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thedrifter
04-11-07, 05:02 PM
Grand Rapids based Marines coming home

John Bumgardner

Created: 4/11/2007 2:21:29 PM
Updated: 4/11/2007 4:00:51 PM

Grand Rapids - The Grand Rapids Michigan based Alpha Company 1st Battalion, 24th Marines, helping to protect America will be coming home soon.

Michigan Reservists come from all over the state and even Ohio. Peacetime Wartime Support Team Officer Major S.D. Wiley says, “Reserve Battalion Marines are divided across the state in Lansing, Saginaw, Selfridge ANGB and even as far away as Perrysburg Ohio.”

The Reservist group has seen some action in combat and they've lost some brothers along the way. Lt. Col. Rossi says, “That's certainly true. These marines have been in the heart of the Al Anbar Province, in the vicinity of Falluja. They have been engaged in combat every day they've been over there. We've had 4 marines killed in action, Sgt. Tom Gilbert, Lance Corporal Jonothan Thornsberry, Corporate Jacob Neal and Private First class Brett Witteveen,” they will not be forgotten.

One of the operations they conducted, with the support of the Grand Rapids community was a donation of $24,000 of supplies to Falluja General Hospital which was inside the Alpha Companies area of operations. They saw the hospital was in need and got some great response from the community of Grand Rapids,” says Lt. Col. Rossi. “I know the families are extremely proud of what they've done. They're just waiting to get their boys in their arms.”

The Grand Rapids based unit is still overseas in Iraq. The unit is currently working with an active duty unit from Camp Lejeune South Carolina to turn over their operation. The Iraq transition takes 2-3 weeks and is then turned over to the new unit from Lejeune. Once their replacements are trained the Alpha Company will leave from Kuwait and come to an LLOC location dealing with supply issues, medical and dental screenings and to debrief in California.

Major S.D. Wiley says, “They'll be coming over in multiple waves over a 5 day period.” The Major says the Alpha Company, over a 5-6 day period, should return to Michigan sometime in Late April or early May.

The Alpha Company will return to their Home Training Center in Grand Rapids for their final administration process sometime in May and will go back into Reserve status.

Web Editor: Chris Fleszar, Managing Editor

Web Editor: John Bumgardner, Assignment Desk

Ellie