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| Iraq |
| Marines who fought in Fallujah return to Iraq |
| 2005-10-09 |
| They stormed the insurgent-ridden city of Fallujah, returned home, and now are back in Iraq's most troubled province all in 10 months time. Some prefer this hectic pace. "I didn't join the Marine Corps just to stand around," said Lance Cpl. Giovanni Perez of Los Angeles. But for others, the demands of the overstretched U.S. military are just too much, regardless of the bonuses being dangled before them to re-enlist. "I get out of the Marine Corps in seven months and I can't wait," Cpl. Daniel Trigg of Olympia, Wash., said while guarding a mosque where a large cache of insurgent weapons was being removed. Trigg is on his third tour in Iraq in three years. His last tour had him in the southern city of Najaf, where U.S. troops fought fierce battles with Shiite Muslim militiamen last year. For Lance Cpl. James Whelan of Kalamazoo, Mich., coming back is worth it. "As long as we clean up our mess and get this country back up on its feet," he said, leaning against a palm tree and scanning a thicket of grass. Just 20, he also is on his third tour in Iraq. Their unit, the 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment from Camp Pendleton, Calif., is one of three Marine battalions sent to Iraq three times. Last November it joined in the battle for Fallujah, where several of its Marines were killed and dozens earned Purple Hearts while clearing out insurgents. Now it is in trying to tame Anbar Province's Sunni Arab cities in the west that previously had no U.S. or Iraqi security forces. The task is not easy. The unit they replaced suffered 48 deaths during a seven-month tour, and letters posted on a mosque by a former Iraqi policeman begging for forgiveness from al-Qaida members indicates the difficulty of rebuilding a local security force. Marines note the war, at least in this region, has evolved since their last tour. Insurgents are now hiding instead of controlling entire neighborhoods. Some Marines say this is a more challenging task than simply using the military's superior arsenal against gun-toting insurgents holed up in homes. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #5 ..said while guarding a mosque where a large cache of insurgent weapons was being removed. Someone better be looking into stringing up the imam(s) of that mosque. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-10-09 20:23 |
| #4 Right MM, just like WWII when you deployed and didn't return to the states for years. Father had the pleasent opportunity to visit Tarawa, Saipan, and Tinian islands before a wound sent him back stateside. Think his unit took more casualties. Were we stretched that thin then too? |
| Posted by: Ebbugum Flavirt6621 2005-10-09 20:21 |
| #3 No, it's that we have a very rapid rotation policy. Call it "home leave". It recognizes the fact that units, as well as individuals, do a lot better with naval-length tours than with long deployments. There are all sorts of other benefits to the military. First and foremost, the quality of training skyrockets, with combat expert NCOs using real world "there I was" examples for the trainees. Nothing quite concentrates the mind like knowing you could be shipped out, but your morale is raised in knowing that they want you as prepared as possible. By helping to keep the home situation stable, it also boosts morale. Problems are either "in the window" in which one spouse has to handle them, or "outside the window", in which the other spouse will be back to help. Units get thoroughly refurbished back at home, and a lot of their problems get ironed out as well. Problems that cannot be adequately addressed at the front, but there are just far more resources to deal with back in the States. R&D has been on a binge. In the history of the world there has never been so much face-to-face imput from the battlefield soldier to R&D, straight from the horse's mouth, as it were. It has caused generations of tech procurement in months, rather than years or decades. Some systems that were novel at the beginning of the war are already in their 7th fielded generation!, and under constant, blistering critique and demand for improvements and additions. Oh, certainly it is a strain on the soldiers, but not a great a strain if they were deployed only once for a year or eighteen months. It also gives plenty of opportunity to wean out those individuals who either have had enough, were not cut out for the life, or just need to be removed from the front for their own good. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-10-09 20:14 |
| #2 > Trigg is on his third tour in Iraq in three years. WOT? Screw the MSM, this is what's gonna lose us this war. Are we THAT overstretched? |
| Posted by: Mizzou Mafia 2005-10-09 19:53 |
| #1 *knock-knock* "Candygram" "Achmed? Did you order a candygram?" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-10-09 17:27 |