Lejeune battalion celebrates deployment's halfway mark

[thedrifter]

Lejeune battalion celebrates deployment's halfway mark
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 20046191484
Story by Cpl. Shawn C. Rhodes



CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq(June 15, 2004) -- It was more than 100 degrees outside June 15. The wind blowing in didn't do anything but move the heat from one place to another. Still, conditions were perfect for Marines of 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment to do a little celebrating.

The battalion's Marines, deployed with the 1st Marine Division to Iraq from Camp Lejeune, N.C., marked the halfway point of deployment here, a projected seven-month tour.

The battalion organized a day of fun and relaxation to celebrate the occasion. It involved sports games for the Marines to enjoy such as volleyball, basketball and horseshoes. Music played from a large speaker mounted on a humvee and a game of basketball and volleyball were going on simultaneously. For lunch and dinner, even the platoons in the field were treated to grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. The evening meal was grilled steak - a rare treat for the Marines here.

"We put this together to acknowledge all the effort the Marines have been putting forth so far, to thank them for a job well done," said Gunnery Sgt. John J. Schidlmeier, the battalion's logistics chief from Mobile, Ala. "It took a lot of effort from a lot of people to make it all happen. We're doing it to let the junior Marines know they're appreciated."

The festivities kicked off at noon with a lunch fit for any barbecue, with sporting events going on outside the chow hall. The loudspeakers from a psychological operations vehicle, normally used to broadcast pro-Coalition messages in Arabic, were used to blast the latest radio hits for the Marines.

For dinner, more than 1,100 steaks were brought into the camp and grilled for the Marines.

"It was just like any backyard barbecue you'd see in the states," said Cpl. Derek W. Morland, a 22-year-old cook from Birmingham, Ala. "We have Martha Stewart-style secrets to making steaks, so they were really well received by the battalion."

The Marines enjoyed the festivities and the time off.

"I'm not used to playing volleyball in cammies and boots, but I had a good time," said Cpl. Yowseph G. Tirfe, a 25-year-old administration clerk from Dallas. "It was great to have a break from the long working hours to enjoy ourselves."

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/20046191513/$file/funday1lr.jpg

Preparing for 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment's halfway point celebration involved everyone from cooks to supply clerks. Here, Lance Cpl. Brian L. Childress, an 18-year-old cook from Kannapolis, Md., flips grilled steaks in preparation for the barecue. The battalion has been on duty with the 1st Marine Division in Iraq.
(USMC photo by Cpl. Shawn C. Rhodes) Photo by: Cpl. Shawn C. Rhodes

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/29500130FE778AC085256EB8001FDDF5?opendocument

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Posted on Thu, Jun. 17, 2004 <br />
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Insurgents strike Iraq pipeline <br />
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Rocket hits U.S. base; three killed

[thedrifter]

Marines Preparing Iraqis to Stand on Their Own
Local recruits are being trained to take over the fight against insurgents. But some U.S. troops doubt the new defenders will be up to the task.

By John Balzar, Times Staff Writer


HIT, Iraq — A hundred miles and a world away from Baghdad, the transition of authority over Iraq is racing forward at the levels of the city, the village, the neighborhood, the highway traffic circle, the meeting hall.

One Iraqi at a time, as a popular Marine slogan has it.

This, the Marines hope, will be their last big push in the sand- and dust-blown western Iraq, the epic openness known as the "Wild West."

It is a campaign being fought on two fronts. Edgy but hardened and mostly inured, Marines endure sometimes-daily insurgent attacks, roadside bombings, small-arms fire and intermittent mortar and rocket shelling. The other front occupies just as much of their attention and is equally dicey: readying Iraq's uncertain police and civil defense forces to carry on the battle for security and stability in the nation.

Marines talk among themselves about making history out of the aftermath of war. They talk about the gravity of month's end, when the formal transition takes place. They wipe the sweat off their weather-chafed faces and struggle — it is an honest and ongoing struggle — to believe in the emerging ragtag security forces that they have established, and that represent America's hope of friendly Iraqis standing on their own.

"I feel very good, optimistic," said Lt. Col. Fahad Abdal Aziz, a former Iraqi military officer who commands the 503rd Battalion of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, the 889 men, more or less, who are to assume the front lines of the war against insurgents across 4,350 square miles of western Iraq in less than two weeks.

"We are united and ready to handle the job on July 1," Aziz said. "We will take care of them."

In anticipation of the transfer of governing authority, Marines throughout the region are lowering the profile of their patrols and supply routes along the roads and in the towns that line the upper Euphrates River, in the strip of palm groves and cultivated fields that provides a ribbon of green through sizzling brown rock, sand and dust, canyons and plateaus.

A platoon of Marines has moved into the civil defense corps barracks here in the city of Hit (pronounced heat) to try to bring last-minute order and inspire initiative among Iraqi defenders. They have begun joint patrols with Iraqis under the rubric of a Joint Command Center.

The Marines promise to sign a memorandum of understanding by Thursday that will spell out the terms of the security transfer.

Then: "99% of what happens after July 1 will come out of the JCC," said Lt. Col. Phil Skuta of Williamsport, Pa., commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Marine Regiment, the "Devil Dogs" who are responsible for this chunk of Iraq, which on a map looks remarkably like a small-scale California.

The battalion's Marines who share quarters with Iraqi government defenders rely on a single outdoor camp shower under temperatures well above 100 degrees. They shave with bottled water over a slit trench. They eat one hot meal a day. They sleep crammed together in the barracks, with space for only a cot and the room to stand next to it. They laugh uneasily about the "mad mortar man" who sends shells and rockets their way a few times a week.

"We're playing a part in history," said Lt. John Webre of New Orleans. "If we're successful, we can influence Iraq to be successful."

The problem confronting the Marines is the different attitudes toward the fight that they and the Iraqis have. The Marines approach the fight against terrorism and insurgency with their well-known squared-away resolve — "hoo-rah," meetings at oh-eight hundred sharp, lock and load, yes sir. The Iraqis? In nearly every regard, from the responsibilities of rank to the rigors of the clock, Iraqis approach their task with an outlook that is entirely their own — one that challenges the Marines' faith in their abilities.

Marines in this region see posted in their headquarters a suggestive quote from T.E. "Lawrence of Arabia" Lawrence:

"Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are here to help them, not to win it for them. Actually, also, under the very odd conditions of Arabia, your practical work will not be as good as, perhaps, you think it is. It may take them longer and it may not be as good as you think, but if it is theirs, it will be better."

Lawrence's long-ago advice is not always easy for Marines to accept. Inspecting the Iraqi defense corps supply room, Marines gasp to see a vast, incoherent heap of blankets, boots, uniforms, flak jackets — handed out by the armfuls without any record whatsoever. Marine privates and lance corporals chafe at having to make daily rounds to pick up the trash and cigarette butts that follow the uniformed Iraqi defenders as sure as the wind. Military police drive in convoys to the city to provide 50 Iraqi policemen with rifle-range training, and none show up.

Sometimes, the Marines look over their shoulders, their thoughts flying back to their fathers' war. On those occasions, the name "Vietnam" passes in conversation, always with a hanging question mark.

"We have a long way to go," said Lt. Jason Goodale of Washington, D.C., commander of the 2nd Battalion's Marines CAP, or Combined Action Platoon. Not since 1971 in Vietnam has the Marine Corps instituted the CAP concept to try to win the "hearts and minds" of a populace caught in conflict.

"These people are on the brink of either success or failure," he said. "It's our job to push them to the right side of the line."

What few here bother to ask themselves is what happens if the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and the municipal police, increasingly threatened and targeted by insurgents, cannot hold the line, or cannot gain in the fight. Those decisions belong to commanders in Baghdad and Washington. Here, Marines who indulge themselves in reflection continue to devise theories for success, or alternatively for the prospect of failure — although pessimists buck the company line only in private.

"If people weren't dying here, I'd be all about it," said a sergeant who insisted that he not be identified. "But I've lost two buddies here. Was it worth it? I don't know."

Even the optimists are cautious, mindful of American impatience for results.

"We put ourselves in something of a Catch-22," said Maj. Rick Smith, a homicide detective from Phoenix who commands the civil affairs group for the 2nd Battalion. "We've got to have security before stabilization. But we've got to have stabilization before we really can have security.

"I'm optimistic that those two things can be accomplished, but in small steps. You could liken it to the color code for homeland security. We were in the black when we got here. We got things to red, both security and stabilization. Now we're slowly moving to yellow."

What feeds his hope? Two things. Here and there, ordinary Iraqis are coming forward, if only circumspectly, to report the activities of insurgents in their neighborhoods.

Second, residents are beginning to show emotion about the promises of new Iraqi sovereignty.

"You see them," Smith said. "They get choked up. They have tears in their eyes."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-marines18jun18,1,3638142.story


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine battalion heads for Kuwait, Iraq


By James W. Crawley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
June 18, 2004

About 500 Marines and sailors from Camp Pendleton will leave for Iraq today for an anticipated seven-month deployment, the Marine Corps said this week.

The 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment will head to Kuwait and then Iraq as part of a scheduled troop rotation.

The unit, commanded by Lt. Col. Willard Buhl, will join about 19,000 Marines from Camp Pendleton and Miramar Marine Corps Air Station that have been operating in Iraq's Anbar Province since March. A second large-scale rotation of Marines is expected to begin in early fall.

The Marine Corps gave few details of this week's deployment, citing security concerns.

The infantry unit, which fought last year in Iraq, will replace another battalion-sized unit, but Marine spokesmen would not say whether the unit is a Marine or Army unit.

The Marines have encountered stiff resistance in Fallujah, Ramadi and the western Anbar Province, which is part of the so-called Sunni Triangle and a stronghold of pro-Saddam Hussein Baathist factions. In April, several Marine battalions were engaged in urban warfare in Fallujah following a March 31 ambush there that killed four American private-security guards.

Since April 1, 73 Marines and a Navy corpsman – most of them assigned to Camp Pendleton's 1st Marine Division – have been killed in Iraq. Hundreds more have been wounded.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20040618-9999-2m18marines.html


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine fills in as camp's live wire
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200461913752
Story by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald



CAMP SNAKE PIT, Iraq(June 13, 2004) -- Anyone stopping by this small camp in Ar Ramadi can thank Cpl. Joey R. Barnes for keeping the lights on for them. Even though he's never had any formal electrical or plumbing training, the 26-year-old machine gunner manages to keep the camp's lights working and water running.

Barnes, assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, is the go-to handyman here. He's a self-proclaimed country boy, grew up in Sand Springs, Okla., a stone's throw from Tulsa.

He said, "In the country, if it breaks, then you fix it."

That way of life helped Barnes develop the skills he's used to keep this camp up and running, and the Marines here couldn't be any more grateful.

"He keeps this camp going," said Cpl. Kevin B. Olech, infantryman from Martinsville, Ind. "Without him there'd be no water or power."

During a recent patrol through the streets of Ramadi, Olech jokingly ordered Barnes to "not get hurt or blown up" because the camp might shut down without him.

That seems to be the general sentiment here.

According to 1st Sgt. Timothy Weber, Barnes has become everyone's best friend.

"He's just one of those guy's who knows how to fix anything," the company first sergeant said. "He has made life much better for us here."

Since arriving in Iraq earlier this year, Barnes has concocted, built, repaired and renovated almost everything on the camp.

He single-handedly constructed and sandbagged all of the machinegun positions aboard the camp, but his handiwork didn't stop there.

"I fixed the whole camp when I got here," explained Barnes, in his thick southern drawl. "It's a round-the-clock job. Marines wake me up in the middle of the night sometimes if a generator or something goes down."

Barnes has also repaired the camp's water heaters, shower pumps, air conditioners, electrical systems and plumbing.

But he's proudest of his most creative invention.

"My Redneck Engineering Award of the Year would definitely have to go to the ice machine I made," he said with a laugh.

When the company received an icemaker for the dining facility, the Marines were disappointed to learn that they didn't have a clean source of water to use. They thought cold drinks were going to be a distant memory from home.

That's until Barnes scraped together a few scraps most folks toss in the back of a tool shed.

Barnes hooked up one of the camp's water storage units to the ice machine using a basic garden hose. What happened next, Barnes said, was simple physics, but Weber doesn't believe there's anything simple about it.

"It's just amazing that he knows how to do this stuff. He's a good, old country boy who got his knowledge just from growing up," Weber said. "It's just awesome."

Barnes said his motivation for being the company handyman developed from his respect for his fellow Marines.

"I remember when we were at Twentynine Palms, California, and it used to get hot there. We didn't have air conditioning. It was bad," Barnes explained. "That's when I realized if I can keep the Marines cool and comfortable then they won't fight as much with each other as they did."

So far his beliefs have proven to be true.

Barnes said he's always been good with his hands. Prior to joining the Marine Corps, he was a welder in Oklahoma for six years and built oil heat exchangers, which served as integral parts of the oil refining process. Out of the blue one day, he decided he wanted to pursue something new.

"I don't know what made me join the Marines," he explained. "I went in to work one morning and quit my job. Three days later I was on my way to boot camp."

Now he's a machine gunner in Iraq but still finds time to fix generators or air conditioners.

"It's a juggling act," Barnes said. "I still do all of my Marine duties on top of being the company repairman. Usually I work until the middle of the night, and I'm up by 6 a.m."

Still, he said he wouldn't want it any other way.

"A few days ago, we were without power for almost five days," Barnes recalled. "Marines were sleeping outside with signs that said, 'Will work for electricity.' I hated seeing that. I'll do anything, anytime to keep the Marines happy and comfortable."

According to Weber and Olech, Barnes has done just that.

"The Marines appreciate Barnes' work," Olech explained. "They know without him they probably wouldn't have a lot of the stuff we have here."


http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/20046191409/$file/barnes1lr.jpg

Cpl. Joey R. Barnes, infantryman with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, fixed the plumbing system operating the washers and dryers here. The Sand Springs, Okla., Marine has also repaired air conditioners, water heaters, generators and lighting systems aboard the camp. According to 1st Sgt. Timothy Weber, the senior enlisted Marine for Company F, Barnes has made life for the Marines at Camp Snake Pit a little better.
(USMC photo by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald) Photo by: Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/429433F3FAD0E8F985256EB8001EEEE6?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: June 21, 2004

Corps meets retention goals; Army falls short

By Vince Crawley
Times staff writer

Despite the high-operations tempo of the war on terrorism, three of the four services are meeting active-duty retention goals — but the Army, the most heavily taxed service of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, may be slipping.
Recent surveys show that reservists mobilized for Iraq are much less likely to re-enlist, according to Defense Department retention data.

The Pentagon is watching the data carefully and could start paying more money to deployed troops to keep people in uniform, a top personnel official said.

Through April 30 of the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, the Army was running about 5 percent short of its goal for midcareer re-enlistments and 2 percent short for first-term re-enlistments.

The numbers were slightly improved over the previous month, but officials say they’re closely monitoring the retention rates, which are widely expected to decline for troops returning from yearlong tours in Iraq.

The Army “is taking aggressive steps” with re-enlistment bonuses targeted at critical skills and locations, according to a monthly update prepared by the Defense Department’s director of officer and enlisted personnel management.

In other areas, the services appear to be holding up under the greatest deployment strain since the creation of the all-volunteer force in 1973.

Reserve and National Guard attrition is “well within acceptable limits,” according to another monthly update from the Pentagon’s reserve affairs office.

But “continued vigilance is prudent, particularly considering the large rotation of troops in Iraq this year,” according to the paper, which includes data through April 30. “Recent survey data indicate reserve personnel mobilized for [Operation Iraqi Freedom] are significantly less likely to re-enlist at the end of their current enlistment.”

The Defense Department must “continue to examine policies to provide greater career stability and predictability to reserve members and to ensure our re-enlistment incentive program is adequate,” the paper states.

As of April 30, the reserves were 0.5 percent short of combined recruiting and retention objectives.

Attrition so far has been “significantly below the norm” for Army and Air Force Reserve personnel, the paper states. But total end strength for all reserve forces has dropped every month in fiscal 2004, from 7,660 above authorized strength in October to 1,891 below in April.

“Continued high operations tempo and reserve mobilizations may be presenting recruiting and retention challenges,” the document states. “Close monitoring is essential.”

On the recruiting side, the services were meeting their active-duty goals as of March 30, halfway through the fiscal year, according to Defense Department recruiting statistics. The Army and Air Force signed up 101 percent of their required recruits while the Navy and Marine Corps exceeded their goals by a few dozen recruits.

Officials expect all the services to meet their year-end retention goals.

The Army’s goal is to re-enlist 56,100 soldiers in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. As of April 30, the service was almost 1,000 troops below its goal for first-term and midcareer soldiers.

Midcareer re-enlistments were running about 660 soldiers short of the target, a re-enlistment rate of 94.7 percent. First-termers were re-enlisting at 98 percent of the Army’s target, a shortfall of about 290 soldiers.

A Defense Department official said June 9 that the May retention report was still being calculated and analyzed, but that the Army numbers for May appeared to show slight improvement, with the service meeting 99 percent of its first-term re-enlistment goal and 95 percent of its midcareer goal.

The Army is meeting its goals for re-enlistments among the career force. All other services are exceeding their re-enlistment goals. Notably, the Marine Corps through April 30 was well-ahead of its planned pace for the entire fiscal year, having re-enlisted 10,632 people, just 1,000 short of its fiscal-year goal of 11,618.

Air Force and Navy re-enlistment rates were also well-ahead of goals, the Defense Department said.

The Army’s retention rates are being watched particularly closely because that service is bearing the brunt of the Iraq and Afghanistan deployments.


http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2998193.php


Ellie

[thedrifter]

washingtonpost.com

Marine Commander Admits Iraqi Unit Has Been Erratic
U.S. Was Tempted to 'Pull the Plug' on Fallujah Brigade

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 19, 2004; Page A10

FALLUJAH, Iraq, June 18 -- A senior U.S. military commander acknowledged Friday that he almost abandoned efforts several times to have an Iraqi security force led by former Iraqi army officers safeguard this city but decided to persevere when the group known as the Fallujah Brigade showed signs that it might succeed.

"We've been prepared to pull the plug three or four times, but each time we are, we detect a faint heartbeat," the commander said in remarks made to Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz during a briefing at the headquarters of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. The commander could not be identified under the terms by which reporters traveling with Wolfowitz were permitted to attend the briefing.

The commander's remarks reflected deep frustration among U.S. officials over partnering with Iraqi soldiers.

The Fallujah Brigade was established last month after several weeks of fighting between insurgents and the U.S. Marines responsible for securing this volatile region west of Baghdad, in the Sunni Triangle. As the Marines withdrew to the outskirts of the city, the all-Iraqi unit -- led by officers who served under former president Saddam Hussein and comprising some of the same guerrillas who had fought U.S. forces here -- was given the task of bringing peace to Fallujah and meeting several other U.S. demands.

Some hailed the approach as a model for making security in Iraq a "shared responsibility," as President Bush put it at the time. Others decried it as a poorly devised compromise cobbled together largely at the behest of Sunni Muslims on the now-disbanded Iraqi Governing Council. Those council members strongly opposed more aggressive U.S. military action in Fallujah.

While attacks on the Marines have dropped off, masked insurgents have returned to the streets of the city. Not only has the brigade failed to disarm the militants, it has made little evident progress in capturing foreign guerrillas known to have taken refuge in the city or in apprehending the killers of four American security contractors whose bodies were burned and mutilated in March. U.S. authorities worry that Fallujah remains a sanctuary for bombmaking and other insurgent activity.

"The Fallujah Brigade was a Band-Aid to create a cease-fire," said a senior official in Wolfowitz's delegation. "It has to be viewed as a temporary fix."

But Marine commanders, who negotiated the deal, have been reluctant to declare it over, noting a lack of good alternatives.

"Every time we're at our wits' end" with the brigade, the senior commander told Wolfowitz, it makes a "small step forward." As long as that continues, he added, "we're willing to give it a chance."

Among the encouraging signs, a senior Marine officer said, were a series of sustained firefights over the past few nights in which members of the Fallujah Brigade engaged insurgents in the city.

In an interview, Wolfowitz said the commander's reference to pulling the plug was not meant as a possible return to U.S. military action in Fallujah but as some kind of nonmilitary move that would demonstrate U.S. displeasure with the brigade.

"We're making progress," Wolfowitz said. "I think at least for the time being, that's a good thing."

Gen. Mohammed Abdullah Mohammed Shehwani, who heads Iraq's National Intelligence Service, assured Wolfowitz during a separate meeting here Friday that the brigade would move to rid Fallujah of foreign fighters within two weeks. He strongly advised against renewed U.S. military attacks in Fallujah.

"We succeed in Fallujah," Shehwani said in somewhat halting English. "I think they should make this solution" a model for other Iraqi cities.

Wolfowitz asked what Shehwani knew about the whereabouts of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian with links to al Qaeda whom U.S. officials suspect of masterminding recent attacks in Iraq, including some of the violence in Fallujah.

Shehwani said Zarqawi was no longer in Fallujah and mentioned several other cities that he said the Jordanian had visited in recent days. "Today, we hear he's in Kirkuk," the general said. U.S. officials said they were skeptical about the statement.

According to an official in Wolfowitz's delegation, U.S. authorities narrowly missed capturing Zarqawi about a month ago at a safe house in western Iraq used by the country's former secret police.

As problematic as Fallujah remains for U.S. authorities, Marine commanders said they were more concerned about the worsening security situation in Ramadi, the provincial capital, where Iraqis have been assassinated with increasing frequency. The slayings are viewed as part of a nationwide campaign by insurgents to unnerve Iraqis before the planned transfer of limited power at the end of the month and the move to elections next year.

[In other developments, the Reuters news agency reported that a mortar attack on a U.S. base in Baghdad killed an American soldier and wounded a contractor working for Kellogg Brown & Root on Friday, the U.S. military said on Saturday.]

© 2004 The Washington Post Company

Ellie

[thedrifter]

No One Asked Us <br />
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By Major Stan Coerr, USMCR - mercredi 9 juin 2004 <br />
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Copyrights © 2004 - revue-politique.com <br />
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George Bush coalesced American support behind invading Iraq, I am told, using...

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: June 21, 2004

Destroying ordnance stockpiles
Corps of Engineers continues search for conventional weapons

By Vince Crawley
Times staff writer

The international spotlight has been on Iraq’s elusive weapons of mass destruction, but the former military dictatorship is also brimming with untold tons of conventional arms.
The job of destroying these stockpiles — or safeguarding them for a future Iraqi government — is being handled by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Officials say they’re blowing the stuff up nearly every day, using hundreds of civilians and contractors, who have freed up uniformed personnel who would otherwise be pulling guard duty on the munitions. Officials also acknowledge that the extent of Iraq’s ammunition supply is unknown and that new, smaller caches are discovered almost daily.

Through late May, the Corps of Engineers had collected 137,000 tons of ammunition and destroyed about 80 percent of it. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II was equal to 12,500 kilotons of TNT, less than one-tenth of the conventional weapons blown up in Iraq.

The operation, known as the Captured Enemy Ammunition program, or CEA, is not without danger. Three CEA security contractors were killed in an April 25 attack on a convoy carrying old weapons slated for destruction.

Curt Murdock, CEA chief of operations in Baghdad, said there have not been widespread departures among the program’s U.S. workers in Iraq.

“That has not been a problem,” Murdock said in a telephone interview in mid-May. Since last summer, about 10 of his 600 U.S. workers have asked to leave early, Murdock said.

“For every person that does want to go, there’s 100 who say ‘I want to stay,’” Murdock said, adding that he has a waiting list of volunteers.

The project — part of a contract with the Army’s V Corps and Combined Joint Task Force 7 — also employs several thousand Iraqis, working mostly on a day-laborer basis.

It is unclear how much old ordnance exists in Iraq, in part because the country has been a military crossroads since the beginning of history and, more recently, was occupied by the British after World War I, launching an era of outside military influence.

Officials have found clearly marked U.S.-made “Lend-Lease” ammunition from World War II. More recently manufactured weapons caches have included ordnance from Britain, France, Germany and the United States.

Last year, U.S. Central Command staffs estimated that Iraq contained 600,000 to 700,000 tons of ammunition. Corps of Engineers officials aren’t sure that estimate is particularly reliable; they’ve accounted for less than half that amount and don’t think huge stockpiles are waiting to be discovered.

“There are no large stockpiles in Iraq that are not secure,” Murdock said. Instead, today’s discoveries tend to be captured in military raids or unearthed by chance. For example, he said, “a hill of dirt looks like a hill of dirt, but after a rainstorm you see a projectile sticking out.”

Murdock has seen no reliable numbers on the extent of Iraq’s weapons. “Somebody told me it was the fourth-largest stockpile in the world,” he allowed.

Widespread looting that took place in the early days of the U.S. invasion meant the gates were thrown open to many military arsenals.

“It was like an open Wal-Mart,” Murdock said. The looting also eliminated most of the Iraqi army’s ammunition records.

In part, the CEA program is an outgrowth of the fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction. U.S. forces, under orders to find biological and chemical weapons, simply bypassed conventional stockpiles. As looting intensified, military guards were placed at ammunition sites, but they were vulnerable to snipers and other attacks.

The CEA program gets Iraqi civilians involved in much of the hauling, and most weapons are transported to one of six sites for storage or demolition.

Officials stress that their work is not related to unexploded ordnance. The CEA program involves keeping control of ammunition that used to belong to the Iraqi army. Unexploded ordnance is usually battlefield munitions that pose a postwar threat.

Thus far, officials say, little has been done to address Iraq’s unexploded ordnance. Minefields and unexploded bombs litter Iraq’s eastern frontier, a grim reminder of the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. More recently, the United States poured tons of bombs onto Iraq during last year’s invasion.

The Corps of Engineers’ CEA contract is due to run out in September, when most large known military stockpiles will be under control. Officials say they would not be surprised if, after their contract runs out, they are asked by either the U.S. military or the new Iraqi provisional government to stay and oversee the discovery and demolition of unexploded ordnance.


http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-3000393.php


Ellie