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thedrifter
05-25-07, 04:11 PM
Posted on Fri, May. 25, 2007
Marines stay always faithful, with a return to Iraq to help their unit

By TONY PERRY
Los Angeles Times

RAMADI, Iraq -- Marine Cpl. Saul Mellado could be back in California, finishing the final months of his enlistment in a safe billet at Camp Pendleton.

Instead, the 23-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Mexico is patrolling these war-torn streets recently wrested from insurgent control -- and bracing for an expected counteroffensive.

One Marine's attitude

Mellado, a machine-gunner, knows these streets: the adults who eye the Marines with suspicion, and the children who beg for candy and water. He was first dispatched to Ramadi in late 2004. During that deployment 15 Marines in his unit, the 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment, died and more than 200 were wounded.

Under Marine Corps rules on "short-timers," Mellado could have skipped this return to Ramadi six weeks ago. But like 200 others in the battalion -- a quarter of its members -- he asked to have his enlistment extended. Unlike a re-enlistment, the move earns the Marines no bonus money, no promotion and no promise of a job shift or posting to a favored duty station.

"For a lot of the guys, this is their first tour," Mellado said as his Humvee moved slowly through the rubble-strewn streets. "If anything happened to them, and I could have helped them, I couldn't stand that."

A battalion shines

Mellado's wife, Kirsten, is pregnant with their first child, a boy. Mellado has no plans to take leave to be home for the birth, and it is unclear whether a Web cam will be available so he can see the infant.

"If God wants me to see my child, I'm sure I will," Mellado said, as Iraqi children rushed to the side of the Humvee. "I'm here so our sons don't have to come here and fight someday."

Officials say extensions are not uncommon among the Marine Corps' 24 battalions, even as some return to Iraq for their third combat tour. In fact, they say, few records are kept because they are so common.

But Marine generals who review the staffing of all infantry battalions say the 200 from the Two-Five represents the most of any battalion.

Camaraderie

It can be traced to a meeting in Okinawa several months ago while finishing a phase of its pre-deployment training.

Lt. Col. Craig Kozeniesky, the battalion commander, and Sgt. Maj. William Jordan, the senior enlisted man, assembled Marines whose enlistments were almost over. The two asked the Marines to help the younger members of the battalion.

"I just told them: 'We've been together this long. We need you. The young Marines need you,'" Jordan said.

The role of sergeant major in an infantry battalion is to embody the institutional values for younger "grunts." At 44, Jordan has been in the Corps for 27 years. His recruiter gave him a ride home from his high school graduation in Alabama, and Jordan has never looked back.

"Finally I just told them: 'Everybody who is with us, move to the right side of the room,'" Jordan said. Only a handful stayed in their seats.

"I was blown away," Jordan said

Ellie