CAMP PENDLETON — More than 140,000 Marines have served in Iraq or Afghanistan since the Sept. 11 attacks. Only 18 have received the Navy Cross, second only to the Medal of Honor for combat bravery.
On Monday, the family of the 18th recipient, Cpl. Jason S. Clairday, gathered to receive his posthumous award and to hear the young man, who was 21 when he died, remembered as one "who set the standard for others to follow."
Clairday was awarded the Navy Cross for leading Marines in storming an insurgent stronghold in Fallouja in December 2004 to support Marines pinned down inside the home. Already wounded in the first assault, he refused to leave the fight and insisted on leading a second assault.
"He was told to evacuate; he was supposed to evacuate," said Col. Larry Nicholson. "He did not. He rallied his Marines and said, 'We're going in strong.' "
With grenades and M-16 fire, Clairday and his fire-team members killed the insurgents inside the home and saved several Marines. But wounds he suffered during the second assault proved fatal.
Travis Icard, who served with Clairday in Fallouja, told Marines and others attending the ceremony that his former fire-team leader "guided me to be a better Marine and to be a better man.... Cpl. Clairday taught me things you can't learn in a textbook. He was always hard-working but never hard to work with."
Nicholson, commander of the 5th Marine Regiment, credited the bravery of Clairday and other Marines who "went into that city and took it away from the terrorists" for improvements in Fallouja, which is no longer controlled by insurgents.
Clairday, of Salem, Ark., played baseball in high school, sang in the church choir and went into the Marines looking for stability in his life.
He married his high school sweetheart only weeks before he deployed to Iraq with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment in September 2004.
The couple had dreamed of having seven children and living their lives in rural Arkansas. Sarah Clairday had a miscarriage shortly before her husband deployed, but both figured they would have plenty of time to try again in the future.
Clairday was set to leave the Marine Corps in spring 2005 and attend college in hopes of becoming a counselor to troubled children.
While in Iraq, he sent e-mails to his wife and other family members, and made occasional phone calls. He was always upbeat and never let on that his battalion was involved in close combat.
