thedrifter
09-16-05, 07:04 AM
Marines scheduled to come home today
2005-09-16
by Darren Dunlap
of The Daily Times Staff
The Marines are coming home.
Forty soldiers deployed to Africa from Delta Company, 4th Combat Engineer Battalion, are expected in Knoxville today. They returned to Camp Lejeune, N.C., last week. They took part in counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa.
Another detachment with about the same number of soldiers sent to Fallujah, Iraq, should be back early next week. The Marine reservists left in January.
No one was killed or missing in action, said Capt. Tim Eichhorn, a Maryville resident and Delta Company commander.
``A few scratches and dings,'' he said. ``But everyone is coming back.''
A dozen Delta Company Marines and a light armed reconnaissance Marine battalion were stationed west of Fallujah in the Al Anbar province. There also were two single-person detachments: a staff sergeant from Delta Company was sent to a civil affairs group west of Fallujah and company commander Tim Eichhorn was sent to the 2nd Iraqi Battalion as an adviser on its military transition team.
While all the soldiers are not coming home today, they should all be returning this month.
``We didn't understand how the forces would be laid out until we got there,'' said Eichhorn. ``We knew we were sending out five detachments, it just happened there were single-man detachments.''
Training Iraqi soldiers
Eichhorn returned Sept. 3. He helped train and lead Iraqi soldiers in Fallujah. The job required he live with the Iraqis and get to know them.
``They were my friends,'' he said. ``I left behind friends there. We worked every day together in some very trying circumstances.''
Eichhorn, 39, witnessed the rebuilding of security forces in a city that he called the ``most contested'' in the country. The work is not done, but the city has improved ``by fits and starts.''
Fallujah is in the Al Anbar province, which borders Syria and is also the country's largest province. Its location near Syria makes it a likely place for foreign fighters to come through. They are a part of a group he and other soldiers simply call insurgents or ``the bad guys.''
Thugs, Muslim extremists and ``former regime elements'' -- the people who fell from power along with Saddam Hussein -- also fall under this definition, he said.
``It's a Sunni stronghold,'' he said. ``Inside what we call the Sunni triangle, Saddam's old stomping grounds.''
Eichhorn's transition team was the second to work with a group of soldiers, who had spent the previous seven months training with U.S. forces. They went through a basic training or ``boot camp'' and individual training to become infantry soldiers. They trained outside Fallujah in a secure area, said Eichhorn.
Search and protect
While he and other U.S. forces advised the Iraqi army, they also went on missions with the soldiers through the city, sometimes to search homes for insurgents or weapons. Weapons aren't allowed in the city anymore, but it was common during the Hussein regime for most men to have their own AK-47s for personal protection.
On the searches U.S. forces taught the Iraqis to be more professional. They also took a census on these searches, to build a demographic base for the government.
It is still a dangerous place. Eichhorn recalled a young Iraqi soldier who went to the barber shop one day for haircut, only to be shot in the back of the head by insurgents while in the chair. There are news reports daily of bombings and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) exploding. But Eichhorn said what the media is not reporting are the bombs that are ``interdicted'' by Iraqi troops through their actions and through the tips from citizens. He said the goal is to turn the city back over to Iraqi forces and expressed optimism that could happen.
``That's what we're hoping for, the days when Iraq will run itself,'' he said.
Ellie
2005-09-16
by Darren Dunlap
of The Daily Times Staff
The Marines are coming home.
Forty soldiers deployed to Africa from Delta Company, 4th Combat Engineer Battalion, are expected in Knoxville today. They returned to Camp Lejeune, N.C., last week. They took part in counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa.
Another detachment with about the same number of soldiers sent to Fallujah, Iraq, should be back early next week. The Marine reservists left in January.
No one was killed or missing in action, said Capt. Tim Eichhorn, a Maryville resident and Delta Company commander.
``A few scratches and dings,'' he said. ``But everyone is coming back.''
A dozen Delta Company Marines and a light armed reconnaissance Marine battalion were stationed west of Fallujah in the Al Anbar province. There also were two single-person detachments: a staff sergeant from Delta Company was sent to a civil affairs group west of Fallujah and company commander Tim Eichhorn was sent to the 2nd Iraqi Battalion as an adviser on its military transition team.
While all the soldiers are not coming home today, they should all be returning this month.
``We didn't understand how the forces would be laid out until we got there,'' said Eichhorn. ``We knew we were sending out five detachments, it just happened there were single-man detachments.''
Training Iraqi soldiers
Eichhorn returned Sept. 3. He helped train and lead Iraqi soldiers in Fallujah. The job required he live with the Iraqis and get to know them.
``They were my friends,'' he said. ``I left behind friends there. We worked every day together in some very trying circumstances.''
Eichhorn, 39, witnessed the rebuilding of security forces in a city that he called the ``most contested'' in the country. The work is not done, but the city has improved ``by fits and starts.''
Fallujah is in the Al Anbar province, which borders Syria and is also the country's largest province. Its location near Syria makes it a likely place for foreign fighters to come through. They are a part of a group he and other soldiers simply call insurgents or ``the bad guys.''
Thugs, Muslim extremists and ``former regime elements'' -- the people who fell from power along with Saddam Hussein -- also fall under this definition, he said.
``It's a Sunni stronghold,'' he said. ``Inside what we call the Sunni triangle, Saddam's old stomping grounds.''
Eichhorn's transition team was the second to work with a group of soldiers, who had spent the previous seven months training with U.S. forces. They went through a basic training or ``boot camp'' and individual training to become infantry soldiers. They trained outside Fallujah in a secure area, said Eichhorn.
Search and protect
While he and other U.S. forces advised the Iraqi army, they also went on missions with the soldiers through the city, sometimes to search homes for insurgents or weapons. Weapons aren't allowed in the city anymore, but it was common during the Hussein regime for most men to have their own AK-47s for personal protection.
On the searches U.S. forces taught the Iraqis to be more professional. They also took a census on these searches, to build a demographic base for the government.
It is still a dangerous place. Eichhorn recalled a young Iraqi soldier who went to the barber shop one day for haircut, only to be shot in the back of the head by insurgents while in the chair. There are news reports daily of bombings and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) exploding. But Eichhorn said what the media is not reporting are the bombs that are ``interdicted'' by Iraqi troops through their actions and through the tips from citizens. He said the goal is to turn the city back over to Iraqi forces and expressed optimism that could happen.
``That's what we're hoping for, the days when Iraq will run itself,'' he said.
Ellie