Shaffer
03-20-03, 06:51 AM
CAMP COMMANDO, Kuwait, March 19 -- In an age of sophisticated satellites and spy planes that can read the license tags off cars, it still falls to an elite few to slip across borders and deep into enemy territory to lay the groundwork for the massive war machine to follow. For the Marines going into Iraq, the job goes to the 300 men attached to the 1st Force Reconnaissance Company.
As they packed their rucksacks with 200 pounds of gear here at the Marines' main desert headquarters this week, the Force Recon troops, as they are known, could not say where they were heading or what their mission would be. But by vocation and training, they can scout bridges and roads, spy on enemy forces, seize oil platforms, raid observation posts and secure border crossings.
"You've got a target that you've got to go in and secure, and if that means going in and shooting guys," then so be it, said Maj. Jeff Jewell, 39, the company's Kansas-born executive officer. Wherever they go, they can count on one immutable reality: "There's a lot of bad guys around and not a lot of your friendly troops."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A56989-2003Mar19?language=printer
As they packed their rucksacks with 200 pounds of gear here at the Marines' main desert headquarters this week, the Force Recon troops, as they are known, could not say where they were heading or what their mission would be. But by vocation and training, they can scout bridges and roads, spy on enemy forces, seize oil platforms, raid observation posts and secure border crossings.
"You've got a target that you've got to go in and secure, and if that means going in and shooting guys," then so be it, said Maj. Jeff Jewell, 39, the company's Kansas-born executive officer. Wherever they go, they can count on one immutable reality: "There's a lot of bad guys around and not a lot of your friendly troops."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A56989-2003Mar19?language=printer