PDA

View Full Version : D.C. Marine task force to deploy this fall



thedrifter
04-25-07, 08:04 PM
D.C. Marine task force to deploy this fall
By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Apr 25, 2007 16:05:32 EDT

A task force of 200 Marines plucked from headquarters commands throughout the Washington, D.C., area will deploy to Iraq as a single unit this fall for a seven-month security mission, Corps officials said.

The mission of Task Force National Capitol Region, which will stand up “in the next couple weeks,” will be to “assist in providing security for an undisclosed base in Iraq,” NCR spokeswoman Capt. Teresa Ovalle wrote in an e-mail response to questions.

Ovalle said the unit will be headquartered in Quantico, Va., and will begin a “standard” 14-week training package.

The task force is being mobilized to meet U.S. Central Command’s personnel requirements while allowing other operational units to spend more time at home between deployments, she said.

Ovalle said she “can’t speculate” whether staffing a task force will become a recurring requirement for Washington-area commands.

The task force will be commanded by Lt. Col. Robert Clements, the executive officer for Quantico’s security battalion. The unit is still accepting volunteers from among officers and enlisted Marines stationed around the Beltway.

The unit is “currently staffed with 60 percent volunteers,” Ovalle said.

But if the Corps doesn’t identify enough volunteers, other Marines in the D.C. area may find themselves “voluntold.”

“We will fill the Task Force with as many volunteers as possible first, but there’s a required number of Marines needed for the unit, and we will meet that requirement,” NCR spokesman Maj. Tim Keefe said.

Though Ovalle said Marines involuntarily assigned to the task force would include “those who have not been to the fight yet,” both she and Keefe denied that using Beltway Marines to satisfy CentCom’s personnel requirement was connected with the commandant’s “every Marine into the fight” guidance.

In an All-Marine message published Jan. 23, Commandant Gen. James Conway tasked commanders with identifying Marines who haven’t been to war “to ensure all Marines, first-termers and career Marines alike, are provided the ability to deploy to a combat zone.”

Sgt. Maj. John Estrada, the Corps’ outgoing senior enlisted Marine, said he wouldn’t rule out the possibility that other task forces could spring up in places such as Southern California and the Carolinas if senior enlisted Marines continue to avoid deployments and commanders continue to let them.

“I’m not going to discount that,” he said. “Now, we’ll be able to look at every command and see who’s got them, who’s been hanging out for a while, and hold people accountable.”

Estrada, who pioneered what he calls “the sergeant major’s way into the fight” before Conway’s guidance was published, said he used to collect names while visiting Marine bases and would drop a list on the desk of Manpower and Reserve Affairs Sgt. Maj. Federico Perez back in Quantico.

“Hey, I ran across a Marine here who hasn’t been deployed. Get him to the fight,” Estrada said he told Perez. “Oh, and believe me, yes, they went to the fight.”

Estrada said he’s “excited as hell” for the Marines who have been tapped for the task force.

“They’re part of history now, and they’re going to be writing that history,” he said.

Ellie