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Out of war, transformed

In four years, Danny Eylward has gone from no destination to the Marines and to the chaos of Fallujah. Now he's back home with a new sense of focus.

By LORRI HELFAND
Published January 23, 2005

	[Times photos: Keri Wiginton]
	Marine Corps Cpl. Danny Eylward, 22, hugs his mother, Rebecca Beckman, in front of her Clearwater home before heading to Tampa on Friday to visit friends and family.
	Eylward tells mentor Jimmy Sever, center, and friend Ben Krentzman who he thinks will win a boxing match at the A La Carte Event Pavilion in Tampa.
	Eylward wears the Purple Heart he was awarded for his injuries in Fallujah.

Bullets zipped back and forth as Marine Corps Cpl. Danny Eylward crouched on the landing of a home in Fallujah. For five minutes, he traded gunfire with an Iraqi insurgent standing below. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw another Iraqi hoist a grenade launcher onto his shoulder.

"Oh, no," Eylward thought.

The missile soared over his head and smashed into the wall behind him.

Then everything went black.

A month ago, Eylward, 22, a member of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, was awarded a Purple Heart for the injuries he suffered that day in November 2004. But his brush with death paled in comparison to the tragedies he had already witnessed.

He saw Iraqi insurgents shoot little girls. He saw shrapnel tear a soldier's arm off. He saw his best friend die at his side.

As a Marine, Eylward endured some tough times. But if he had a choice, he would still do it all over again.

He joined the Marine Corps as an angry young man with little direction. He became a focused leader with a future.

"It changed me 100 percent," he said. "I have no regrets."

Eylward, 6-5 and 220 pounds, was a Friday night starter on a baseball scholarship at South Georgia College when, in the middle of his freshman year, he decided he just wasn't happy.

He came back to Clearwater to find himself. He ended up drinking almost every night and getting into lots of fights.

When his parents went through a rocky divorce, he turned to Jimmy Sever, a buddy about 30 years his senior, who took Eylward under his wing.

Sever suggested Eylward join the military.

At the time, the country wasn't at war. Sever thought Eylward could get his act together and set the foundation for a successful career.

Eylward enlisted on Feb. 14, 2001.

"One day me and Jimmy went down to the recruiting office. Next thing, I'm at Parris Island," Eylward said.

Boot camp in South Carolina was a drag. Right off, Eylward knew the military wasn't for him.

"I hated people telling me what to do, when to do it and how to do it," Eylward said.

He thought he'd made a big mistake.

His brother, Mike, had been drafted by the Anaheim Angels. Eylward thought he should have stayed in school and followed in Mike's footsteps.

Life seemed even bleaker a few months later, on Sept. 11.

But in some ways Eylward's life changed for the better that day.

At Kaneohe Bay, his base in Hawaii, he met Julian Woods, a Navy corpsman attached to the 3rd Marine Division.

Woods, whom everyone called "Doc," was a couple of years older and showed him the ropes.

The two became roommates and made the best of their free time, hanging out downtown and at the beach.

With the impending war, Eylward thought he would be deployed to Afghanistan. Instead, he ended training on a tour of more than 20 countries, some he'd never even heard of.

Eventually, he ended up back in Hawaii, where he stayed until he was deployed to Iraq in July 2004.

For much of his Marine career, Eylward took orders from his commanding officers. Now he was a squad leader supervising 16 men. He wasn't sure he was up to the task.

"Maybe I should have listened a little more," he told himself.

He had promised his parents he would return safely. Now he had to tell them he probably wouldn't come home.

His mother, Rebecca Beckman, wouldn't hear of it. She held him to his promise.

The night before entering Fallujah, he coached his men, asking them if they were prepared to die.

On the outskirts of the city, Eylward and 21 soldiers from his squad and others were packed into an armored vehicle when they felt a blast from a mortar round.

The vehicle withstood the attack, but shrapnel flew through a vent and ripped into the bodies of three men.

Eylward and Woods crawled over to the one who was hurt the most. Eylward grabbed the man's arm, but it was barely attached to his body.

Woods wrapped a tourniquet around the man's shoulder and injected him with morphine while Eylward radioed for transport.

There was a pool of blood in the middle of the floor. His men freaked out.

"Don't worry. They're going to be okay," Eylward told them. "They're alive. We've got to keep focused. If you don't keep your mind right you're going to die."

On Nov. 8, Eylward and his men pushed their way into Fallujah.

Four days later, one of his men, a lance corporal named Aaron, was shot in the chest.

Eylward and Woods ran to Aaron's side. They were administering first aid when Woods was shot in the back of the head.

Eylward and another corpsman returned fire on the insurgent.

But Woods, his best friend, died. He told himself Woods was with God. He's in a better place.

Eylward and his men shoved on. They worked their way through the city that day, going from home to home searching for insurgents.

Often they'd climb the exterior walls and enter windows. Sometimes, they'd prop themselves on rooftops and fire below.

Three days after Woods was killed, Eylward found himself poised on a landing trading gunfire when another insurgent fired a rocket-propelled grenade at him.

Eylward woke up at a Baghdad hospital. There were intravenous tubes in his arms. He couldn't see.

He was dizzy and shellshocked and wasn't sure what was going on.

"You're going to be okay," a nurse told him.

The medics told him he had a concussion. His eardrums had burst. They were surprised he was alive.

Eylward made a call to Sever, a call he doesn't remember now.

"Mr. Sever, I've been hit and I'm in the hospital. I have a concussion and I'm hurting," he said.

Little by little, the vision in his right eye returned.

Doctors told him he could go home and recuperate. If he got another head injury it could kill him, they said.

He insisted on returning to base camp near Fallujah. Within a week, the doctors fitted him with a protective eye patch for his left eye and sent him on his way.

Back at camp, his captain told him to stay put.

A day and a half later, he hopped on a supply vehicle and caught a ride to his squad.

"If I have one good eye, I can pull the trigger," he said.

For two weeks, he was a sniper.

Instead of watching over his men, they watched over him.

The sight in his left eye returned, too.

After a couple more weeks on the front lines, Eylward decided it was time to bring his military career to a close.

He wanted to be with family. He was tired of shooting and getting shot at.

On Dec. 17, Eylward left Iraq. He collected his things at base camp in Hawaii before returning home Tuesday.

Now he's working on the next chapter of his life. He's living with his father, Thomas Eylward, in Clearwater. His goal is to be a Clearwater police officer or sheriff's deputy.

On Friday he bought a car, a 2001 Nissan Maxima.

Next, he'll look for a job and find a place to live.

He and Sever are as tight as ever. They've already been to the racetrack and a boxing match.

But Eylward said he has had a hard time connecting with other friends his age. Most don't understand what he's been through.

"Something changed me and makes me appreciate what God's done for me," Eylward said.

For the past four years, much of his life was regimented. Now it's up to him to create his own destiny.

"I know I can do it," he said. "I can do anything in life."

Lorri Helfand can be reached at 445-4155 or at lorri@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 23, 2005, 00:13:14]