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thedrifter
03-09-04, 01:34 PM
Marines from Pendleton prepare to move north to Iraq

By: DARRIN MORTENSON - Staff Writer

CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait ---- Marines waiting and training at this camp in the desert of northern Kuwait are getting mixed messages about their impending mission in Iraq.

In one 50-yard square of the sandy base Friday, one group of Marines practiced thrusting bayonets into the guts of mock combatants while another group wrapped furry teddy bears to hand out to Iraqi children.

But leaders say Marines will need equal parts of aggression and compassion to succeed in Iraq.

They say knowing how to handle such an extreme range of actions is what will be necessary to win over Iraqis and root out insurgents in the areas west of Baghdad, Iraq, where a force of about 25,000 Marines is replacing the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, which has occupied the region for almost a year.

"They need to know when to turn it on, and when to turn it off," said Maj. Brandon McGowan, the executive officer of 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. "Yeah, it's a lot to ask of Marines, but I believe they're ready."

McGowan said that what seems like an unconventional role for Marines, isn't.

Marines have conducted so-called pacification campaigns throughout their history, most notably in the Caribbean and Central America in the 1920s and '30s, and in Vietnam in the late 1960s.

And in the 1980s the Corps took some of the lessons of those campaigns and geared them for urban operations.

The result was the concept of the "three block war," wherein Marines should be ready to conduct peacekeeping missions in one neighborhood, give humanitarian aid on another, and engage in full blown urban combat on a third ---- all within three city blocks.

But watching them get ready to apply the concept to Iraq can be a mind-blowing experience.

Sandwiched between a row of sand-colored Bedouin tents and cargo containers loaded with gear, members of the 3rd Platoon, Fox Company leaned in and listened intently as Staff Sgt. Ernest Cardenas taught them how to kill a man while looking him in the eye.

With his shoulders square to a box of sand placed atop a concrete block at gut level, Cardenas smoothly stuck his bayonet blade into the box, twisted his forearm and pulled it out.

Sand poured from the wounded box like blood.

"When a blade goes into a body, it doesn't come out the same way," he said, demonstrating the thrust in slow motion and turning to scan the Marines' eyes like a Little League coach at batting practice. "When the blade goes in, turn it. Rip a big-ass hole. Rip and turn. Rip and turn."

A stone's throw away, a group of Marines unloaded wooden boxes from a steel cargo container beneath a camouflage netting that provided some relief from the blistering morning sun.

Picking from among a pile of toiletries, toys and tools, one Marine tossed a bright orange Nerf football, then a yellow Frisbee, into an olive drab crate.

The box, and about a dozen more like them, will be filled with American-style playthings and will travel with the Marines to their urban base west of Baghdad, where they will spend the next seven months trying to provide security for Iraqi citizens and to hunt guerrillas.

Navy chaplain Lt. Scott Radetski said the contents will be gifts that individual Marines can hand out to Iraqi children to help garner support and create trust, one Iraqi at a time.

"It's so that they can reach out and provide an act of kindness and diminish some of the fear," Radetski said before instructing a Marine to remove some Slim Jim meat sticks from one of the boxes because it might contain pork and offend Iraqi religious and cultural sensibilities.

"It's just something to give eye to eye, heart to heart, hand to hand," the chaplain said.

Asked if he thought the gift-giving approach could make a difference in the hostile areas of western Iraq, Pfc. Jose Romero, 21, of Houston said it couldn't hurt.

"I pray so," he said, peeling a tiny sweat shirt from a teddy bear because it had an American flag emblazoned on the front of it. "I think if we can basically win the public over, then they'll point out the bad guys."

McGowan, the battalion's executive officer, said the Marines will face an enormous challenge countering urban guerrillas while trying to make friends among regular Iraqis.

"If one Marine pulls the trigger at the wrong time it could have strategic implications, or at least seriously affect operations in the area," McGowan said Friday as young Marine officers darted through his tent carrying maps, clipboards and plans.

"Their mission will be basically to look for bad guys," he said. "But that can be done only by creating a rapport, through friendliness and mutual respect. The Marines know that by their individual actions they are the face of America to all the Iraqis they meet."

Staff writer Darrin Mortenson and staff photographer Hayne Palmour are traveling with Camp Pendleton Marines as they return to Iraq. Their coverage is collected at www.nctimes.com/military/iraq.


http://www.nctimes.com/content/articles/2004/03/06/military/iraq/3_5_0422_20_24a.jpg

Marines with Camp Pendleton 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, Fox Company go through bayonet training at Camp Udairi in the Kuwait desert on Friday.
Hayne Palmour IV

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/03/06/military/iraq/3_5_0422_20_24.txt


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

Lock-n-Load
03-09-04, 01:48 PM
:marine: The legacy and mission of the 1st Marine Division FMF lives on in the desert of Iraq...God speed...cold steel the SOBs...Gung-Ho:marine: