5 posts tagged “3rd battalion 6th marines”
Honoring the dead from wars past isn't something that stops once hostilities end. When Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, rolled up their tents and packed their wagons to head home earlier this month, the last thing they did before they left was clean up a British cemetary from World War 2. Our correspondent with 3/6, Lance Cpl. Christopher Zahn, writes to tell us how that effort went.
CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq – There is an unofficial rule for Marines that says to always leave a place in better condition than when they found it.
With that goal in mind, Marines from Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, gathered in formation in the early morning hours of one of their last days in Iraq. Their task wasn’t any normal working party or police call, but one that brought them to hallowed ground. Their mission was to clean and restore the British Royal Air Force Cemetery at Camp Habbaniyah.
“We spent seven months here and we’re living a part of history,” said Lt. Col. James F. McGrath, 41, from Laurel, Md. “We’re sitting in a place that has history that dates all the way back to World War I. I thought it fitting that the Marines get over there and recognize what kind of history they are part of. I thought by getting over there they would be able to see those headstones and it would be embedded in their minds where they could end up. Plus it was a good thing to do in terms of just helping the area out, making it look better and trying to get it to return to normal.”
The cemetery is one of the more potent reminders of the history of the base, which was created in 1927 by a treaty between Iraq and Britain. The base was the site of a pivotal battle in World War II that kept allied oil supplies out of German hands in May 1941. The base last flew the British flag in 1959, but the remains of 289 Britons and Polish service members are still buried here.
The cemetery was neglected and abused in the years that followed the departure of British forces. After the invasion in 2003, the camp was occupied by Coalition Forces. Since then, there have been several cleanup projects by Army and Air Force personnel stationed at Habbaniyah, with the most recent one taking place in September 2006. After the most recent clean sweep, however, the cemetery again needed some caretaking.
With the rising sun on the horizon, the Marines began the solemn business at hand. Weeds were removed, trash was picked up and fallen gravestones were gently placed back in their places.
“Once again I’m amazed at what happens when a few Marines put their backs into something,” said McGrath, the battalion commander. “Just like we’ve done the whole time we’ve been here, we put a little heart and soul into everything we’ve done and made a difference.”In just a couple hours of hard work the task was completed and the cemetery was transformed into a place worthy to pay respect to the men and women buried there. The joy of completing the project was mixed with sober thoughts as the reality sunk in.
“It gives you a sense of pride helping out and making things look better,” said Cpl. Jeffrey T. Hall, 21, from Eaton, Ohio.
Many Marines took a last lap around the graveyard, surveying their work, and reading the headstones of those who lay there. One epitaph summed up what many were thinking as they looked upon the resting places of those who gave their lives for freedom: “He answered willingly the call and he who gives himself gives all.”
We blogged some about the tribal awakening taking place in Anbar Province earlier in the week, and I wanted to share a short vignette about a practical outcome of said awakening.
I visited one of our training centers for the Provincial Security Forces, or PSF. What these are are non-traditional security forces composed of tribesmen from the greater Fallujah area. When I went, a new class composed mostly of Iraqis from the Albu Issa tribe, on the sweeping tract of land running from just west of Fallujah just on the other side of the Euphrates all the way south to Amiriyah. This is the third class held so far.
These guys are being trained to become a legitimate sort of police auxiliary force, tasked with defending their tribal areas, fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq and other terrorist groups. Once made official, the plan is to have them funded by the Ministry of the Interior for weapons and gear, as well as receiving a paycheck from the Iraqi federal government, according to Maj. Mark Clingan, the operations officer for 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. I interviewed Maj. Clingan today and he had quite a bit of interesting information to pass along, most of which will be in a future post.
However, there was something he said that was very revealing and I feel sheds quite a bit of light on exactly what is happening, and why it is significant:
There really is in Al Anbar Province a huge awakening. You could almost call it a revolution where the Iraqi people are tired of the empty promises and lies of (Al Qaeda) and want to take back their own neighborhoods. The (indigenous counterinsurgency forces) which are growing up from the roots is an indication of that. By taking the ICF and turning them into PSF, now we’ve equipped them, we’ve given them the training and now we’re also legitimizing them and making them more of the process, and the local and national government recognizes them. (This recognition) includes funding from (Iraqi Ministry of Interior) and paychecks for individuals. It also puts them on the road to potentially becoming full-fledged (Iraqi Police), and also it means that they are able to act within the authority of the Iraqi government and sanctioned by the Iraqi government.
Things just feel
There is still significant work to be done, no doubt about that. Watch some of the cable news shows and read some of the mainstream papers. It would be difficult not to find an article about Anbar that does not discuss in depth precisely what is going on.
"Stay tuned" for more information forthwith on this topic.
Our correspondent with 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, Lance Cpl. Christopher Zahn, brings us a recap of the battalion's latest operation, Operation Riverwalk:
The tribal awakening in Al Anbar made an enormous impact on an operation by Marines and sailors from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, recently.
“We clearly see that the Iraqi citizens have grown tired of what the insurgency has to offer; they do not want any part of it,” said Brig. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus, ground forces commander for Multinational Force West, during a recent news conference.
This weariness aided the “Teufelhunden” Battalion, based out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., when they swept the countryside around this town south of Fallujah May 4. Local residents turned out to point the Marines toward caches and alerted them to homemade bombs, called improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, during their patrols.
“The Iraqi people are starting to realize that, unlike the Ottoman Empire or the British occupiers, the American military is not a military of occupation,” said Maj. Mark H. Clingan, 36, from Westminster, Md. “We are here to rid the country of the insurgency and allow the Iraqi’s their own self determination. That’s why the local nationals are now standing up to Al Qaeda and assisting Coalition and the (Iraqi Security Forces). This awakening is allowing us to focus our forces in areas where the enemy is seeking safe haven.”
This riverside area on a peninsula south of Fallujah has turned into base of operations for insurgent activity. Tight control over surrounding areas like Amiriyah to the east and Habbaniyah to the west have forced them into an ever-dwindling supply of terrain unoccupied by Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces.
The 72-hour operation, dubbed Operation Riverwalk, denied the enemy this terrain and disrupted his ability to plan and equip to target both the Coalition Forces and the Iraqi Security Forces in and around the city of Fallujah.
Read the rest of this story here.
And for those of you who have always wanted to know what a (relatively small) IED cache looks like:
A Marine from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, pauses along the side of the road April 15 during Operation Northern Fury, a 48-hour operation designed to take the fight to the enemy in his comfort zone across a perceived safe buffer, the Euphrates River. It was planned and led by the soldiers of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Battalion, 1st Division of the Iraqi Army, with some advice from the Military Transition Team, a group of 3/6 Marines tasked with advising the Iraqi Security Forces. The combined patrols made a serious dent in the ability of the anti-Iraqi forces to emplace their deadliest weapon: the improvised explosive device, or IED.“The whole purpose was to deny the area to insurgents,” said 1st Lt. Geoffrey T. Newton, 34, a MTT leader from Oxford, Miss. “It was a show of force by the Iraqi Army.”
This operation was a follow-up to Operation Northern Forge, which we blogged about here.
As I've indicated before, one of the biggest assets we have on the ground here is our interpreters. Most often they are contracted through one of the companies who are in the linguistics biz with the government, but every so often we get a Marine who can speak Arabic while performing his normal daily routine. One of these invaluable assets is Lance Cpl. Mohamad Salameh, a Saginaw, Mich., native, and infantryman with 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6. Lance Cpl. Stephen McGinnis, one of our combat correspondents, recently wrote a story about Salameh and I thought I would post some snippets here. You can read the rest of the story here, albeit without photos. (usmc.mil is not friendly with our limited bandwidth, which is one of the many huge advantages of our Vox page here -- not to mention our fabulous readers and neighbors who interact with us on a daily basis)
Salameh, like all Marines, is a rifleman first. He goes on foot patrols, fills sandbags and clears houses, but all the while assists his Marines by breaking the language barrier.
“He is awesome. He will call out a vehicle (checkpoint) and is the first one to reach the vehicle,” said Staff Sgt. Jason R. Hart, a 29-year-old Personnel Security Detachment platoon commander from Saginaw, Mich. “He has a lot more authority than a civilian interpreter. He is Marine that speaks Arabic. He is not an interpreter, he is a grunt.”
That's a biggie: He is an infantryman first and foremost. Of course nowadays being a grunt means a lot more than kicking down doors and shooting straight. We spend a lot of strategic capital making sure even the lowest-ranking of ground-pounders know the value of positive interactions with the local populace. Salameh -- and other Marines like him -- make sure those interactions proceed at a normal pace without having to wait for external translators.
Salameh has a good grasp on the context of the struggle in which we currently find ourselves immersed:
Salameh lived in Lebanon until he was 19 and lived through many years of strife in his native country, so he has a good understanding of the Iraqi people.
“I know exactly how they feel. I lived through the civil war in Lebanon. Being Middle Eastern and looking at the situation in Iraq, I believe we are doing the right thing for these people,” he added. “We are serving the people and the community of Iraq for their freedom. It is time for them to be able to live their lives and speak their minds rather than being ruled by a dictator and we are fighting for that.”
I hope this gives you a key-in to how we view this fight. The rank-and-file Marine Corps understands that now we are fighting to give Iraqis a decent life under a fairly-elected government who provides for the needs of its constituents. Yes, there is a lot of debate at home and abroad about the ins and outs of Iraq, but to those of us who see these people day in and day out, we can't help but feel a little bit of a human bond between us and them. They are real people to us, not soundbites on the news. They deserve the opportunity to raise their children without fear of bombings, abductions, beheadings and sectarian reprisals. Every day, and with every Marine like Salameh who arrives in-country, we take another step toward achieving that goal.
My Groups
-
U.S. Marine Corps Updated: 3 days ago
-
Deployed Troops (host) Updated: 3 days ago
-
DINFOS Graduates Updated: 4 days ago
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
