PDA

View Full Version : Island hopping



thedrifter
02-06-07, 08:21 AM
Island hopping

Unit works to deny insurgents safe havens along Iraq’s rivers
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : February 12, 2007

RAMADI, Iraq — As Marines searched for hidden weapons on the often overlooked islands along the Euphrates River one recent morning, every beep of their metal detectors was a welcome sound.

The leathernecks, with Dam Security Unit 3 at Camp Ramadi, are responsible for patrolling the river, and their missions often lead them to weapons caches hidden on islands shrouded with reeds up to 12 feet tall.

Naturally, the Marines are competitive.

On Jan. 27, as they poured onto one of the islands, they split into two teams. When one found an old anti-tank round, the other team picked up its pace.

“I’d better find something,” said a Marine, armed with a rifle and a shovel. “The other team already found a round.”

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Ryan Peck, the unit medic, often pitches in when DSU-3 goes on patrol.

“When we find something, it saves lives,” he said. “You always want to come out and find stuff. You’re freezing, you risk your neck, you want to find something, and anytime we do, we might stop an IED attack and save lives.”

DSU-3 has worked to secure the river for more than three months. The unit is part of the Reserve’s Bravo Company, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. The rest of the company is based at Hadithah Dam.

The Marines use 40-foot-long small-unit riverine craft — aluminum-hulled boats powered by a pair of jet engines — to patrol, a pleasant change from their more typical mode of transportation, light armored vehicles.

“It’s going to be hard to get them back into the LAVs after this. This is much more fun,” said Capt. Mike Weston, the detachment commander.

The boats give DSU-3 a unique capability, Peck said. Plus, they’re virtually free of dust, unlike the inside of an LAV, he said.

“Pretty much what any unit will do on the ground, we do on the river,” Weston said.

In recent years, conventional river operations were left to a Marine small craft company. But after operating up and down the Euphrates River for two years, that unit was abolished in 2005 under Marine force restructuring. The Reserve provisional unit will be relieved by a Navy squadron when its tour is over, Weston said.

The river is a key element in the fight to secure Ramadi, which has three primary borders; two of them are the river, Weston said.

“[The insurgents] have to cross somehow, and that’s where the river comes in,” he said.

Weston and his Marines have seen slow but steady progress as U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces work to clean up Ramadi in volatile Anbar province, a hotbed of insurgent operations about 60 miles west of Baghdad.

“They’re trying to get [the insurgents] out of the city center,” Weston said. “We’ve noticed it shifting as far as where we get attacked.”

His unit is attacked fairly often, he said. “But it’s quick, and the enemy doesn’t hang around. It’s more harassing fire.”

The Marines patrol day and night. On Jan. 27, they set out before sunrise.

It was a cold morning as the boats sped northwest up the Euphrates. the sour smell of the river’s murky water filled the air, and the wind was strong enough to sting bare faces and hands.

The Marines and two bomb-sniffing canine teams spend a lot of time searching for weapons caches on the islands that line the river banks, Weston said.

“What seems to be the case is a lot of these islands have been overlooked, so they kind of have free rein.”

More often than not, his men will find something on the islands, he said.

“It’s fun when you find something, but this is just grunt work. There are days we come out and we don’t find anything, and there are days when you find a ton of stuff. You’re never really finished. You’re always looking.”

The work is important, said Sgt. James Hurley, a field artillery Marine who regularly volunteers to patrol with DSU-3.

“Anything now in terms of artillery combat is reactive,” he said. “This is proactive. It’s one less piece of ordnance they have to use, it’s one less kid they can influence, it’s one less personnel killed or injured.”

Cpl. Brandon Keller, who mans the GAU 17 machine gun on one of the boats, said the Marines patrol as often as they can.

“We figure this is our river 24-7,” he said. “I think it’s really important to keep the boats in Iraq. We’ve found numerous caches, we’ve done interdictions. It takes away one of the ways [the insurgents] can do things or makes it harder.”

Ellie