Article ran : 03/23/2003
Local Marines taking charge of surrendering Iraqi troops
By ERIC STEINKOPFF
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Camp Lejeune forces are likely on the move in southern Iraq, under the command of the West Coast’s I Marine Expeditionary Force.



The location of the Marines and sailors has not been released. According to televised reports Saturday, members of Lejeune’s 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment and artillery elements of 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment are rounding up Iraqi prisoners and processing them after their surrender.



The Marines and sailors from 2/8 left the Jacksonville area in January with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. They landed in Kuwait in February. They are part of 7,000 troops now operating under the California-based I MEF because Iraq is its area of responsibility, military spokesmen said.



The Lejeune troops Saturday handled Iraqi forces dressed as civilians. According to televised reports, the Marines searched the Iraqi troops for weapons, said a voice identified as Marine Jason Forgash.



“They probably just threw away their weapons because their pockets were still filled with rounds,” Forgash said.



The report of Lejeune Marines taking prisoners could not be immediately confirmed. Col. Keith Oliver, a military spokesman from Camp Lejeune who is representing Central Command in Qatar, said the large number of media in the Persian Gulf make it difficult to track each story.



“We have over 800 embedded media with satellite telephones,” Oliver said in a telephone interview with The Daily News. “We’re looking at more of a big picture here (but the journalists) are putting the emphasis where it belongs, highlighting the guys and gals on the tip of the spear.”



Oliver said the military is trying to work with the media to get quick and accurate reports to the home front.



“We are trying to be just as committed to getting out the bad news as well as the good, and we are experiencing the anguish of the families when there are casualties,” Oliver said.



According to an NBC report from an airfield in southern Iraq on Saturday, crews with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 365 from New River Air Station were setting up forward arming and refueling positions far into the desert.



Such positions allow helicopter crews returning from battle to gas up, reload guns and quickly get back into the fight.



All three of these units — 2/8, 1/10 and HMM-365 — were part of the 2nd MEB. This 7,000-member force built around the 2nd Marine Regiment was named Task Force Tarawa in honor of the World War II Pacific Island campaign.



They and about 10,000 more II MEF Marines and sailors are working under I MEF. Responsibility would fall to Lejeune’s II MEF if the military action were in Europe or Northern Africa.



Each MEF normally includes about 43,000 to 47,000 troops, but during Desert Shield and Desert Storm the forces joined under one command with two divisions, two air wings and two support groups giving rise to the term Super MEF.



Now, I MEF commander Lt. Gen. James Conway is leading a combined East Coast, West Coast and British Royal Marine force of about 85,000, elements of which have taken the southern port of Umm Qasr, isolated Iraq’s second largest city Basra and seized more than 1,000 wells at the Rumaylah oil fields.



This leaves the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division with its tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, self-propelled artillery and armored Humvees free run of the wide open desert to the west.



Contact Eric Steinkopff at


esteinkopff@jdnews.com or 353-1171, Ext. 236.



Sempers,

Roger