thedrifter
03-08-08, 06:02 AM
7 Marines returning to U.S. today
Bulk of N.O. reservists back within weeks
Saturday, March 08, 2008
By Paul Purpura
A seven-month combat tour in Iraq comes to an end today for a small group of Marines who return a few weeks before the larger homecoming of their New Orleans colleagues.
About 70 Marines in the reserve Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 773, Detachment A, shipped out to Iraq in September from the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse.
Seven return today and will be greeted by friends and families, said Sgt. Maj. Michael Sprague of Marine Air Group 42, Detachment C, the squadron's parent unit. The others are expected to return by the end of March, he said.
The reserve squadron is equipped with AH-1 Cobra and UH-1 Huey helicopters and crews provided security for ground troops, convoys and aerial medical evacuation missions from al-Asad in Anbar Province, said Master Sgt. Michael Austin, an avionics chief who returned three weeks ago because of a death in his family.
Based in the Sunni Triangle, the Marines worked from 12- to 20-hour days, keeping helicopters ready to launch, he said.
"They were definitely motivated, and they're definitely motivated to come home now," Austin said, alluding to the extreme weather changes they saw, ranging from 140 degrees in the summer to snow flurries three weeks ago in Baghdad -- a first in 93 years.
"It does snow in Baghdad," he said. "There is a snowball's chance in hell."
In a recent Times-Picayune interview, Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps' commandant, said the reserve squadron's deployment gave a break to an active-duty counterpart whose Marines had spent five months at home between seven-month tours in Iraq -- a hectic tempo that stressed families and could lead Cobra pilots to leave the military.
"Being able to inject our reservists in and not lose one bit of quality in what we have to do in Iraq has really been a marvelous tool that we know we had all along," Conway said.
Meanwhile, the Headquarters and Service Company for the 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines, an infantry unit in Belle Chasse, is expected home in late April, said 1st Sgt. Jonathan Catalini.
"We're expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 local Louisiana Marines," Catalini said Friday.
The headquarters company also is based at the air station. Members of the battalion based in Baton Rouge, Memphis, Tenn., Little Rock, Ark., and Montgomery, Ala., are due home at the same time.
They were mobilized in May and spent months undergoing training before heading to Iraq. The battalion is expected to stop in Camp Lejuene, N.C., for several days before its Marines are sent to their reserve centers, where homecoming celebrations are planned.
The Marines return as about 150 Louisiana Army National Guardsmen prepare to ship out to Iraq. The soldiers, including at least 13 from the New Orleans area, are with the 2228th Military Police Company, based in Pineville, the National Guard announced Friday.
They deploy March 15 from Tioga to Camp Shelby, Miss., for pre-deployment training before shipping out to Iraq for a year to help train members of the Iraqi police force, the Guard said.
. . . . . . .
Paul Purpura can be reached at ppurpura@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3791.
Ellie
Bulk of N.O. reservists back within weeks
Saturday, March 08, 2008
By Paul Purpura
A seven-month combat tour in Iraq comes to an end today for a small group of Marines who return a few weeks before the larger homecoming of their New Orleans colleagues.
About 70 Marines in the reserve Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 773, Detachment A, shipped out to Iraq in September from the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse.
Seven return today and will be greeted by friends and families, said Sgt. Maj. Michael Sprague of Marine Air Group 42, Detachment C, the squadron's parent unit. The others are expected to return by the end of March, he said.
The reserve squadron is equipped with AH-1 Cobra and UH-1 Huey helicopters and crews provided security for ground troops, convoys and aerial medical evacuation missions from al-Asad in Anbar Province, said Master Sgt. Michael Austin, an avionics chief who returned three weeks ago because of a death in his family.
Based in the Sunni Triangle, the Marines worked from 12- to 20-hour days, keeping helicopters ready to launch, he said.
"They were definitely motivated, and they're definitely motivated to come home now," Austin said, alluding to the extreme weather changes they saw, ranging from 140 degrees in the summer to snow flurries three weeks ago in Baghdad -- a first in 93 years.
"It does snow in Baghdad," he said. "There is a snowball's chance in hell."
In a recent Times-Picayune interview, Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps' commandant, said the reserve squadron's deployment gave a break to an active-duty counterpart whose Marines had spent five months at home between seven-month tours in Iraq -- a hectic tempo that stressed families and could lead Cobra pilots to leave the military.
"Being able to inject our reservists in and not lose one bit of quality in what we have to do in Iraq has really been a marvelous tool that we know we had all along," Conway said.
Meanwhile, the Headquarters and Service Company for the 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines, an infantry unit in Belle Chasse, is expected home in late April, said 1st Sgt. Jonathan Catalini.
"We're expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 local Louisiana Marines," Catalini said Friday.
The headquarters company also is based at the air station. Members of the battalion based in Baton Rouge, Memphis, Tenn., Little Rock, Ark., and Montgomery, Ala., are due home at the same time.
They were mobilized in May and spent months undergoing training before heading to Iraq. The battalion is expected to stop in Camp Lejuene, N.C., for several days before its Marines are sent to their reserve centers, where homecoming celebrations are planned.
The Marines return as about 150 Louisiana Army National Guardsmen prepare to ship out to Iraq. The soldiers, including at least 13 from the New Orleans area, are with the 2228th Military Police Company, based in Pineville, the National Guard announced Friday.
They deploy March 15 from Tioga to Camp Shelby, Miss., for pre-deployment training before shipping out to Iraq for a year to help train members of the Iraqi police force, the Guard said.
. . . . . . .
Paul Purpura can be reached at ppurpura@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3791.
Ellie