thedrifter
10-22-05, 06:40 AM
Army reservist earns honor from Marines
By TERRY BROWN, Staff writer
First published: Saturday, October 22, 2005
Army Reserve major from Troy has earned a Marine honor while serving in Fallujah, Iraq.
Maj. Martin O'Brien, executive officer with the 1st Battalion, 389th Regiment of the 98th Division (Institutional Training) out of Niskayuna, received a combat "Blue Diamond" Guadalcanal 1st Marine Division patch.
Marine Col. M.A. Shupp presented the patch to O'Brien during a ceremony.
"It's an honor for an Army soldier to receive a Marine combat patch," retired Marine Capt. G.G. "Peepsight" Pandas of Colonie, president of the 1st Marine Division Association, said. "It's a sign of respect earned by the Army soldier for doing a fine job while serving with the Marines."
O'Brien also received a Bronze Star for meritorious achievement and three unit coins of excellence during another ceremony.
As a civilian, O'Brien is a principal engineer technician with the state Department of Transportation in Schenectady. He is the husband of Sharon, and son of Mr. and Mrs. M. Raymond O'Brien of Troy.
His brother-in-law, Army Reserve Maj. Michael Barcomb of Shirley, Mass., and husband of Kathryn, formerly of Troy, also earned a Bronze Star in Afghanistan.
Barcomb earned his medal and several unit coins of excellence while serving as an intelligence officer with the 25th Infantry Division as part of Combined Joint Task Force 76 at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.
O'Brien earned the Marine honor while serving as training and operations officer of a 10-soldier Advisory Support Team of trainers under operational control of the 1st and later the 2nd Marine divisions.
The Department of Army gave O'Brien approval to wear the Marine patch on his right shoulder. A patch on an Army soldier's right shoulder signifies he served with that outfit in combat.
O'Brien and other 98th Division reservists from the Capital Region were mobilized last year to train new Iraqi army soldiers.
"The Army took us and our drill sergeants and sent us to train Iraqis," he said. "We adopted well to the combat environment."
Shortly after their arrival in the war zone, the 98th Division reservists were sent to Fallujah where the 1st Marine Division had sealed off the city and cleared it of insurgents.
O'Brien's team and several other support teams, along with a Marine element assigned for security and to help with training, began training a brigade of Iraq's 5th Army Division. O'Brien worked with a Marine major and "an excellent Iraqi interpreter."
The Americans then trained Iraqi army trainers to train 5th Division soldiers.
"Ninety percent of the Iraqi soldiers couldn't understand English," O'Brien said, adding his interpreter made his and the Marine major's jobs easier. They also had help from an Iraqi army counterpart, a major, who could speak and understand English.
The Americans taught the Iraqis combat, security and infantry tactics such as fire and maneuver, how to search vehicles and personnel and patrolling.
"In Fallujah, people could only come and go through checkpoints," O'Brien said, adding the Marines and Iraqi soldiers sealed the community off from insurgents. "We taught Iraqis how to secure and operate checkpoints and election sites. We also trained the Iraqi trainers to teach how to react to ambushes and improvised explosive devices."
When the 98th Division soldiers first began training Iraqis, as many as 50 percent of the Iraqi soldiers were AWOL, he said. Six months later, the AWOL rate fell to less than 5 percent, he added.
O'Brien's battalion performed well enough to receive a Joint Meritorious Service Unit Citation before redeployment to Niskayuna last month.
As a reservist, Barcomb is assigned to an intelligence unit at Fort Devens, Ayer, Mass. As a civilian, the College of Saint Rose graduate is a senior software development manager for IBM at Westford, Mass.
Barcomb earned his Bronze Star by demonstrating exceptional leadership of 10 military and civilian contractor personnel maintaining a classified network that had 250 users and 36 intelligence devices and $2 million worth of equipment.
Barcomb's efforts led to the improvement of a CJTF-76's global intelligence communication system. He also supervised the upgrading of systems used in sharing intelligence between military commands and brigades in the field. "Such sharing was critical to the success of Afghanistan's first presidential elections," Berrier said.
During the supervision and oversight of two technical support contracts valued at more than $3 million annually, Barcomb realized an unnecessary duplication. He sought and gained approval to combine the two agreements into one. That effort resulted in the annual savings of more than $1 million in labor costs.
News of your soldiers and units can be sent to Duty Calls, Terry Brown, Times Union, Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212 or by e-mail at brownt@timesunion.com.
Ellie
By TERRY BROWN, Staff writer
First published: Saturday, October 22, 2005
Army Reserve major from Troy has earned a Marine honor while serving in Fallujah, Iraq.
Maj. Martin O'Brien, executive officer with the 1st Battalion, 389th Regiment of the 98th Division (Institutional Training) out of Niskayuna, received a combat "Blue Diamond" Guadalcanal 1st Marine Division patch.
Marine Col. M.A. Shupp presented the patch to O'Brien during a ceremony.
"It's an honor for an Army soldier to receive a Marine combat patch," retired Marine Capt. G.G. "Peepsight" Pandas of Colonie, president of the 1st Marine Division Association, said. "It's a sign of respect earned by the Army soldier for doing a fine job while serving with the Marines."
O'Brien also received a Bronze Star for meritorious achievement and three unit coins of excellence during another ceremony.
As a civilian, O'Brien is a principal engineer technician with the state Department of Transportation in Schenectady. He is the husband of Sharon, and son of Mr. and Mrs. M. Raymond O'Brien of Troy.
His brother-in-law, Army Reserve Maj. Michael Barcomb of Shirley, Mass., and husband of Kathryn, formerly of Troy, also earned a Bronze Star in Afghanistan.
Barcomb earned his medal and several unit coins of excellence while serving as an intelligence officer with the 25th Infantry Division as part of Combined Joint Task Force 76 at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.
O'Brien earned the Marine honor while serving as training and operations officer of a 10-soldier Advisory Support Team of trainers under operational control of the 1st and later the 2nd Marine divisions.
The Department of Army gave O'Brien approval to wear the Marine patch on his right shoulder. A patch on an Army soldier's right shoulder signifies he served with that outfit in combat.
O'Brien and other 98th Division reservists from the Capital Region were mobilized last year to train new Iraqi army soldiers.
"The Army took us and our drill sergeants and sent us to train Iraqis," he said. "We adopted well to the combat environment."
Shortly after their arrival in the war zone, the 98th Division reservists were sent to Fallujah where the 1st Marine Division had sealed off the city and cleared it of insurgents.
O'Brien's team and several other support teams, along with a Marine element assigned for security and to help with training, began training a brigade of Iraq's 5th Army Division. O'Brien worked with a Marine major and "an excellent Iraqi interpreter."
The Americans then trained Iraqi army trainers to train 5th Division soldiers.
"Ninety percent of the Iraqi soldiers couldn't understand English," O'Brien said, adding his interpreter made his and the Marine major's jobs easier. They also had help from an Iraqi army counterpart, a major, who could speak and understand English.
The Americans taught the Iraqis combat, security and infantry tactics such as fire and maneuver, how to search vehicles and personnel and patrolling.
"In Fallujah, people could only come and go through checkpoints," O'Brien said, adding the Marines and Iraqi soldiers sealed the community off from insurgents. "We taught Iraqis how to secure and operate checkpoints and election sites. We also trained the Iraqi trainers to teach how to react to ambushes and improvised explosive devices."
When the 98th Division soldiers first began training Iraqis, as many as 50 percent of the Iraqi soldiers were AWOL, he said. Six months later, the AWOL rate fell to less than 5 percent, he added.
O'Brien's battalion performed well enough to receive a Joint Meritorious Service Unit Citation before redeployment to Niskayuna last month.
As a reservist, Barcomb is assigned to an intelligence unit at Fort Devens, Ayer, Mass. As a civilian, the College of Saint Rose graduate is a senior software development manager for IBM at Westford, Mass.
Barcomb earned his Bronze Star by demonstrating exceptional leadership of 10 military and civilian contractor personnel maintaining a classified network that had 250 users and 36 intelligence devices and $2 million worth of equipment.
Barcomb's efforts led to the improvement of a CJTF-76's global intelligence communication system. He also supervised the upgrading of systems used in sharing intelligence between military commands and brigades in the field. "Such sharing was critical to the success of Afghanistan's first presidential elections," Berrier said.
During the supervision and oversight of two technical support contracts valued at more than $3 million annually, Barcomb realized an unnecessary duplication. He sought and gained approval to combine the two agreements into one. That effort resulted in the annual savings of more than $1 million in labor costs.
News of your soldiers and units can be sent to Duty Calls, Terry Brown, Times Union, Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212 or by e-mail at brownt@timesunion.com.
Ellie