Marines make cellblock home

[thedrifter]

Marines make cellblock home
Submitted by: I Marine Expeditionary Force
Story Identification #: 2004631279
Story by Sgt. Colin Wyers



ABU GHRAIB PRISON, Iraq(May 25, 2004) -- Down the dirt road, through the gate, past a graffiti-covered mural of Saddam Hussein in green fatigues, is a cellblock tucked into the corner of Living Support Area Shadow.

The prisoners once held here by Hussein's regime are gone. Whiteboards with watch rotations and computer printouts of camp regulations have sprung up in the hallways.

Charged with protecting both the inmates and the guards of Abu Ghraib Prison, the Marines of Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment have made the two-tiered cellblock their home.

The bars of the cells have been covered with plywood, and new doors have been constructed. The walls inside the cells have been painted over in bright, fresh hues of white and blue.

Inside, the Marines have set up home entertainment centers, with TVs, DVD players and video game systems.

"All the Army guys spent a lot of money getting stuff sent over here, so we bought it off of them," said Lance Cpl. John David, a radio operator with 2nd Platoon. "We're infantry, so we thought we'd be living in a bivy sack and out of our patrol packs. All things considered, it's a lot better than we thought we'd have it."

The prison's cell blocks were far less comfortable before the prison was emptied by Saddam Hussein in the days before coalition forces moved north to remove his regime last year. Dissidents were often tortured and executed by members of his security apparatus.

"When you looked in the rooms then they were empty... do you know the saying, 'If the walls could talk?'" David asked. "You know some horrible things happened here."

It's something that can't be completely washed away by the new paint job.

"If you think about what happened here - people were probably killed in the room I'm living in," said 1st Sgt. Brendan Fitzgerald, the company first sergeant. "This place has got a lot of history to it."

Fitzgerald, a native of Fredricksberg, Va., arrived at the prison with the advanced party on March 1. He has kept a journal that tracks mortar attacks since then - sixteen in all, according to his records. The worst attack came April 20, killing 14 detainees and wounding nearly 100 more.

Since offensive operations in Fallujah halted, attacks on the prison have slowed considerably.

"Force protection isn't the most glamorous job in the world, but it's a very important task, and my Marines have done nothing but impressed me since day one," said Maj. Luke Kratky, the company commander. "The Marines showed nothing but sturdy professionalism and steady discipline."

Kratky and his Marines worry that their good work at the prison could be overshadowed by the actions of several military policemen who were photographed abusing detainees.

"Our biggest concern is going home, and our family and friends (could) think we were a part of the abuse, even though we were not even activated yet (when the abuse occurred)."

It's a concern shared by Sgt. Kimberly Payne, an intelligence analyst with Marine Forces Reserve augmenting Multi-National Corps Iraq's Fusion Analysis Cell. Looking around one of the camp's few green spots - a small garden located in a courtyard surrounded by the secured building - she reflected on her eventual homecoming.

"It'll be weird," said Sgt. Kimberly Payne. "When we get back, and people ask me what I did, I don't know if I want them to tell them I was at Abu Ghraib."

Editor's note: This is the second of three stories in a series about Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment at Abu Ghraib Prison.



A Marine with Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment walks down the hallway of his living area - a former prison cell now used to accommodate the Marines at Abu Ghraib Prison, Iraq, May 24, 2004. The unit has been in Iraq since early March serving as force protection for the base in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Photo by: Cpl. Matthew J. Apprendi

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Ellie

[thedrifter]

Reserves head back to Iraq


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unit leaving in late June for second tour

By Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer


WALNUT HILLS - About 100 members of a Cincinnati-based Marine Reserve unit will report for active duty this month for its second Iraq tour in the past 16 months.

Communications Company, Headquarters Battalion, 4th Marine Division - based at the Naval and Marine Reserve Center on Gilbert Avenue - has been notified that at an undetermined date in late June, 50 Cincinnati-based Marine reservists and another 50 from its detachment in Indianapolis will be put on a yearlong activation that will include an estimated seven months in Iraq.

About 120 Marines from the Reserve company returned last June 15 from a three-month tour of duty in Iraq.

Some of the same Marines who served a year ago will be returning, said Chief Warrant Officer Peter Dewing, a spokesman for the company.

"But, for the preponderance of the unit, this will be the first deployment," Dewing said. "We have had a lot of new people come into the company in the past year."

The unit, which specializes in setting up combat communications systems, was attached last spring to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, one of the first U.S. military units to enter Iraq after the shooting war began.

The company suffered no casualties in its first deployment and returned to Cincinnati to a tumultuous welcome-home celebration at Sawyer Point.

Dewing said a small group of Marines from the company - about a dozen - are slated to leave today for an Iraq deployment.

But the main body of Marines will not leave Cincinnati and Indianapolis until late June, he said.

While the Marine reservists prepare for their deployment, two units from Southwest Ohio are part of a 950-member Ohio National Guard force that will embark this weekend for a deployment as part of the NATO peace-keeping operation in Kosovo.

Send-off ceremonies will be held Saturday for Troop A of the 2-107th Cavalry, based in Cincinnati, and Troop B of the 2-107th, based in Lebanon.

After the ceremonies, the guardsmen will travel to Camp Atterbury, Ind., for training and will head to Kosovo in mid-July.

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com


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Ellie

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Small-town Oregonian soldiers serving together in Iraq
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 2004643444
Story by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald



CAMP AR RAMADI, Iraq(June 2, 2004) -- Army Capt. Kyle B. Teamey, Staff Sgt. Mick E. Rose and Spc. Christina D. Scotton never met each other before coming to Iraq.

That may not seem unusual, but here's the kicker. All three hail from the same small Oregon city and are soldiers with 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. They're serving in Al Anbar Province with the 1st Marine Division for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Located five hours south of Portland, Klamath Falls boasts a population of almost 40,000.

"Oregon is a relatively unpopulated state," said Teamey, a plans and targeting officer. "And Klamath Falls is a relatively small place."

He said when fellow Oregonians come across one another, a bond forms almost immediately.

"Chances are you both know some of the same people," 28-year-old Teamey added.

Teamey has run into people from Oregon before but never anyone from his hometown and neither have Rose or Scotton, who were equally as shocked to learn of the coincidence.

"Someone in my office asked me where I was from and I said Klamath Falls," explained Scotton, an intelligence analyst. "They went and told Captain Teamey because they knew he was from there, too."

While talking to the captain about home, he told her about another Oregonian.

"I thought it was like a slim to none chance that I would ever run into someone from my hometown, let alone two other people," said 20-year-old Scotton, 20. "It's weird because we all also work in the same area here."

Both Scotton and Teamey work inside the same building. Rose works in the motor pool behind it.

"I see the captain almost everyday and we sometimes talk about Klamath Falls," said 34-year-old Rose. "We both used to go fishing at the same fishing hole at the Klamath River Canyon."

Through talking, the soldiers also discovered each one had graduated from one of the three high schools within Klamath Falls.

"I went to Mazama High School," Scotton explained. "The captain went to Henley, and Sergeant Rose went to Klamath Union."

She said she remembered a bit of a rivalry between Klamath Union and Mazama.

"When I was a sophomore, some people from my school wrapped the bells of Klamath Union in Saran Wrap," she said.

Rose also recalled the rivalry.

"I went to high school quite a few years before Scotton," he explained. "The schools shared a football field. Every year we had the Canal Bowl and whoever won that got to keep the football from the very first Canal Bowl."

Scotton joked that the three probably shopped at the same Wal-Mart and maybe the same grocery store.

"It's weird," she said. "You never know."

Each of the soldiers visits Klamath Falls every few years, but none of them has definite plans to return to settle down any time soon.

"It's a really nice place to live," Rose said. "I really never expected to meet anyone else from there - especially out here."



Army Capt. Kyle B. Teamey, Staff Sgt. Mick E. Rose and Spc. Christina D. Scotton are all from Klamath Falls, Ore., which lies five hours south of Portland. The three soldiers never met each other before coming to Iraq with 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. They are serving at Camp Ramadi, in support of the 1st Marine Division.
(USMC photo by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald) Photo by: Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald

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Ellie

[thedrifter]

Army-led project brings clean water to villages in Marine-run zone
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 20046435021
Story by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald



CAMP AR RAMADI, Iraq(June 3, 2004) -- The 4,500 residents of Teabon and Qutnyah villages have never had their own potable water source.

Soldiers with Army's 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, working in support of 1st Marine Division, stepped in a few months ago to fix that problem.

During Saddam Hussein's reign, Teabon's Mahal Tribe and Qutnyah's Assaf Tribe were neglected and denied clean water.

"The previous regime didn't see fit to give these people water," said Army Lt. Col. Thomas S. Hollis, the battalion's commander. "The sheiks asked for assistance but to no avail."

The sheik of Teabon, Gen. Hardin, had been an outspoken critic of Hussein and his regime.

Once the Coalition ousted Hussein's notorious Ba'ath Party, the leaders of the two villages sought help.

"We began this series of water projects about five months ago," Hollis explained. "We knew we needed to get it done."

Up until now, the villagers have been hauling buckets of cooking, bathing and drinking water from the Euphrates River and irrigation canals.

Both sources are highly polluted, causing many birth defects amongst the younger villagers.

"Not having fresh water makes the people very susceptible to disease," Hollis explained.

Bidding for the projects ended early this year and construction on new water purification and distribution sites began almost immediately.

"Of the seven million dollars we have to spend on civil military operations in our area of operations, $165,000 dollars went to Teabon and $145,000 went to Qutnyah," said Army Capt. Jeffrey E. Flach, the battalion's civil affairs officer.

The two companies in charge of the projects were awarded the contracts based on their reputations and their "price tags."

"A lot of the companies bidding were asking for two or three hundred thousand dollars," Flach added. "These two companies came in with very reasonable offers."

Since construction started, nearly 5 kilometers of pipe was installed in Teabon and 7 kilometers in Qutnyah.

Both water facilities - built from the ground up - are state-of-the-art and are similar to those found in the United States.

Flach visited both of the sites to check up on the progress.

"There's not too much room for improvement at either site," he said. "Now the focus is getting the water distributed to the homes."

According to Hollis, that will take time.

"This project is not something that will serve just for now," he said. "It'll serve in the future as well. As the area expands and more families migrate here and more buildings pop up, fresh water will be available."



Army Lt. Col. Thomas S. Hollis, commander of 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, talks with some of the leaders at Qutnyah, Iraq, at about their fresh water facility. The battalion has been working closely with this village and Teabon to help provide potable drinking water sources.
(USMC photo by Pfc. Brandon E. Loveless) Photo by: Pfc. Brandon E. Loveless

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Ellie

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Artillerymen gun for martial arts qualification
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 2004644638
Story by Cpl. Macario P. Mora Jr.



CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq(June 2, 2004) -- Nearly 30 Marines with 2nd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment's Battery E started smacking, kicking and bruising their way to earning a gray belt.

For the cannon-cockers here in Iraq, the two-week course is a chance to catch up on training and help the time pass. More importantly, it's a chance to refresh themselves on a low-intensity skill they may need while deployed.

"It's important for them to know how to properly defend themselves," said Capt. Robert B. Thomas, a black-belt instructor from Denver. "It's just as important though, that they know when to use the techniques they're learning."

The Marines are learning the techniques for strikes, kicks and grappling moves just as they would back in the United States. But here, there are no pads. There's no grassy field for soft landings either.

"This training is motivating," said Lance Cpl. Gerrado D. Montes, from Laredo, Texas. "It helps us discipline ourselves with our physique. It also teaches us how to be responsible when using force. It gets you dirty but we live in the dirt anyways."

"This keeps us more up to date with the martial art belts," added Lance Cpl. Javier Rivera Jr., from Los Angeles. "Being the tallest in my unit has its advantages and disadvantages. Martial arts training makes us stronger mentally and physically."

Marines, covered in sand and steadily adding bruises to their body, are using the time to advance their own qualifications, even as they perform their daily duties. Even those with prior competition fighting experience are gleaning new lessons toward their next qualification.

"I fought in 'Rage in the Cage' tournaments and other organized fights in Arizona," said Lance Cpl. Jordan P. Lamoreaux, a radio operator with the battery from Mesa, Ariz. "The MCMAP program is one of the best martial arts out there. It's very balanced, teaching grappling and striking moves."

The former kick boxer said he hoped to leave Iraq as a green-belt instructor and train for his black belt as soon as he becomes a noncommissioned officer.

"Right now my rank is holding me back," Lamoreaux said. "But I will get it. This is really good stuff."



Marines from Battery E, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines, perform forward falls during a two-week Marine Corps Martial Arts Program course. The course offered Marines an opportunity to advance from tan to gray belt.
(USMC photo by Cpl. Macario P. Mora Jr.) Photo by: Cpl. Macario P. Mora Jr.

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Ellie

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: June 07, 2004

A long way to Taqaddum
Convoys boast better protection, but attacks, IEDs remain threat

By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq — The daily mail run to the Marine camps west of Baghdad is a dicey proposition, even when the delivery trucks are bristling with weapons and clad in thick steel armor.
A small convoy making the Taqaddum-to-Fallujah run in early April learned that firsthand when insurgents hit a mail truck with a rocket-propelled grenade, starting a firefight that kept the Marines pinned down all night.

Whether it’s mail, ammo, spare parts or hot chow, the Marines at the other end of the convoy are always anxiously awaiting delivery. But buried mines and improvised explosives are a constant threat to the vehicle trains, as are potential ambushes from an enemy hard to pick out in the crowds.

It’s a stark difference from the major combat phase a year ago.

“Last year, we all knew who the enemy was,” said Lance Cpl. Blaec Morgan, a 21-year-old from Shelbyville, Ind., who drives heavy logistics vehicles.

Insurgents armed with RPGs and rifles have ambushed and attacked military convoys in broad daylight and the dark of night. Buried mines or improvised explosives detonate almost daily, maiming or killing troops and damaging military vehicles.

So, in recent months, Marine and Army commanders have beefed up the protection of vehicle convoys.

They’ve added reinforced steel plates and doors, thick windows and blankets of bullet-stopping armor to vehicles already lined with sandbags. Heavy weapons, including M240G machine guns and MK19 automatic grenade launchers, sit atop Humvees and many logistics and utility trucks.

Every convoy is meticulously planned and exactingly tracked by radio and, more often, by satellite-linked transponders. Drivers stay in touch using hand-held radios. Military police in armored Humvees join in the lead and provide security throughout. In some cases, a convoy may get its own airborne guardian.

That was the case on May 3 for a convoy of about 18 vehicles carrying Marines, Army National Guardsmen and several journalists between Fallujah and Taqaddum. In the dark sky above flew an AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter, its pilots in constant radio contact with the convoy commander, a staff sergeant.

A near-full moon shone across the swaths of desert, casting shadows and spotlighting vehicles driving on dirt roads, wide highways and beneath overpasses often guarded by M1A2 Abrams tanks or armored vehicles. Drivers rode almost nonstop, save three short halts at military checkpoints.

Nearly four hours later, traveling a long, roundabout route from Camp Fallujah to Camp Taqaddum, which lie just 25 miles apart, the convoy arrived safely. Later that morning, a larger 40-vehicle convoy pulled into “TQ,” safely ending a ride from Fallujah.

The convoys arrived much to the relief of Maj. Raphael Hernandez who, as operations officer for Combat Service Support Group 15, keeps close eyes on every convoy coming or going from the main supply hub.

Convoys average 25 to 30 vehicles each, making them long and vulnerable to enemy attack. So commanders aren’t taking any chances. Regardless of route or mission, every convoy is “built for combat,” said Hernandez, 35, of El Paso, Texas.

“The routes here are tricky. There really is no safe area,” said Capt. Amy Ebitz, 33, commander of Bravo Company, 2nd Military Police Battalion from Camp Lejeune, N.C. “You’re taking a chance wherever you go.”

During the day, drivers often have to deal with civilian vehicles weaving into their convoys on local roads. Drivers such as Lance Cpl. Peter Bottorff, 21, must decide quickly what the civilian’s intention is, and what to do next.

Pointing a rifle or machine gun their way usually is enough to send the message to move away, Marines said.

“If we have to, we will shoot,” said Bottorff, who typically mans the MK19 on convoy runs.

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Ellie

[thedrifter]

May 28, 2004

Militias threaten to split Iraq, entrench U.S. troops

By John Yaukey
Gannett News Service


Letting Iraq break apart along sectarian lines never has been an option in the Bush plan. But it’s now a sobering possibility, with major implications for American troops and an eventual U.S. exit strategy.
There are worrisome signs Iraq’s fractious Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish militias, deployed now along sensitive religious and ethnic fronts, intend to stay active as U.S. civil authorities attempt to bring Iraqis together under a sovereign government this summer.

The Kurdish peshmerga forces control northern Iraq. The Shiite militias have held off U.S. forces in the south for two months. Sunni Baath Party members from Saddam Hussein’s disbanded army now control regions west of Baghdad, having fought Marines to a standoff there.

“There is a real danger here with these large, strong ethnically based organizations,” said Michael O’Hanlon, a military operations expert at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution. “The bigger they get the more dangerous they are, and right now we’re moving in the wrong direction in that trend.”

Militia sizes vary, with the Kurdish peshmerga probably topping the list with 100,000 men — not much smaller than the U.S. contingent in Iraq of 138,000 troops.

For now, the militia problem means extended deployments for U.S. troops.

The 1st Armored Division from Fort Knox, Ky., was ordered to remain in Iraq for an additional 90 days this spring specifically to combat the Shiite militias in Najaf and Karbala, south of Baghdad.

“I think that the determination was made, from the president all the way down to the commanders on the ground, that the situation is such that we probably need to have additional troops stay for some time longer,” said Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, second in command on the ground in Iraq.

Many of the casualties that made April the deadliest month of the war for Americans, with at least 136 troops killed, came as U.S. forces fought Sunni and Shiite rebels across Iraq.

If these militias clash with each other in power struggles as U.S. civil authorities attempt to establish an Iraqi government in the coming months — a critical phase of the still-vague Bush exit strategy — the Iraq campaign could implode in civil war.

That would almost certainly prompt neighboring Turkey and Iran to rush in and protect their interests, destabilizing the entire Middle East.

If the militias feel compelled to turn on American troops in a concerted wave of Iraqi nationalism to drive out what they perceive to be an occupation with no end, U.S. troops could find themselves back in major combat operations, if not in full retreat.

The U.S. approach to dealing with the militias has been inconsistent.

When Baghdad fell in April 2003, U.S. forces ordered the militias to disarm. After weeks of crime and violence, the militias re-emerged to fill the security void, which U.S. authorities tolerated.

April saw that plan backfire with the Sunni and Shiite rebellions led by well-armed militias that remain a threat.

After intense fighting between Marines and Sunnis in Fallujah following the murder and burning of four American contract workers there, the U.S. authorities negotiated a settlement that left many of the Sunni combatants in charge of patrolling the city.

Shiite militias battling U.S. troops in southern Iraq, under the leadership of rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, have struck a tentative cease-fire agreement with U.S. authorities that would leave them armed and intact.

The Kurds would like to remain autonomous in oil-rich northern Iraq as they have been since the end of 1991 Persian Gulf War and they have the peshmerga to back their aspirations.

When some experts look at these three situations, they see the unmistakable beginnings of a partitioned state.

Modern Iraq is an artificial construct. For centuries the Ottomans ruled the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds separately. But in 1921, the colonial British created modern Iraq by cobbling the three groups together under the rule of a puppet monarch to create a convenient source of oil for England.

“The reality is that Iraq is today, and has been for hundreds of years, not really one state, but three separate regions,” said Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.



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Ellie

[thedrifter]

SecNav awards 'Wolfpack' safety award
Submitted by: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 20045302306
Story by Sgt. Nathan K. LaForte



AL ASAD, Iraq (May 30, 2004) -- The Secretary of the Navy, the honorable Mr. Gordon R. England, awarded the Aviation Unit Safety Award to Lt. Col. Mark S. Jebens, commanding officer, Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 466, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, here May 18.

The squadron reached the 50,000 Class "A" mishap-free hour milestone on Jan 29 while aboard the USS Boxer on the way to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The Secretary said he was honored to present the award to the squadron while they continued to perform their mission of support here in Iraq.

"I think all of these achievements are important," he said. "They represent the extraordinary accomplishments above and beyond the ordinary by our men and women, so I'm always privileged to recognize them for their great service. I thank them and congratulate them."

Since the squadron's commission into the Marine Corps nearly 20 years ago, Nov. 30, 1984, HMH-466 has never had a class "A" mishap, in training or during operations. HMH-466, nicknamed the "Wolfpack," is the only CH-53E Super Stallion squadron in the Marine Corps to have achieved this feat.

Reaching this type of milestone involves many people, claimed Jebens.

"I attribute this to the professional aviators and maintainers," the Midlothian, Ill., native claimed. "It's truly been a team effort not just for me, but for all of my predecessors over the years."

One indispensable part of the squadron is the maintainers, noted Gunnery Sgt. William A. Gearhart, maintenance control chief, HMH-466. The maintenance Marines help eliminate mechanical variables that might cause a crash, he added.

"Everyone says you get lucky, but you just do maintenance properly," the Lock Haven, Pa., native claimed. "We have exceptional Marines doing maintenance and exceptional Marines who were here before us."

The maintenance side of the squadron constantly ensures the planes are safe for flight, the 32-year old said. They use set schedules and maintenance procedures, and strive to rise above those standards, Gearhart added.

"(The maintainers) complete everything within standards," he revealed. "Sometimes they go above and beyond to give the planes a touch of (tender loving care)."

Maintenance of the helicopters isn't the only thing the squadron does to ensure safety, interjected Maj. George R. Maus, director of safety and standardization, HMH-466.

The squadron has many programs that ensure the Marines themselves are taken care of before stepping into the plane for a flight, the Pine Plains, N.Y., native said. Most of these programs are Marine Corps directed and mandated for all flying squadrons, he added.

One of these is programs is the Human Factors Board, which is run by the commanding officer of the squadron.

"We'll look at each and every crewmember's personal problems that might affect their flying ability," he said. "You can either put them on easier missions or take them out of the plane to let them take care of those personal problems."

The program is specifically designed to take care of the Marines and ensure the safety of everyone in the helicopter, Maus stated. This program is just Marines helping each other the way they are supposed to, he added.

"We've always taken safety very seriously," he said. "It's not just a department, it's all the Marines in the squadron. It's a team effort, bottom line."

Jebens claimed that to help the squadron remember to take care of each other, they have adopted a motto penned by the author, Rudyard Kipling, known for his novel, "The Jungle Book."

"The strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack," Kipling wrote in his poem, "The Law of the Jungle."

Jebens said his Marines come together as a team, which has allowed the squadron to prevent any major mishaps. He added that he is honored just to be part of this pack.

"I'm blessed, privileged and fortunate to command this squadron," he concluded. "I'm humbled to be part of this legacy and the great professionals that make up the 'Wolfpack.'"

With quality work and continued performance, the "Wolfpack" will maintain its legacy, and its Marines will stay safe throughout the rest of their tour in Iraq and the years to come, said Gearhart.

"Knock on wood," he joked. "Hopefully we'll make it through this and get home. Maybe 20 years from now our sons will make it to one hundred thousand hours."



The Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Mr. Gordon R. England, thanks Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 466, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, at Al Asad, Iraq on May 18, for the service of its Marines. England presented the squadron with an Aviation Unit Safety Award for reaching the 50,000-flight hour mark without a Class 'A' mishap. Since the commissioning of the CH-53E Super Stallion squadron in 1984, they have led the Marine Corps record for safe flying. Photo by: Sgt. Nathan K. LaForte

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Ellie

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: June 07, 2004

Iraq exchanges see shortages during surge in violence

By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer

CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq — For several weeks in April, some items at exchanges on Marine-run camps ran thin because insurgent attacks kept many resupply trucks off the roads.
One day in early May, only a few magazines — outdated and well thumbed over — sat on the shelves at this camp’s exchange. New papers hadn’t been delivered in weeks. Coolers sat empty, bereft of soda and sports drinks.

At one point, eighteen 40-foot trailers chock-full of merchandise sat idle at two bases in central Iraq, waiting to be picked up.

Weeks of heavy fighting in the Sunni strongholds of Fallujah and Ramadi forced closures of busy highways from Baghdad, which delayed resupply runs, held up civilian contractors, scared away foreign truck drivers and forced convoys to move only if they had extra firepower and security.

But things might finally be looking up.

Military and contractor trucks are again making regular runs, shuttling merchandise from supply centers to main camps supporting I Marine Expeditionary Force units operating in Anbar province.

“It was pretty dicey,” Ed Decasper, an Army and Air Force Exchange Service general manager in Baghdad, said by telephone May 26.

As manager for the Marines, Decasper serves as de facto liaison between the two exchange services. “It’s loosened up now that our Marines are making weekly runs.”

“A lot of it depended on whether the [main supply routes] were open or closed,” he said.

Late on May 25, Marine trucks arrived to take six loads of merchandise from a staging yard at Baghdad International Airport to Camp Fallujah, he said. Four trailers were packed with various items and two were loaded with beverages.

Exchange items are trucked into Iraq from Kuwait or flown in by a commercial cargo airline. Contracted trucking companies help move goods to the main exchanges for distribution to seven smaller field exchanges.

But heavy fighting made road travel in the Sunni Triangle dangerous.

Threats against foreign contractors hired to move cargo, deliver food and supplies and work at contracted mess halls slowed those services and made resupply difficult. Some drivers and workers were killed in ambushes and by roadside bombs.

“The Marines were in the hottest spots,” Decasper said, noting that “the drivers would not go for fear of their lives.”

For the Marine Corps Exchange, the delays came at a bad time.

The service had just taken over running four semi-permanent post exchanges and nine mobile exchanges from AAFES, in a “partnership” arrangement similar to one last year that generated $29 million in sales from February to August.

MCX officials are waiting for the situation to improve, although delays aren’t wholly unexpected.

“The situation in Iraq needs to calm down more so there’s a sense of security and safety,” Michael Tharrington, director of business operations with the personnel and family readiness division of Manpower and Reserve Affairs at Quantico, Va., said May 25.

Now, even Marine Corps-specific items that were in high demand such as rank insignia and PT gear are arriving.

Fast-food restaurants are also planned.

“That’s just waiting for the situation to calm down,” Tharrington said.

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Ellie