Marine recruiter shot in Chattanooga is back at work

From: Marine Corps Times

At first, Marine recruiter Sgt. DeMonte Cheeley thought a firecracker had gone off. But after a short pause, multiple bullets fragmented the front windows of his recruiting office in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and it became apparent that his office was under deadly attack.

The motor transport operator who had been on recruiting duty for just a month and a half when Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez opened fire at about 10:45 a.m. on July 16. Cheeley, one of six troops shot that day, was sitting on a couch near the front of his office.

“From the position I was in, I could see him, but I didn’t look directly out the door,” he said. “The immediate response was to get up and head towards the back office. After the first initial shot there the rounds were continuous.”

When the attack began, Cheeley and the four other recruiters in the office didn’t have time to formulate a plan. They knew they had to move and move quickly, he said. So they spilled out of the office's rear door as rounds continued blasting the strip mall storefront. With adrenaline pumping, the four headed down a hill and Cheeley cut right where he took cover behind dumpsters.

The shooting stopped and the assailant sped off on his way to his next target, a nearby naval Reserve center where he claimed the lives of four Marines and a sailor. There, the shooter was shot and killed.

Once behind the recruiting office, Cheeley said he noticed a wound, but dismissed it as a scratch.

“I was sitting in the front office on a couch when the shooting started so I thought glass nipped me in the back of the leg,” he said.

But his gunnery sergeant took a look and said he suspected Cheeley had been shot. A police officer who responded to the attack agreed and called an ambulance.

Even after first responders examined him, Cheeley said he didn't believe he had actually been shot. It wasn’t until he was taken to the nearby Erlanger Medical Center where doctors took x-rays and found an exit wound that he was convinced.

Fortunately, the round didn’t hit anything critical so surgery was not required. Doctors patched him up, he was home the same day. He had a bit of a limp, but is already back on duty.

Since the attack in Chattanooga, Cheeley said an already patriotic and welcoming community has been standing vigil.

“They have been outside since it happened last Thursday — a constant flow of people bringing flowers and holding flags out there all day long,” he said.

The attack was entirely unexpected for Cheeley and the others in his office. There had been non-specific threats from the Islamic State group toward service members in the U.S. leading up to the attack, but it wasn't anything anyone saw coming.

“It is a little different once it hit here at home,” said the Marine with a 2011 deployment to Afghanistan under his belt.

But it won’t dissuade him from doing his job, he added. Recruiters can't recruit the next generation of enlisted Marines from a bunker, so while he says he will remain vigilant, he will continue to be visible in the community.

"My job as a Marine recruiter is to be out there as the face of the Marine Corps and America,” he said. “We are going to continue to push forward. We are back to work.”

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/2015/07/23/marine-recruiter-shot-chattanooga-back-work/30583039/