Gentlemen, I took the one picture I have of the JUMP CP and added some graphics, the combination of which may assist you with putting faces to names, prior to seeing them on the Witness Stand in the pending Article 32. Please see the attached .PDF doc. Note that not every face has a name; this was the best, which my memory could come up with. This Pic was taken sometime in the very late-Spring of 2004. I don't know if this was before the evening in question; but, if I had to bet, I'd bet that it was. There are quite a few faces that were recent replacements to the JUMP CP; I think this may be a contributing factor, as to why I'm unable to recall everyone's name. As I've said before, we were rotating Marines in and out of that JUMP CP at the rapid rate come Spring of '04 - - recall that the JUMP CP was staffed with about 28men from 1st LAR. During the course of MajGen Mattis' time in 2004, the JUMP CP lost 4 Marines KIA; and, there were a total of 17 Purple Hearts awarded within that Platoon. One of those purple hearts went to Stevie Ray Thompson; the officer I replaced as Platoon Commander. SO, WHY AM TELLING YOU THIS? Because, the attached picture was just a 'snapshot-in-time' for the JUMP... quite a few of the Marines pictured, are/were no longer with us, and quite a few of the Marines pictured were 'Combat Replacements' to the original platoon. Also, just for historical accuracy, I never wanted to be the JUMP CP guy... On the previous deployment, I had led a Rifle Company(Reinforced) with approximately 237men, during the 5th Marine Regiment's 'March-Up' to Baghdad, under (then)Colonel Dunford. Following that deployment, I turned-over my Rifle Company and served as (then)Colonel Dunford's Staff Secretary when he had moved-on to become 1st Marine Division's Chief-of-Staff. I was serving in Lieutenant Colonel's billet assignment, amongst the Division Staff. Moving to the Aide de Camp and JUMP CP Platoon-OIC meant I was becoming a Platoon Commander again. Sure, I was honored to be guarding/protecting (then)Major General Mattis and leading hand-picked Marines from 1st LAR -- BUT, I was a Platoon Commander, again. I did not volunteer for this; (then)Colonel Dunford assigned me to this position. I would like to think that he thought, "Ted's the right guy for the job." But, truthfully, I think what he really thought was, "[I] was the ONLY guy for the job. Think about it... every Captain who was worth a damn within the Division in 2004, was either in a key staff billet or serving as a company commander. The only Captains who were available to be an Aide were the 'S-3 Tango-types' or someone too junior to know which way was up. Those guys really shouldn't be put-in-charge of escorting MajGen Mattis around Al Anbar. Colonel Dunford's words to me were, "Ted, I need to put a post-Command Captain into this billet, and you know the General - so, you're it." I couldn't argue with the Chief of Staff. So, I just took the job; and, I did the very best I could. Perhaps, you'll look at this Picture (attached in .PDF) and you'll think, "okay, it's just a bunch of Marines." But, I look at this same image, and it speaks volumes to me... Major Ted Card, USMC (760) 696-0136 // (760) 763-2692
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JUMP-CP_circa-Spring2004_BlueDiamond_Faces-to-Names.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document