Shaffer
04-24-03, 09:07 AM
DIWANIYA PROVINCE, Iraq ---- As the sun dipped behind a row of eucalyptus trees Tuesday, the company of amphibious assault vehicles that carried a Camp Pendleton-based Marine infantry battalion to Baghdad and back completed its final mission of the war in Iraq.
Some of the vehicles roared, others limped, and at least one was carried past the gates of a former Iraqi military barracks here ---- the end of the line for the "amtracks" and their Marine reservist crews, who will soon be trucked the remaining 120 miles to Kuwait before going home.
"That's it, they got us through it," said Capt. Matt Reid, commander of one of the three rifle companies that Alpha Company, 4th Amphibious Assault Battalion, transported safely over more than 1,000 miles of grueling desert treks, brutal highway road marches and tedious patrols through city streets.
The platoon of trackers that carried Reid's four infantry platoons of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment safely through battle ---- almost all of them reservists from Norfolk, Va. ---- pushed the vehicles the final 60 miles from Al Hillah to Diwaniya on Tuesday. In all, they covered three times the distance the vehicles are supposed to go before being completely overhauled.
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030423/54553.html
Some of the vehicles roared, others limped, and at least one was carried past the gates of a former Iraqi military barracks here ---- the end of the line for the "amtracks" and their Marine reservist crews, who will soon be trucked the remaining 120 miles to Kuwait before going home.
"That's it, they got us through it," said Capt. Matt Reid, commander of one of the three rifle companies that Alpha Company, 4th Amphibious Assault Battalion, transported safely over more than 1,000 miles of grueling desert treks, brutal highway road marches and tedious patrols through city streets.
The platoon of trackers that carried Reid's four infantry platoons of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment safely through battle ---- almost all of them reservists from Norfolk, Va. ---- pushed the vehicles the final 60 miles from Al Hillah to Diwaniya on Tuesday. In all, they covered three times the distance the vehicles are supposed to go before being completely overhauled.
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2003/20030423/54553.html