MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Fallujah’s “House of Hell” was the last place three certain Marines were together. They were wounded and pinned down by enemy gunfire and tangled in a web of death and distraught.         

Nearly a year later, Navy Cross recipient Sgt. Maj. Bradley A. Kasal reunited for the first time with former Sgt. R.J. Mitchell, also a Navy Cross recipient, and former Lance Cpl. Alex Nicoll May 4.

“We have one of the tightest bonds that any Marines can have,” said Mitchell, 27, who is from Omaha, Neb. “We were the only three people in the room other than the Iraqi insurgent that was killed. The only three that knew what exactly happened. We all went in together and came out together.”

Mitchell said he, Kasal and Nicoll would not be alive to enjoy their bond if it weren’t for two Marines who came to aid them.

“If I could see those Marines I would shake their hands … I would,” said Mitchell, who was a squad leader at the time. “They came into that house three times to help out. It was Cpl. Schaffer and Marquez.”

Thanks to those Marines, Nicoll and Mitchell were able to become close friends when they shared a home in Arizona.

“We’re like best friends,” said Nicoll, 25, who is from McKinleyville. “We’ve been through a lot together – three deployments together and motorcycle mechanics school together.”

Nicoll said the relationship between Kasal, Mitchell and him stretches beyond any boundary.

“It’s definitely a life-long thing,” he added.