The United States Marine Corps

[HollywoodMarine]

AAV's spalsh off the well-deck.

[vor033]

Marines with 1st Platoon, Echo Company (Co. E), Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines (BLT 2/7), 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), run to secure a landing zone during an airfield seizure exercise, April 7. The MEU is currently conducting Realistic Urban Training Exercise (RUTEX). The exercise evaluates a Maritime Raid Force’s (MRF) ability to conduct maritime contingency operations.



Cpl. Nicholas Escobedo, a squad leader with 2nd Squad, 1st Platoon, Echo Company (Co. E), Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines (BLT 2/7), 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), signals Marines to move forward during an airfield seizure exercise, April 7. The MEU is currently conducting Realistic Urban Training Exercise (RUTEX). The exercise evaluates a Maritime Raid Force’s (MRF) ability to conduct maritime contingency operations.



Cpl. Nicholas Escobedo, a squad leader with 2nd Squad, 1st Platoon, Echo Company (Co. E), Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines (BLT 2/7), 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), signals Marines to move forward during an airfield seizure exercise, April 7. The MEU is currently conducting Realistic Urban Training Exercise (RUTEX). The exercise evaluates a Maritime Raid Force’s (MRF) ability to conduct maritime contingency operations.




Marines with 1st Platoon, Echo Company (Co. E), Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines (BLT 2/7), 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), provide security during an airfield seizure exercise, April 7. The MEU is currently conducting Realistic Urban Training Exercise (RUTEX). The exercise evaluates a Maritime Raid Force’s (MRF) ability to conduct maritime contingency operations.



Lance Cpl. Kotz, a rifleman, and Seaman Joshua Cabrera, a corpsman with 1st Platoon, Echo Company (Co. E), Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines (BLT 2/7), 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), treat casualties during an airfield seizure exercise, April 7. The MEU is currently conducting Realistic Urban Training Exercise (RUTEX). The exercise evaluates a Maritime Raid Force’s (MRF) ability to conduct maritime contingency operations.



Marines with 1st Platoon, Echo Company (Co. E), Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines (BLT 2/7), 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), carry “casualties” to a medical evacuation site during an airfield seizure exercise, April 7. The MEU is currently conducting Realistic Urban Training Exercise (RUTEX). The exercise evaluates a Maritime Raid Force’s (MRF) ability to conduct maritime contingency operations.

[vor033]

Article by - Lance Cpl. James W. Clark

FORT A.P. HILL, Va. – Advancing through the densely packed tree line quickly and quietly, the Marine infantrymen stepped over rotting logs and pushed aside low hanging branches, apparently unaffected by the many pounds of cumbersome equipment they carried.

As the Marines of Company B, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, navigated their way through the Squad Attack Course aboard Fort A.P. Hill, Va., Sept. 14, 2009, the popping of ‘enemy’ fire broke the otherwise quiet Virginia forest.

The firing spurred the Marines into action as their training kicked in and they surged forward by leaps and bounds, one group providing cover for another as they advanced. The Marines used trees for cover and the sweat poured off their faces, as much from physical exhaustion as from mental concentration, and voices quickly went harsh from shouting commands.

Immediate action drills for helicopter-borne raids at the squad, platoon and company levels are a mainstay of training in an infantry battalion, said Sgt. Brian Argintean, a squad leader with 1st Platoon.

“We’re fine tuning the skills we already have in preparation for [deployment],” Argintean explained. “Our primary focus right now is on counter-insurgency operations – meet and greets with locals, or a show of military presence.”

The exercise forced the Marines to push themselves as they performed several hours of practice drills before actually going through the attack course with live ammunition.

“I train my Marines to remember how easy they have it [during training], to push until they are exhausted and then keep going,” Argintean added. “They’re now at a level where I feel comfortable with my Marines and that they know what is expected of them.”

In addition to the physical toll the exercise took on the participants, the Marines needed to remain constantly aware of one another’s location and routinely communicate with other members of the squad.

“You have to know your job and everyone else’s. You need to know where they are going to be and where they are going,” said Pfc. Joshua J. Perrera, a M249 squad automatic weapon gunner with Company B’s 3rd Platoon. “It can get frustrating, trying to keep track of it all, but after a while you get into the right state mind when you’re downrange.”

The training at Fort A.P. Hill provided the battalion a rare opportunity to enhance their combat skills, having already completed all the stages of their pre-deployment training program, said 1st Lt. Anthony Piccioni, the commander of Company B’s Weapons Platoon.

“We’re getting to a point where it becomes second nature. They know where their platoon sergeants and team leaders are, and they just execute the mission,” Piccioni said. “We’re advancing beyond the basics and trying to make these skills intuitive.”

As the Marines finished the attacks their daytime attacks just as the sun began to set, and after a brief respite for hot food served on cardboard trays, they geared up again and moved out to tackle the course at night. They didn’t stop until 1:30 a.m., and after only a few hours of rest, got up to do it all again the next day.

[vor033]

Sorry but no captions with these photos.

[vor033]

NAWA DISTRICT, Helmand province, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan – “I could hear the bullets flying over my head,” said Lance Cpl. Michael Estrada, 20, a team leader from Los Angeles. “They were impacting right in front of us.”

Marines with Company B, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 3, were engaged in a firefight here Oct. 2.

Marines conducting a security patrol were attacked by enemy insurgents hiding on the outskirts of a nearby village.

“We were patrolling through an area that is known to be used by the enemy,” said Sgt. Matthew Duquette, 23, a squad leader from Warrenville, Ill. “We were moving across this small field on our way back (to the patrol base), and we started taking fire.”

Caught in an open field, Marines rushed for what little cover they could find, attained positive identification of the enemy, and began returning fire.

“They were firing at us from a few different positions; most of it was coming out of a small village directly in front us,” Duquette explained. “Once we identified their positions, we returned fire. We knew where they were so we had no reason to leave.”

“You could see a few guys poking their heads out along with the muzzles of their rifles,” Estrada recalled.

With the sun beginning to set, the enemy continued to harass the Marines from various positions. The insurgents put themselves between the bright sun and the Marines in a failed attempt to stifle them.

“They try to use the sun to their advantage,” Estrada explained. “The enemy will attack a lot when the sun sets or when it rises since it is hard to see anything with the sun in your eyes.”

After nearly 90 minutes, Marines radioed for an air strike to take out the remaining enemy fighters.

“The shots kept coming so air support was called in for us,” Duquette said. “I’m glad the plane came when it did because it seemed like the enemy’s shots started getting a lot more accurate as the fight went on. Once we had support from the air, the enemy retreated and stopped firing.”

The gunfire ceased after two aircraft made their gun runs, laying down fire on the insurgent positions.

After the fight, the Marines found hundreds of enemy bullet casings in many different buildings in the area. Fortunately, the Marines had suffered no casualties during the fight.

[vor033]

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELARAM, Farah Province, Afghanistan– Marines from 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment conducted Operation Germinate to clear Taliban insurgents out of a pass through the Buji Bhast Mountains near here Oct. 6-10, 2009. The pass is the most direct route from the southern plain here to the district center of Golestan District in the mountains, where part of 2/3’s Company F is located.

The first element of 100 Marines left here by convoy the evening of Oct. 7 headed for the southern entrance to the pass. Hours later, a second airborne contingent of 100 more Marines and Afghan soldiers flew into previously identified positions in the pass to keep the enemy from escaping into the mountains. The Marine and Afghan National Army forces aimed to push the enemy out – one way or another.

“I figured it was either going to be a ghost town or it was going to be a significant battle,” said Capt. Francisco X. Zavala, Co. F commanding officer, “Unfortunately, there was some battle, but it was nothing my Marines couldn’t handle.”

As the ground-side element rolled through the pass, the rest of the Marines and ANA soldiers who had been inserted via helicopter blocked the eastern and northern exit routes. Their supporting mission was to stop and search Afghans fleeing the area and prevent any possible insurgent support from reinforcing their comrades.

It didn’t take long for them to attract the wrong kind of attention.

“We saw spotters throughout the hills, and we were just waiting for something to happen,” said Staff Sgt. Luke N. Medlin, the engineer platoon sergeant and part of the eastern blocking position.

A few hours after they assumed these blocking positions, the Marines and Afghan soldiers started receiving fire from machine guns, rifles and mortars from enemy positions in the surrounding hills. The Marines quickly dispatched the initial attackers and called in a UH-1N Huey, an AH-1W Super Cobra and an F/A-18 Hornet to destroy the enemy position further uphill.

“We were attacked from a well-fortified fighting position in the hills,” Medlin said. “My Marines quickly returned fire, giving us time to maneuver and overwhelm the position with fire until air support got there.”

Once the sound of gunfire died away, the Marines began searching the mud-brick buildings scattered throughout the pass to ensure they hadn’t missed any hidden insurgents and introduce themselves to the people living there.

The Marines spent the next two days moving from compound to compound, working with the people and maintaining a visible presence in the pass to keep the enemy from trying to move back in. They did receive some small-arms fire, but it was quickly dealt with.
“During the clearing of one compound, a woman drew a pistol, aiming it at one of the Marines,” said 1st Lt. Shane Harden, weapons platoon commander, F. Co. “Lance Cpl. (Justin B.) Basham demonstrated extreme composure and great fire discipline not to shoot her. Within a split second he realized that he could use a non-lethal method to disarm her.”

At first the people in the Buji Bast pass were skeptical and nervous when the Marines came into their villages, Harden said, but after explaining why they were there, the people accepted their presence.

“Luckily the people that were still in the compounds cooperated with us, once they seemed to understand why we were here and what we were doing. It really helped speed things along,” said Lance Cpl. David W. Parrotte, an infantryman with Co. F.

During the searches the Marines collected not only weapons and grenades, but also large supplies of IED-making materials, like batteries, connecter wires and open radios. They also found 2,000 lbs of ammonium nitrite and 1,500 lbs of sugar, which are both primary components of homemade explosives, according to Zavala.

In some of the compounds, anti-International Security Assistance Force propaganda was found and confiscated. Some of the contraband was linked to two men who were taken into custody.

On Oct. 10, the last day of the operation, male and female corpsmen were brought in to treat and assess locals while battalion commander Lt. Col. Patrick J. Cashman held shuras with elders in the villages. These meetings gave the residents a chance to ask questions and put in reimbursement claims for any goods or property damaged during the searches.
During the shuras, the medical personnel treated and assessed some of the local population for symptoms of sickness and injury. 2/3’s medical personnel treated approximately 300 people.

At each of the meetings, Lt. Col. Sakhra, commander of the Afghan 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 207th Corps, talked to elders about actions they should take to keep insurgents out of their towns and the pass. He talked about the power of unity against the Taliban insurgents who threaten their way of life and stressed that they need to trust the Marines and help them eliminate the threats.

“Lt. Col. Sakhra did a fantastic job pointing out the responsibilities of the elders,” said Cashman. “He has the cultural knowledge to tell them where they are wrong and how they need to change to save the lives of their people.”

Cashman added that most of the problems in these small, isolated towns result from the younger men having no way to provide for a family or find legitimate work. So, some of them pick up a gun and take what they want. It is the responsibility of the elders to guide their people and help them prosper without using violence as an easy way to make a living.

After the meetings, the people were given food and water to take home, and instead of leaving immediately, the Marines and corpsmen stayed to give as much time as possible for the villagers to bring their sick and elderly for a checkup.

This four-day operation to clear insurgents out of the Buji Bhast Pass promises safer travel for Afghan people and coalition forces alike. But equally important are the first building blocks of trust laid down between the Marines and ANA and the residents of the pass.

[vor033]

CAMP DWYER, Helmand province, Afghanistan – When many people think about the U.S. Marine Corps, generations of fierce warriors come to mind.

When measured against the Marines’ activities here today, it is a stereotype that still holds true in many circumstances. Modern Marines here are more than warriors though. More often than not, they are also diplomats.

The Marines of Regimental Combat Team 3’s Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle Company, parts of the regiment’s headquarters, and Afghan National Army soldiers conducted Operation Gator Crawl – a rolling patrol near here Sept. 23 through 25.

Operation Gator Crawl allowed the Marines and ANA soldiers to visit villages in Nawa District where NATO or Afghan government forces had not been in years. This operation was a chance to gauge atmospherics, gain a little understanding about an area in which very little was known and positively interact with the people living there.

MRAP Co. often conducts patrols on their own, but for this mission they had the additional support of civil affairs, intelligence, a female engagement team and an ANA detachment. The patrol was broken up into smaller sections allowing the force to spread out over a greater distance and interact in different villages simultaneously.

“Our mission during this operation was to provide security,” said Staff Sgt. Justin Andrew Park, section leader with MRAP Co. But they also got the chance to interact with the local populace alongside the ANA during the mission.

According to Park, they talked with the locals and assured them they and the ANA were there to provide security and assistance.

During the two days the Marines patrolled through the villages, they spoke to the men and women they encountered in an attempt to determine their concerns. What topped the list were clean water and education.

“We were there to do several different things,” said Lt.Col. Leonard J. DeFrancisci, 4th Civil Affairs Group detachment commander. The CAG Marines were focused on establishing relationships with the locals, identifying key leaders in the villages and researching what problems the people are facing – like whether education, clean water or security is the highest priority.

One of the other objectives was to bolster the image and confidence of the ANA, according to DeFrancisci. To help reinforce this, the Afghan soldiers distributed supplies to the locals.

Also, the evening of the first full day of the operation, the Marines, ANA and other attachments found an abandoned, rundown compound where they planned to spend the night. The locals did not like this idea because it positioned the Marines too close to the village. When the elders came to confront them about this issue, it was the ANA who spoke with the elders and made the call to move to a different location.

DeFrancisci said, “We could have stepped in, but we wanted it to be an Afghan answer to an Afghan problem.”

As the convoy was preparing to depart the area and return here, all thoughts of making it back before dinner were forgotten as insurgents opened fire with AK-47s on what they thought was only a small group of Marines they saw on one side of the last village.

“I heard a couple of pops, and at first I thought it was just some of the local kids playing,” said Cpl. Justin Lee Lail, MRAP Co. vehicle commander. “Then I heard the pops again, and that is when I realized it was small arms fire.”

Within seconds two other MRAPs and more Marines rounded a corner to add their firepower to the fight. Two of the insurgents were observed running away. One was killed. None of the friendly forces or civilians were hurt.

“The reason the movement to fire went so well is because of small unit leadership, good corporals,” added the 28-year-old Chillicothe, Ohio, native. “I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Pride in their performance under fire is one obvious way to recognize these Marines’ and Afghan soldiers’ accomplishment. This operation can’t be labeled a complete success, however, until the next group of ANA and Marines visit. How cooperative and receptive the villagers are next time will be the measure of achievement for these few days on the road.

[JKD]

Pics from Bob Hope show off the Lebanese coast, December '83 and Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders performing on hangar deck of USS Guam, March '84

Always cool to see pics from a personal collection. Thanks.

[vor033]

PATROL BASE FIELDER, Nawa District, Helmand province, Afghanistan – All service members are trained to do a specific job – their military occupational specialty. However, sometimes they are also asked to maintain their proficiency in another one, like the mortarmen and amphibious assault vehicle operators with 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment here.

“You have to know how to do another person’s job. If you lose one of your Marines, someone has to fill in for him,” said Sgt. Andres Gonzalez, 26, a mortarman from Chicago. We still do our job if they need us to. Right now there is not a real need for mortars or AAV operators, so we just do the job of a rifleman, he said.

The Marines who live at PB Fielder consist of mortarmen, AAV operators and scout snipers. They have all been operating as basic rifleman along with their original skill set.
Patrol Base Fielder is a newly occupied position. It was opened to make communicating with the local populace easier.

“With this new patrol base, we can easily interact with people, and they can come to us if they have any problems,” Gunnery Sgt. Shawn Hughes, scout sniper platoon sergeant. “It is closer for people to come talk to us.”

Before, the Marines now living here were occupying another post known by Marines as White Hill. White Hill provided a constant watch position on a road called Route 605 that vehicle convoys regularly use to re-supply various positions. Improvised explosive devices are a common occurrence on the 605. Now, White Hill is used only as an observation post whereas this new location is now a platoon-sized base of operations.

“It has been hard trying to have an effect on such a large area,” Gonzalez said about having to cover the ground prior to moving here.” I think we can help, but it is going to take time.”

To help address the IED issue, scout snipers have joined the Marines at Fielder to help. They set up observation posts at night to catch enemy insurgents doing their dirty work.
“It’s a game of cat and mouse out here,” Hughes explained. “When we do patrols, it doesn’t always work. We try to figure out their (the enemy) patterns so we can catch them in the act.”

To combat IEDs Marines have been using foot patrols as a way to meet with the locals and establish good relationships.

“We are trying to make our presence here very friendly. We invite people to come and talk to us if they have any problems,” Hughes said. “Everyone knows me by ‘Gunny.’ People I have never met before seem to know my name. It’s really the Marines though. They’re getting out there doing patrols, meeting people and really staying focused,” explained the Roseburg, Ore. native.

Hughes intends to eventually use the patrol base to hold shuras for local Afghans to attend -- giving them the opportunity to voice their opinions and resolve any issues.
“I am here to listen and then pass it on up to the command where people can make things happen,” Hughes explained.

The Afghan National Army has been a big help in getting through to the locals. Marines work together with the ANA. They show them how to keep the area safe and work with the populace.

“Having the ANA here really helped improve the disposition with the locals,” Hughes explained. “It helps build our ******* partnering with them. They like seeing us working together with the ANA.”

One of the goals tied into building friendly relationships with the people is for them to feel comfortable enough to work with Marines and Afghan soldiers by giving them information that will lead to better overall security in the area.

“I think information will start coming in after the people see that we can help them,” Gonzalez said.

[HollywoodMarine]

Old Battle of Fallujah video.

[Arnie100]

Awesome pics!

[rogueblade]

Can someone explain this for me:
image size too large
http://www.marines.mil/unit/24thmeu/...-3599F-052.jpg

[HollywoodMarine]

Breaching demo sets off, with two breaching sticks ready to rush through.

[timothygfowler]

Can someone explain this for me:
image size too large
http://www.marines.mil/unit/24thmeu/...-3599F-052.jpg

too intense. reminds me of a VBIED that detonated while i was dismounted.

[jimmyboots]

Can someone explain this for me:
image size too large
http://www.marines.mil/unit/24thmeu/...-3599F-052.jpg

Photo op for the chicks back home.