When Ray Lopez reflects on Veterans Day and all it represents, he thinks back to his three tours in Iraq and the patriotism he saw demonstrated by his fellow Marines in Company I of the 5th Marine Division’s 3rd Battalion.
“It was difficult,” said Lopez, who mustered out of the Corps as a corporal in November 2006. “It was hard and very stressful. Veterans Day is a remembrance of what has been done for this country and what we had to fight for in order to do it.”
The 38-year-old Kermit native and 2002 Permian High School graduate is a veteran of the legendary Second Battle of Fallujah, in which he was hit in the back by a 7.62-millimeter bullet from a machine gun and almost died before rehabilitating at a hospital in San Diego, Calif., and then returning for a third seven-month tour.
The battle took place from Nov. 7 to Dec. 23, 2004, and Lopez was wounded inside a house on the fifth day of the ferocious fight with the mujahideen that saw 95 Marines killed and 560 wounded while 3,700 to 4,000 of the enemy were slain. The heavy bullet went through Lopez’s right shoulder blade, collapsed his right lung and stopped near his heart.
During his third tour, Lopez fell off a three-story building while escaping an explosion and his close proximity to the 500-pound bombs that were being dropped and other explosions as he worked in demolitions caused a traumatic brain injury that has led to grand mal seizures. He also has constant tinnitus, or ear-ringing, degenerative bone disease and arthritis in his back, shoulders, ankles, knees and neck from the consistently strenuous nature of his duty. He has been adjudged 100-percent disabled by the Veterans Administration. He earned two Purple Hearts.
However, Lopez is able to work as an injection analyst for Occidental Petroleum and support his 8- and 13-year-old daughters Sarah and Madyson. In August, the family was given a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house at 2101 Congress St., by Silver Leaf Homes of Odessa and the Operation FINALLY HOME organization in New Braunfels. They’ll take possession in early 2022.
Asked how he has adjusted to civilian life, he said, “Every day is an adjustment.
“I try to be ordinary and not think about those times. A lot of suicides have gone on in India, Kilo and Lima (I, K and L) companies and in Weapons Company. That’s what hurts. I have no idea why. Nobody talks about it before they do it, so it’s hard. There was no processing out (when he left the military) It was just, ‘Thank you for your service and go do what you got to do.’”
In his communications with others with whom he served, there are few references to their combat experiences. “I think back about everybody being able to laugh and joke around during those bad and worse situations, but now we just text about day-to-day stuff,” he said.
“Getting the house was fantastic, amazing. I had never felt I’d be deserving. It was surreal to see and feel that. It has truly been a blessing.”
One of Lopez’ most vivid memories is of Sept. 11, 2001, when he was a junior playing defensive end for the Panthers. He immediately enlisted as a delayed entry into the Marine Corps, stayed at Permian to get his diploma and entered the Corps in August 2002.
Seeing the videos of hijacked American passenger planes crashing into the World Trade Center and Pentagon “made me sick to stomach,” he said.
“I was angry. I had initially wanted to be in the military police, but I decided I didn’t want to do law enforcement. I wanted to go over there and bring them the same damage that they brought us.”
