MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (June 13, 2006) -- Being under the hot summer sun, smelling like fish, pulling ropes, and lifting 100 pound crates for a week straight isn’t what most people look forward to doing after a seven-month tour in the hot sands of Iraq.
That’s exactly what Lance Cpl. Danny Spell, a rifleman with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment was looking forward to when he returned from his tour in Fallujah, Iraq, April 10.
“I thought about shrimping a lot while I was out there (Iraq) … made me feel at peace,” Spell said. “It helped me get through a lot of hard times.”
Since the age of five, Spell helped his uncle on his 80 foot shrimping boat off the Louisiana coast. Spell would separate the fish from the shrimp they caught until he was old enough to do more.
“Every time his uncle went out, Danny would beg to go out there with him. He loved it out there,” said Spell’s mother Robin, who’s been a second grade teacher for almost eight years.
They would be on the water for up to seven days at a time and bring thousands of pounds of shrimp back to eat and sell.
“The best part about it was when we got back,” Spell said. “My mom would make her famous shrimp etouffee.”
Shrimp etouffee is a Creole dish with a mix of bell peppers, cooked rice, green onions, celery, Tabasco sauce and shrimp.
The older and the more experienced he became on the water, the more responsibility his uncle would let him give him. After a couple of years, Spell knew everything there was to know about shrimping and was doing anything his uncle could do and more.
His uncle started paying him for his full-days work when Spell turned 16, because he was doing such a good job. Spell was making up to $1,500 per shrimping trip, which was more than the average sophomore in highschool.
All the physical work on the boat and working out after school helped Spell become an all-state offensive linemen his senior year at Westlake High School.
“My Senior year of high school I started getting into shape; shrimping’s really physical you know,” Spell said.
After high school, Spell worked for a contractor at the industrial refinery in Westlake. Spell said working at the refinery just wasn’t what he wanted to do in life, so he contacted the local Marine recruiter and joined the Corps.
“We were a little nervous about his decision, but at the same time we were proud of him,” Robin said.
“The physical and mental challenge is what got my attention the most, that and a chance to serve my country,” said Spell, who’s now 21 and been in the Marine Corps for almost two years.
Spell completed infantry training at the School of Infantry, at Camp Geiger N.C. He was then assigned to his current unit, which deployed to Fallujah, September 2005.
“We tried to make sure he felt as close to home as possible,” said Robin, who sent Spell care packages and phone cards constantly. “I think it kept him going.”
After being in Iraq for almost six months, Spell and his platoon were waiting for a convoy brief at Entry Checkpoint 1, into Fallujah, and a suicide vehicle-born improvised explosive device exploded about 30 meters away.
The dump truck had an estimated 500 pounds of explosives aboard and killed one Marine and one Iraqi soldier. Fourteen other Marines were injured in the explosion.
“I blacked out,” Spell said. “When I came to five minutes later, I had no clue where I was and a huge pain in my right leg.”
He and five other Marines were medically evacuated and taken to the hospital. Spell had shrapnel in his right leg and a grade three concussion.
“The entire time I was over there I just couldn’t stop thinking about being back on the bayou,” Spell said.
Upon returning from Iraq, April 10, Spell went back to Louisiana to his uncle’s shrimping boat.
“I couldn’t wait to get home, back on the water with my uncle,” Spell said. “Shrimping’s my passion, I love being out there on the open water making all that money.”
“We were so grateful to have him back. He’s got such a better outlook on life now,” Robin said.
Spell is now stationed at Camp Lejeune N.C., training and getting ready for his next deployment.
“I pray that he doesn’t have to go back to Iraq again, but if he does, we’ll get through it,” Robin said.