In the chaotic, intense house-to-house gun battles with insurgent fighters during the 2004 Battle of Fallujah, the point man of Lima Company’s 1st Platoon barreled his way through gunfire and exploding grenades...Several times during missions from Nov. 9-11, 2004, Stokes braved enemy fire — “fearless in the face of danger,” according to the Marine Corps — to kill insurgents and enable his platoon to gain control of houses...On Nov. 17, 2004, after a grenade exploded near him, wounding him, the private managed to continue to use his weapon so the fire teams could reassemble and launch a counterattack.

His work ethic and attitude prompted us to ask, almost beg, for his promotion. No matter what our argument (“He’s smart,” “He’s got charisma,” “Marines around listen when he talks because he’s dead on with his analysis,” “Give him rank, he’s not the drug pop that we thought we were getting hosed with, he’s making a difference”) the command couldn’t budge around the time restriction involved in his demotion; Pvt Stokes would remain a Private for the rest of the deployment no matter what he did or was capable of.

The first man sees a lot, and a lot rests on his shoulders. The Marines behind him depend on what the point man passes back when enemy contact occurs, the squad leader’s plan is dependent on that flash of information the point man gives. Pvt Stokes found a deadly rhythm as the point man for second squad. Whenever a fight broke out, he would either kill the enemy immediately himself, or if he couldn’t give out a quick situation update so his squad could close with and kill.

“To protect his family from worry, he told them before he left and during his third tour that his ship, the Bonhomme Richard, was stopping at different ports around the world and was not going to go to Iraq,” Leupp said by e-mail. “He had already been through so much during his first two tours. Sean was supposed to just see the world by stopping at different ports. So we thought he was safe during his third and we hoped his last deployment. But not the way we hoped.”