Rowan of the 21st Century

Here’s an excellent article on a “modern day Rowan” from the Kansas City Star. Guess where our 21st century warrior got his Bachelor’s?

Shupp, a member of the Virginia Military Institute Class of 1981, commanded Regimental Combat Team-1 during the historic battle of Fallujah in November 2004. During the fight, he had operational command of four Marine battalions, one Army battalion, eight Iraqi battalions and eight independent companies and detachments. In essence, he commanded a division in battle and did so with aplomb. I served as his security detachment commander.

Fallujah was recognized worldwide as an insurgent stronghold, and for six weeks the Marines endured bloody urban combat while dislodging the insurgents from their sanctuary. By Christmas, more than 90 Marines had been killed and more than 600 wounded. Yet RCT-1 prevailed.

Even before RCT-1 began the transition from the assault phase of the operation, Shupp had formulated an imaginative plan to establish humanitarian assistance sites throughout the scarred city to provide the basic needs of tens of thousands of returning displaced residents. Even as his Marines continued to engage isolated pockets of insurgents throughout the city, Shupp’s regiment began to dispense emergency rations and supplies to the residents only blocks from the fighting.

We soon learned that this warrior’s passion to defeat the enemy was surpassed only by his compassion for the Iraqi people.

Fallujah in 2004. Means LtCol P probably knew him.

Many are the warfighters who wear the ring.