Marines & Iraqi soldiers...

The Marine Corps has a lengthy history of fighting counter-insurgency, through training, advising and fighting alongside indigenous forces. This history spans from Lt. Gen. Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, Sr., and Maj. Gen. Merritt “Red Mike” Edson in , and to the Combined Action Platoons in , where a Marine rifle squad would live and fight with a Vietnamese militia in their village.

That organizational legacy carries on today with Iraqi Military Transition Teams (MTT), small teams like the one attached to 1^st Brigade, 3^rd Battalion, 1^st Iraqi Army Division. These Marines, who all originate from 3^rd Battalion, 6^th Marines, embed with an Iraqi Army battalion to help make the unit self-sustainable and capable of independent combat operations in conducting their own counter-insurgency, or COIN, mission.

“A lot of people don’t understand what the MTT team is,” said Cpl. Jasen S. Ortiz, 21, from

Jundi on patrol

“We are not Marines here to fight the war; we’re not here to blow things up and kill people. We are here to start training another army, start building another government, that can start controlling their own population. We have nothing to do with how the missions come out, we are just here to advise them, teach them, and supervise them in their mission.”

Since the team arrived in early January, they have noticed several positive changes in the fighting capabilities of the soldiers. However, there are still obstacles to overcome.

 “Overall they’re pretty good soldiers. They know what to do. They know the right thing to do; sometimes it’s just a question of if they’re going to do it or not,” said Gunnery Sgt. Fernando L. Llanos, 33, from  “That’s why it’s important for the advisors to be pretty disciplined and experienced themselves.”

Small cache

Discipline is one thing Llanos knows very well. He served as an instructor at The Basic School, where all Marine Corps second lieutenants learn how to be basic rifle platoon commanders. His experience in training Marine Corps lieutenants has proved valuable in training the Iraqi soldiers.

“When I was at TBS teaching lieutenants it was probably 10 times easier than being an advisor for an Iraqi combat battalion,” said Llanos, who is an advisor for Company 2.  “The biggest barrier you have is the communication, because sometimes it’s hard to explain what you want from them.”

Training Iraqi soldiers is a rewarding experience for the Marines of the team. They get to witness firsthand the progress made towards a safer . They also know they played a large part in making that progress.

Small cache close-up

“If I had a chance to do something like this again I would in a second,” said Steele, who is the other advisor for Company 2. “I find it fulfilling as a Marine, especially an infantry Marine, to teach a military from a foreign country. It makes you feel like so much higher of a Marine, because you’re passing on a Marine Corps legacy. You’re teaching it to these guys and they pick it up so quick it’s just unbelievable.  I love working with these guys.”

More pics are in the photo section and there are some great ones.

Also I have seen a lot of comments from our readership about the perceived inequity in coverage by the media of "da troops." The only thing I will say to address that is that I spend a lot of time marketing the stories you read here (and a lot more) to newspapers and television/radio stations back in the States. Without exception the local media outlets, the community papers, pick up our stories because they know that their readers want to read a more comprehensive view of what's going on over here. If you want to see more news, call your local community paper and let them know you'd like to see more news from Iraq. There is plenty of it out there of local servicemembers from your area, no matter what area you're from.

All they have to do is visit http://www.marines.mil or http://www.defenselink.mil to get all the military news from the ground they could want. And in my experience they do a great job of telling this story when it is made available to them.

Hopefully the next update won't be so long in coming!