FALLUJAH, Iraq -- First Lt. Martin B. Keogh from Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment was awarded the 2nd Marine Division Association’s Tarawa Award.
Keogh, the platoon commander for Combined Anti Armor Team 4, was selected to receive the award because of his outstanding leadership ability.
As the platoon commander of 3rd Platoon, Company F, Keogh served on deployments to Okinawa, Japan and Guam. Following his tour on the Unit Deployment Program, Keogh was moved to Weapons Company and became the 8l mm Mortar Platoon commander.
Keogh's time in Weapons Company has been anything but predictable. This year alone, he has served as a platoon commander in three different capacities and in two separate deployments.
From February to April 2005, Keogh served as a watch officer at the United States Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan while on an anti-terrorism mission in support of operation Enduring Freedom. From May to August 2005, Keogh was the 8l mm Mortar Platoon commander leading his platoon through a rigorous pre-deployment training program including Revised Combined Arms Exercise and Stability and Support Operations training. From September to the present, Keogh has been a Mobile Assault Platoon Commander in the Al Anbar province of Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Each of these billets were a distinctly different assignment, complete with all of the leadership challenges that necessarily accompany such endeavors.
Lieutenant Col. Scott D. Aiken, the battalion’s commanding officer, had this to say in his endorsement of Keogh, “Throughout his tour in the 2nd Marine Division, Keogh has demonstrated unparalleled excellence, maturity, and remarkable agility of mind and focus. To call him an outstanding platoon commander would be a gross understatement.”
Keogh credits all his success to the Marines he is in charge of.
“The bottom line is that anything good I have ever done has been entirely because of their performance,” added the 27-year-old, Wilmington, Del., native. “I wish there was a way that I could truly thank them for the awesome job they are doing.”
Keogh’s platoon sergeant shares his attitude for the Marines.
“Lieutenant Keogh is the best lieutenant in the battalion and the best lieutenant that I have ever worked with,” said Staff Sgt. Roy L. Rose, the platoon sergeant for CAAT 4.