Journalist has own plans for deployment

[thedrifter]

Journalist has own plans for deployment
March 24, 2008 - 12:28AM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

I'm still having a hard time believing I'm actually going to Afghanistan.

This whole adventure started in January, when the public affairs officer from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit mentioned that she was taking names of reporters who wanted to embed with the unit. I started thinking about it, asked a lot of questions and finally decided I wanted to go.

After I got the tentative OK from the publisher of The Daily News, I started scrambling to get everything ready in time. And getting ready hasn't been easy.

First, I had to find my passport. My house is pretty disorganized, and I hadn't actually used my passport since sometime in the summer, when I used it for identification to get a new driver's license.

It took about four days of nonstop after-work searching, but I finally found it, buried in a stack of papers in my garage. Then I had to apply for a travel visa, get a litany of shots and get a prescription for medicine so I don't contract malaria. My mother did not take well to the news that her only daughter is going to be flying to a war zone.

She told me I needed to dye my hair brown and wear a headscarf. I told her I would tone down the blonde and she could buy me a hijab, but that I didn't think I'd need to wear it much. After all, there are plenty of female Marines over there, and they don't cover their hair while on base. I was even more worried about telling my mother-in-law.

While I figured my mother would understand the journalistic value of me traveling to a combat zone with a local unit, I wasn't sure my mother-in-law would be too keen on the whole trip. But she surprised me. While she is concerned about my safety, she said she realizes what a great opportunity it is for me and how I will be able to find some great stories.

Of course, some of the reason she is not as upset is because I will get to see my husband - her son - over there. He is an officer in the MEU's command element. But I will talk more about that tomorrow.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Six months of preparation put to work
March 24, 2008 - 12:28AM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the beginning of a series of reports by The Daily News writer Jennifer Hlad, who is leaving today to go to Afghanistan with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

After roughly six months of training, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit was getting ready for its last big training exercise before deployment. Gear was packed on ships in anticipation of a voyage by sea, and families had maps ready to track the travels of their Marines and sailors.

Then, in mid-January, the Department of Defense announced the unit would deploy to Afghanistan to support the ongoing operations there. So the Marines unpacked the ships, repacked the gear and got ready for the trip.

"It is truly amazing for me, as a commander, to watch all this come together, to see the phenomenal things that all our Marines do," Col. Pete Petronzio, commanding officer of the 24th MEU, said during a phone interview from Kandahar province in Afghanistan. "They're an amazing bunch of men and women that, as far as I'm concerned, can do everything."

Some of the unit's Marines and sailors are already in the country, while others will arrive soon. Once there, they will work to acclimatize, train and learn everything they need to become mission-capable quickly, Petronzio said.

"We intend to roll up our sleeves and get to work right alongside everyone else who's already been working here," he said. The unit has been well received by the international forces in the country, including British and Canadian troops, Petronzio said. T

he United States is one of 39 nations working as part of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

"The support that we have received has been fantastic," Petronzio said. "Everyone is very happy to see us." The Marines are taking advantage of the fact that other military units have been in the country for months, Petronzio said, "asking them a thousand questions."

"If someone has been here 10 minutes longer than us, they have more experience," he said. Petronzio would not say exactly what the MEU's mission will be, other than to "contribute our capabilities to the alliance."

"We will participate in a full range of missions once we become fully operation capable," he said.

But, he said, the Marines are already proving themselves. "They are an absolute national treasure," Petronzio said. "It is just fun to watch them work."

Contact Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or visit her blog at http://fromafghanistan.encblogs.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

'911 force' is well-planned operation
March 24, 2008 - 12:28AM
JENNIFER HLAD
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Marines love to plan.

But the troops assigned to Marine Expeditionary Units don't always know what they're planning for.

A MEU is set up as a "911 force," a combination of air, ground and support units ready to go wherever it is needed. Sometimes, that somewhere is Iraq. Other times, the roughly 2,200 Marines and sailors will deploy on ships, sailing to various destinations in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, responding to situations as needed.

The command element, battalion landing team, aviation element and combat logistics element work together to form the MEU, said Col. Pete Petronzio, the commanding officer of the 24th MEU.

"What makes all that unique is the fact that the sum of the whole is much greater than all of its parts," he said. All the various types of units train, live and work as a team, he said. "Everything we do, we do together," Petronzio said. "Everybody knows a little bit about what everybody else does."

The 22nd MEU returned in January from a deployment that included humanitarian relief operations in Bangladesh, support of President Bush's visit to Israel, community relations projects in Djibouti and training in Kuwait. And while the 22nd MEU was on its way back home, troops with the 24th MEU learned where its seven-month deployment would take them: southern Afghanistan.

"The MEU is well suited for any task. It just happens to be Afghanistan," Petronzio said Friday in a phone interview.

MEUs train for roughly 20 different types of missions, making them "the ultimate multitool," he said. "It just so happens that this time we ended up in Afghanistan."

Ellie