July 11, 2005

Lance Cpl. Marshall S. Spring, a military dog handler with Operation Force Protection, I Marine Expeditionary Force, holds his 60-pound partner, Rex, a 3-year-old Belgium Malonois. Spring, 21, of Ashland, and Rex were deployed in Iraq from Twentynine Palms, Calif., supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom while attached to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. The two have developed a special bond. Cpl. Tom Sloan | Submitted photo

Marine looks out for bombs

Ashland High graduate finds some give him a cold reception on leave

By Jennifer Squires
Ashland Daily Tidings

Packing his Marine uniform with him when he returned home in June didn’t cross Lance Cpl. Marshall Spring’s mind.

Just back from an eight-month tour of duty with Operation Force Protection, I Marine Expeditionary Force in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, Spring got to spend a few weeks in town while on leave from the Marine Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., where he has been stationed since May 2004. The 2001 Ashland High graduate, who will turn 22 in August, didn’t think about the possibility of wearing his dress blues for Fourth of July celebrations a week ago.

“Right now, I’m kind of focused on ‘I’ve got to go on leave, then I’ve got to go back to Twentynine Palms,’” Spring said, adding he didn’t want to attract a lot of attention while he was in town. “That’s hard because, back when I was an artist, everyone was all about it. As soon as I joined the military, I got dirty looks from people I went to high school with.”

Spring, who acted at the then-Actor’s Theatre in Talent when he was in high school, didn’t feel ready for college after graduation. He wanted to become a police officer, but needed to be 21 to hold a law enforcement position. Instead, Spring spent a year working in a coffee shop before deciding to join the U.S. Marine Corps in 2002. He left for boot camp in May 2003 and, in the time since, has served in Japan and Iraq.

“It’s hard to serve overseas protecting the flag and then come back to a town that has scheduled flag burning. I’m defending their right to protest,” he said. “I guess it’s kind of selfish for us to exercise a right we have and then protest us trying to extend that right to other cultures.”

Military-issue pet

Spring is one of 150 Marines trained to handle dogs trained to sniff out drugs or bombs and currently teams up with Rex, an 60-pound, 3-year-old Belgium Malonois who can find explosive devices.

Best friends

In Iraq, the two were deployed with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment and stationed in the northern tip of the Sunni Triangle, one of the most dangerous regions in the country. Together they located 15 improvised explosive devices, as well as hidden Soviet firearms.

“We usually stay pretty busy,” Spring said. “I have the utmost confidence in the professionalism of the people I work with over there and if I can do anything to keep them alive, I want to.”

When they’re not working, they play ball together or watch TV. Rex jumps in bed with Spring, especially when insurgents are lobbing mortars at the camp during the night.

“He’s a codependent dog,” Spring said. “He gets separation anxiety if I leave him for too long, like going to chow.”

The pair performed vehicle searches at checkpoints and does sweeps of open areas and along roadsides. Once Rex locates a potential IED, the area is cordoned off and disposal experts move in to either detonate the explosives where they are or collect them to study the construction of the bomb.

On one outing, the IEDs Spring and Rex search for found them instead.

“We were riding in a [light armored vehicle] when an IED detonated on the side of the road as we passed,” Spring said. “I took shrapnel to my left ear and hand, and the blast was so loud it ruptured my eardrum. Luckily, Rex was protected from the blast and didn’t get injured.”

A staff sergeant in the vehicle was also injured, and both received Purple Hearts.

It was the closest close call Spring had in Iraq, but it didn’t deter him from wanting to return to the region or take an assignment in Northern Africa or Afghanistan before his four-year commitment to the military ends in a year.

“I tried to stay, but they wouldn’t let me,” he said, explaining Marine officials wanted Rex to have some rest and relaxation. “It want to go back because it’s my job to save lives. When I find a bomb, that’s just one less out there.”

Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 3019 or jsquires@dailytidings.com.