during their deployment in Iraq.

  • George “Doc” Wentworth kneels in front of the life-size painting of Staff Sgt. Anthony Goodwin. The Marine was one of the unit’s first casualties and died in an IED explosion on Mother’s Day 2005.

  • The Marine Reserve Center at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base was Wentworth’s home for 16 months during Lima Company’s deployment to Haditha Dam. The 10-year reunion marks the first time he visited the base since the unit’s homecoming in 2005.

  • At the reunion dinner he had to change his nametag from “George Wentworth” to “Doc Wentworth.” “No one here knows me by George,” he said.

  • About 15 fire departments contributed to the Lima reunion and memorial service. Firefighters saluted the motorcade from bridges all the way from Columbus south to Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base.

  • Family members pay tribute to the fallen heroes of Lima Company. The unit lost 22 Marines and a Navy corpsman and has earned 60 Purple Hearts, all of whose names are engraved in the Lima Company Memorial at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base.

  • Children listened to Lt. Col. Benjamin Braun’s speech at the memorial service for the fallen Lima Marines at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base south of Columbus.

  • During the 10-year reunion weekend, life-size paintings and boots of Lima Company’s 22 fallen Marines and the Navy corpsman were displayed for family members to pay tribute and remember their loved ones.

  • Marines stand at attention for Lima Company’s motorcade, which arrived at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base Saturday morning.

  • Through his tattoos on his arms, Sgt. Shawn Bryan pays tribute to Lima Company’s fallen and wounded Marines and Navy corpsman.

  • The names of Lima Company’s Marines and the Navy corpsman who were killed in action decorate Sgt. Shawn Bryan’s arms. The 10-year reunion is the first time he – and many other Lima Marines – have seen their buddies in years.

A Marine Reserve unit that suffered some of the heaviest casualties during the Iraq War reunited Aug. 15-16. Many of the vets still bore the physical and emotional scars left by the 2005 deployment.