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thedrifter
10-25-05, 02:45 PM
October 31, 2005
General: Same levels, new duties during next rotation
By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer

Though there’s plenty of scuttlebutt floating around that troop withdrawals from Iraq could be around the corner, don’t go making vacation plans yet.

According to the Corps’ top operational planner, the service will deploy roughly the same number of Marines to Iraq for the next rotation that it has in country now, a force of nearly 26,000.

Leathernecks with II Marine Expeditionary Force recently completed their second of two major rotations into Iraq in September. The Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based I MEF is due to take over Iraq duties in March, when II MEF ends its command of operations there.

“We will send about the same sized organization over there that we’ve got now … until the powers over there say they don’t need this much combat power anymore and these capabilities that go with it,” said Lt. Gen. Jan Huly, head of the Plans, Policies and Operations section at headquarters in Washington, during an Oct. 19 interview.

But the focus of Marine operations in Iraq will change somewhat.

Though leathernecks will still conduct counterinsurgency operations, they’re going to have more Iraqi soldiers on their flanks.

Reflecting a Pentagonwide strategy focused on standing up Iraqi army units to defeat the country’s insurgency, more Marines will be tapped to man transition-assistance teams — small 10-man advisory teams that mentor Iraqi army units, providing guidance and training to get them in fighting shape and to act as liaisons with U.S. forces when the Iraqis need help.

“We’re going to be sending over more and more of a capability for advisers — people to train the Iraqis,” Huly said.

He added that the Corps will have as many maneuver battalions in Iraq for the next rotation as it does now, but will have to draw a good chunk of the transition team manpower from those combat units.

“We’ll say, ‘Hey, you’re the commander of 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, and you’re going overseas, but we want you to take 10 of your people and work with this Iraqi organization over there,’” Huly said. “ ‘And now, guess what, your force is about twice as big as it was and 50 percent of the people in there … know the customs.’”

Huly said he continues to focus on equipping Marines in Iraq with the gear they need and on making sure units preparing to deploy have what they need to train up.

But that doesn’t mean commanders in Iraq have a blank check to order up the latest gizmos to fulfill their latest whims. The Corps is focusing on buying the right gear for today and preparing for the future — all while pinching pennies in a constrained budget.

“Don’t forget, this is a marathon, it’s not a sprint. We can’t just send everything over there that everybody automatically [says], ‘The war fighter says he needs this,’” Huly said. “Great, if I send it to today’s war fighter, I’ve got to be prepared to send it to tomorrow’s and the next day’s and the next day’s.

“I’m preparing to be in this for a long time. … If I send everything now, I won’t have anything for next year.”

Ellie