A Letter to All Hands

[thedrifter]

A Letter to All Hands
March 23, 2004


The First Marine Division recently returned to Iraq. This is a letter from the Commanding General of the Division to the Marines of the First Marine Division.

Letter to all Hands:

We are going back in to the brawl. We will be relieving the magnificent Soldiers fighting under the 82nd Airborne Division, whose hard won successes in the Sunni Triangle have opened opportunities for us to exploit. For the last year, the 82nd Airborne has been operating against the heart of the enemy's resistance. It's appropriate that we relieve them.

When it's time to move a piano, Marines don't pick up the piano bench- we move the piano. So, this is the right place for Marines in this fight, where we can carry on the legacy of Chesty Puller in the Banana Wars in the same sort of complex environment that he knew in his early years. Shoulder to shoulder with our comrades in the Army, Coalition Forces and maturing Iraqi Security Forces, we are going to destroy the enemy with precise firepower while diminishing the conditions that create adversarial relationships between us and the Iraqi people.

This is going to be hard, dangerous work. It is going to require patient, persistent presence. Using our individual initiative, courage, moral judgment and battle skills, we will build on the 82nd Airborne's victories.

Our country is counting on us even as our enemies watch and calculate, hoping that America does not have warriors strong enough to withstand discomfort and danger. You, my fine young men, are going to prove the enemy wrong - dead wrong. You will demonstrate the same uncompromising spirit that has always caused the enemy to fear America's Marines.

The enemy will try to manipulate you into hating all Iraqis. Do not allow the enemy that victory. With strong discipline, solid faith, unwavering alertness, and undiminished chivalry to the innocent, we will carry out this mission. Remember, I have added, "First, do no harm" to our passwords of "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy." Keep your honor clean as we gain information about the enemy from the Iraqi people. Then, armed with that information and working in conjunction with fledging Iraqi Security Forces, we will move precisely against the enemy elements and crush them without harming the innocent.

This is our test - our Guadalcanal, our Chosin Reservoir, our Hue City. Fight with a happy heart and keep faith in your comrades and your unit. We must be under no illusions about the nature of the enemy and the dangers that lie ahead. Stay alert, take it all in stride, remain sturdy, and share your courage with each other and the world. You are going to write history, my fine young Sailors and Marines, so write it well.

Semper Fidelis

J.M. Mattis
Major General U.S. Marines


Ellie

[thedrifter]

1st Marine Division colors fly again in Iraq
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification Number: 20043239164
Story by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald



CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, Iraq(Mar. 20, 2004) -- The scarlet and gold of 1st Marine Division’s colors was unfurled and a new page in the history book was begun as the Camp Pendleton, California-based unit relieved the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division during a relief-in-place ceremony here March 20, 2004.

Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, 1st Marine Division’s commanding general, formally assumed responsibility of the Al Anbar and Northern Babil provinces from Army Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., 82nd Airborne Division’s commanding general. The relief-in-place ceremony was held at the division’s headquarters in Ar Ramadi, about a two-hour drive west of Baghdad.

“Using our individual initiative, courage, moral judgment and battle skills, we will build on the 82nd Airborne’s victories,” said Mattis, who led the division during the fight to Baghdad and subsequent operations in southern Iraq last year. “The soldiers with the 82nd Airborne have been magnificent.”

The 18,000 soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division making up Task Force All American, based out of Fort Bragg, N.C., served in Iraq since the middle of last year and accomplished a multitude of operational achievements.

According to Swannack, the unit conducted nearly 600 company-size or larger operations resulting in the capture of more than 30 high-value enemy targets. The division also trained and equipped 10 Iraqi Border Police battalions, six Iraqi Civil Defense Corps battalions, and nearly 5,000 local policemen. Almost 24,000 jobs were created for the citizens here in order to ease chronic unemployment issues.

“The soldiers of the 82nd Airborne along with our Iraqi partners have helped to shape Iraq into a sovereign country with strong economic growth,” Swannack said. “First Marine Division is just as committed to building on the relationship we have made with the Iraqis.”

Addressing the Iraqi leaders who attended the ceremony, Mattis added Marines have “come to listen, to learn and to assist the people here, especially the civil defense and police warriors.”

He reassured the audience of Iraqi government and military officials as well as sheiks and prominent civic officials that anyone who attempts to thwart 1st Marine Division’s plans to help the people here will “pay severely.”

“Working in conjunction with fledgling Iraqi Security Forces,” Mattis explained, “we will move precisely against the enemy elements and crush them without harming the innocent.”

Most of the Marines from the “Blue Diamond” were here in 2003 during the war and are prepared for the challenges that lie ahead.

Mattis said his goal is to maintain the friendly relationship with the Iraqis in order to secure the country’s future and, more importantly, the future of Iraq’s children.

He closed his speech by saying, “The division is ready to carry out any and all orders.”

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200432465138/$file/mattis.jpg

Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, commanding general of 1st Marine Division, and Sgt. Maj. Wayne R. Bell, the division sergeant major, uncase the "Blue Diamond's" colors during a relief in place ceremony here March 20. The Camp Pendleton, California-based unit relieved the Army's 82nd Airborne Division of its duties in this war-torn country. In all, nearly 20,000 Marines will conduct security and stabilization operations in the region to turn over full power of Iraq to its citizens.
(Official USMC photo by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald) Photo by: Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/38B692DADA00633A85256E60004E6055?opendocument

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Back in Iraq: 1st Marine Division returns ready to rebuild


By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, March 21, 2004

RAMADI, Iraq — On March 20, 2003, the 1st Marine Division crossed the Kuwaiti border and rapidly made its way north alongside British allies into Iraq.

A year later, the heavily decorated unit from Camp Pendleton, Calif., took authority over one of the most contentious regions in the country. Marine Maj. Gen. James Mattis is now the top coalition commander in Multinational Division-West, taking over Saturday for Army Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division.

For the Marines, who left the country in the fall only to return half a year later, Iraq is familiar territory. Almost two-thirds of the force served in the country last year.

Mattis said that experience “is invaluable,” especially for junior leaders. “These young corporals and sergeants make the difference.”

He said the region itself is different from what it was when his Marines left, and he gave credit for that to the 82nd, which ran MND-West for the last seven months.

Mattis said his Marines initially faced a “repressive government regime we were trying to tear down. This time, we’re trying to build up.”

Since Task Force All-American took over operations in Al Anbar province, 68 American servicemembers lost their lives and so did hundreds of Iraqis — many of them serving in the fledgling security forces.

In his remarks during the transfer of authority ceremony, Swannack paid tribute to those who gave their lives as well as to the more than 500 servicemembers who were injured. He said their sacrifices helped make the region a better place for the Iraqi people.

“We can be justifiably proud we have set the people of Iraq in this region on a new course,” he said.

For his part, Mattis told the Iraqi dignitaries attending: “I have confidence that we can work together for Iraq’s future and for the good of your children.”

After the ceremony, he said that those who resort to violence won’t be a part of that future.

“Those who want to fight ... they’ll regret it,” Mattis said. “We’ll handle them roughly.”

Both commanders said the two divisions have plenty in common.

Swannack said that airborne soldiers often jump into a hostile area, while the Marines take boats. But once in theater, “we’re both here doing infantry tasks.”

Both divisions have been heavily deployed since Sept. 11, 2001. While the Marines begin their second stints in Iraq, no other unit in the military has been as busy as the 82nd, with continuous missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In fact, when the division’s last brigade heads back to the States in early April, Swannack said it will mark the first time in his command that he’s had all his soldiers at Fort Bragg, N.C., at the same time.

With the Army’s current missions, he doesn’t expect that to last for long.

Much of the division needs to regain jump status, and artillery units need to retrain as well, he said. Both of those operations could take months.

Still, he expects to have a brigade’s worth of troops ready to deploy anywhere by May 7.

Mattis said his Marines took advantage of their brief time back in the States to train as well. Units went through weeks of courses on language and culture to try to help them better understand the Iraqi people.

He said Marines would interact with local residents constantly and learn more about them along the way. Knowing their mission is making a difference for those people will give his troops “a sense of purpose that keeps morale high.”

The Marines actually will have more troops in the region than the 82nd had in their task force, with an increase to around 22,000 from about 18,000. Mattis said some of the Marines who just arrived in Iraq would rotate out in seven months. The Pentagon has yet to announce a schedule following the current rotation, which is still taking place.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=20361&archive=true


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: March 22, 2004

‘Totally different’
As Marines saddle up for Iraq duty, 82nd Airborne CO offers his advice

By Robert Hodierne
Times staff writer

RAMADI, Iraq — As the 82nd Airborne Division packed its gear and prepared to turn over the hostile Sunni Triangle west of Baghdad to U.S. Marines, its commander, Army Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, worked to play down a feud instigated by a leaked Marine Corps memo.
In the memo, the Marines said the Army had been too heavy-handed in the region, had failed to do enough to win the hearts and minds of the locals, and cited as an example the Army’s use of artillery. The Marines originally planned to come to Iraq without artillery.

Swannack stayed on the high road.

“Their attitude has always been very professional, very complimentary of what it is we do and how we’re doing it,” he said of the Marines he has been working with on the turnover of authority.

“I think they’ve seen some of the situations we have been placed in,” he said. “I don’t think they understood that the environment here in this part of the Sunni Triangle … is so much different than they experienced down in Babylon, Hillah, Najaf,” areas occupied by the Marines after the fall of Baghdad.

The Marine Corps area of responsibility largely was Shiite, the majority Islamic group in Iraq, but a group that had been oppressed by Saddam Hussein and the minority Sunnis who ran the country. Shiites generally were happier with an American presence than the Sunnis.

“It’s a totally different environment” in the Sunni towns of Ramadi and especially Fallujah, which fell under 82nd control, Swannack said. He thinks the Marines now have a better understanding of how volatile and dangerous the area remains. “As an example, they’re bringing artillery with them. I think it’s a good idea.”

The Marines have said they plan to put Combined Action Platoons inside Iraqi towns, something the Army has not done. Army civil affairs teams make visits to Fallujah, for example, in the company of heavily armed convoys, and they do not live in the town.

Swannack said the Marines “have to establish the conditions for [the platoons] to be able to go out in the towns. I told them we’re actually moving in a different direction right now. We’re trying to stay away from the towns and let the Iraqi security forces take over. And so, it would be kind of a change of approach.”

Swannack and his paratroopers worked hard to build up the police and a new militia, the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps. But he hasn’t made the progress he hoped for.

“Probably the most distressing part of my job here is going and telling the police and the ICDC that I don’t have the trucks or the radios or … the body armor for them,” he said. “I’ve been waiting four or five months for that stuff to come in, and now it’s going to come in just as we leave … and the Marines will provide it to them.”

Whether or not the Marines get that credit, Swannack said the “important thing is to get the full capability to the Iraqi security forces and then let them start doing the job. I feel good about the Iraqi security force being able to step up to the plate and doing their job and we step back and assist them.”

As an example of how complex the situation in Fallujah remains, Swannack explained the origins of an attack Feb. 14 against police headquarters. The attackers killed 23 policemen in a daylight assault.

Two weeks before that attack, insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at a bus carrying recruits for the U.S.-created ICDC. Several recruits were wounded. But as a sign of the progress U.S. intelligence has made, four of the attackers were identified, captured and jailed at police headquarters.

The attack against the police station, Swannack said, was carried out by the tribe the four jailed insurgents belonged to. The goal was a simple jailbreak.

That attack, in turn, almost ignited further tribal warfare when the tribes of the dead police “wanted to go and find out who did it and seek retribution from the other tribe.”

“It is kind of callous for us to say that something good could come out of that firefight, but I believe that’s exactly what’s happening right now in Fallujah,” Swannack said.

“Fallujah has been very quiet [since] … I attribute that to the town and the imams [religious leaders] and the tribal leaders having said, ‘Knock this stuff off. We’re not going to go about killing Iraqis.’”

One area in which Swannack says there has been great progress is intelligence-gathering.

“The amount of [human intelligence] support from the populace out there is three or four times better than when we first got here,” Swannack said. “They were a little suspect of us coming here, probably sitting on the fence trying to figure out what it was we were all about. They were undecided whether to support the people attacking us.”

They were on the fence, he said, either because they had prospered under Saddam and wanted things to go back to the way they were, or they feared “that they would be severely brutalized or killed for supporting us.”

“Well, they’ve seen now what it is we’ve been doing. Systematically taking out the bums who are attacking them and us. We’ve got some credibility in that regard. … They see the jobs we’ve created; they’ve seen the essential services that we’ve improved; they’ve seen we got the economy going; and oh, by the way, they’ve got a democratically elected provincial government now. And so they see the advantages and so that over time … we started seeing a lot more tips.

“Right now, in my opinion, the insurgency is pretty much in disarray,” Swannack said. In part, that is because a number of leaders have been caught. But it’s also because of money.

Many of those setting the explosives and firing rockets at Americans are paid to do so, he said.

“You attack an American and wound or kill an American, it’s about $1,000 right now. This is something I know,” he said. “I believe the insurgency is running out of money.”

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2710609.php


Ellie