KANE'OHE BAY — In the month and a half that Cpl. Andrew Lowe was in Haditha, Iraq, he regularly dodged sniper and small-arms fire and the occasional rocket-propelled grenade. Once, a man jumped out of a car and threw a grenade at him.

The 22-year-old squad leader's head had to be on a swivel, scanning windows and rooftops in the city of 30,000 where the Hawai'i Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, were daily targets along with Iraqi army troops.

That was before the booby trap — either a pipe bomb or 82 mm mortar round — blew Lowe's legs out from under him on Oct. 18 as he kicked in a door. The blast severed the femoral artery in one of his legs.

Recovering back in Hawai'i, Lowe's experience is not very different from that of many Marines who get shot at, get wounded or know others who have been killed.

He isn't sure why so many Sunni Arabs are shooting at Marines in western Iraq, only that they are.

The Pentagon yesterday released the names of three more Kane'ohe Bay Marines killed in Iraq, a total reaching 15 now for the 2nd Battalion since late September.

The top U.S. commander in the Middle East, Army Gen. John Abizaid, was recently quoted by The Associated Press as telling the Senate Armed Services Committee that "Al Anbar province (where Haditha is) is not under control." Abizaid said about 2,200 more Marines were headed from their ships in the Persian Gulf to Anbar province to help shore up U.S. combat power in the area.

Lowe, from San Diego, is the first to acknowledge the increasing hostility that has this nation's leaders looking for a new course in Iraq.

But he said he would go back today to be with his Marine brethren, and he feels the public has the wrong attitude about those who have been killed.

Pfc. Donald Brown, 19, who was killed on Oct. 25, slept on the rack above Lowe "for the longest time."

Lance Cpl. Michael Scholl, 21, who was killed on Nov. 19 by a roadside bomb, meanwhile, was a good friend.

"It hurt so bad that he died," said Lowe, who's also a veteran of Afghanistan. But the thing that bothers him the most about the public is that "they blame, they blame, they blame." In this case, what he means is they blame the Bush administration.

"What that Marine died for is something greater than himself, and that's why we do what we do," he said. "I know what they died for, and they died fighting for their country. ... Whether what our country is doing is right or not is none of my business. That's up to the politicians to decide."

But he doesn't think the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq.

"Just because something gets tough doesn't mean we should pull out," he said. "It means we should push harder, and we should do what we set out to do."

HEAVY U.S. DEATH TOLL

In the three months since thousands of additional U.S. forces poured into Baghdad to quash escalating violence, far more American troops have died in volatile Anbar province than in the capital city.

More than two-thirds of the 245 U.S. casualties from Aug. 7, the start of the Baghdad offensive, to Nov. 7 occurred outside Baghdad — which military leaders have called the "center of gravity" of Iraq, and the key to success in the war.

Four in 10 deaths over those three months have been in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgency stronghold where U.S. Marines have largely taken the lead.

Marines, who comprise only about 15 percent of the 141,000 U.S. forces now in Iraq, accounted for nearly 28 percent of the fatalities over the three-month period.

In the month and a half that Lowe was in Iraq, his squad — made up of five Marines and eight Iraqi army soldiers — experienced more than five sniper attacks, a level he called "insane."

The Iraqi soldiers he was shadowing performed well, but they were Shiites in a Sunni city, and "the public in Haditha sees the Iraqi army as a worse enemy than we are."

Lowe's early departure from Iraq came as the result of an early-morning mission on Oct. 18 to check on some reported roadside bomb emplacements.

Near a hospital and mosque, Lowe's foot patrol took sporadic fire, and the Marines saw gunmen run into a walled compound. Lowe kicked a door once, twice and as it swung open on the third kick, a bomb planted in the ground about six feet away exploded.

"When it went off, it happened so fast," he said. "There was a big explosion, sparks. I was kind of blinded by it, and my ears were ringing. I hit the ground and started running. I got about 20 yards and I looked down at my legs and the blood was just pouring down my pants."

His femoral artery had been severed, and he could both feel and hear his blood draining away.

MOST OF HIS BLOOD LOST

Cpl. Christopher Chapman and another Marine Lowe only knows by his last name, Gutierrez — who had a big piece of shrapnel in his leg — carried the 6-foot-2 Marine to a nearby house and helped apply tourniquets to both legs. He was later told he lost 70 percent of his blood.

"Corporal Chapman is actually the guy who saved my life," Lowe said.

Doctors removed about 24 pieces of shrapnel and transplanted two sections of vein from one leg to replace a section of destroyed femoral artery in the other leg.

Lowe's legs bear multiple foot-long scars, and he has some nerve damage in one leg, but he is making a fast recovery and now walks with a cane. He'll probably be medically separated from the Corps, he said.

Lowe said that mentally, he's dealing with what happened.

"I dealt with it just fine, I guess," he said. If anything, he feels guilt that he's not still alongside his fellow Marines.

"To tell you the truth, I just want to go back there. I would go back there today if they would let me," he said. "My best friends are there. All those Marines are there. People tell me every day I should feel like a hero for what I did, and I tell them I don't feel like a hero. I feel like I got out easy. They are still there, risking their lives every day."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.