Posted on 08/05/2005 5:09:44 PM PDT by SandRat
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (August 5, 2005) -- Coming to Iraq, the Marines of Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment knew they would be fighting as ‘street cops’ on the roads.
The job includes locating hidden bombs before the enemy could use them against the Marines, Iraqi Security Forces and civilians. Their most recent find on a combat patrol brought their total number of bombs found to nearly 200. Over the past six months, they have maintained a ratio of three found to one detonated.
“We are successful at this because we are outsmarting them and they’re very predictable,” explained 1st Lt. Richard H. Lee, Weapons Company Executive Officer and Fullerton, Calif., native. “We are always one step ahead of them.”
The Marines travel the streets day and night looking for anything suspicious to keep the streets safe.
“If there is something new the enemy is trying to do on the streets, we will usually know within a couple of days and be able to adjust our procedures to stop them,” Capt. Ed. Nevgloski, Weapons Company Commander explained.
Training themselves to look for certain signals and signs while conducting vehicle mounted patrols is part of their everyday routine. Nevgloski’s company has seen different types of bombs and have learned from each experience.
“The success is due to our thoroughness and continually adjusting our procedures which has given us a chance to think ahead and identify their procedures,” explained Gunnery Sgt. Robert L. Bailey, 3rd Platoon Commander, and Gratton, W. Va., native.
Weapons Company operates in several configurations within their own company as well as working hand-in-hand with other units in the battalion. The combat engineers, Marines with a vast knowledge of explosives, help train the Marines on what to look for when on the streets.
Having recently returned from a deployment to Haiti during Operation Secure Tomorrow prior to deploying here, this is the first time many of the Marines have faced hidden bombs but they are successfully using their training and experience to combat them.
“We are like the dream team…we have a diversified group of Marines who bring a lot of knowledge to the table,” Lee explained.
Knowing the lay of the land is one of the many things the Marines learned when first getting into country.
“Coming here in the winter, we were able to learn the roads while the enemies’ operational tempo was slow,” Lee explained.
Saving lives is part of the Marines’ everyday job, but for Weapons Company, they provide the preventative maintenance on the streets to keep their fellow Marines and sailors on the move. They push forward daily in their efforts to keep Iraq safe during the Global War on Terrorism.
Marines round 'em up!
The job includes locating hidden bombs before the enemy could use them against the Marines, Iraqi Security Forces and civilians. Their most recent find on a combat patrol brought their total number of bombs found to nearly 200. Over the past six months, they have maintained a ratio of three found to one detonated.
“We are successful at this because we are outsmarting them and they’re very predictable,” explained 1st Lt. Richard H. Lee, Weapons Company Executive Officer and Fullerton, Calif., native. “We are always one step ahead of them.”
The job includes locating hidden bombs before the enemy could use them against the Marines, Iraqi Security Forces and civilians. Their most recent find on a combat patrol brought their total number of bombs found to nearly 200. Over the past six months, they have maintained a ratio of three found to one detonated.
“We are successful at this because we are outsmarting them and they’re very predictable,” explained 1st Lt. Richard H. Lee, Weapons Company Executive Officer and Fullerton, Calif., native. “We are always one step ahead of them.”
We are WINNING this war! Thank you, Marines!
Up yer ally ping!
Semper Fi
> There otta be a martial law for roadside digging by anybody.
I have little doubt that diggers spotted by RPVs and
other aircrews are engaged without a second thought.
We probably just don't have enough eyes in the sky.
I'd expect the same for anyone seen strolling around
with unapproved personal weapons (i.e. RPGs, almost
anything with a 'scope), but who knows ...
Actually we have shoot on site orders of anybody digging on
or near a road at night.
Good!
Even more sophisticated are IEDs which are camouflaged in the most inventive fashion. The IDF has encountered some of these in south Lebanon, years ago, when Hezbollah used foam-coated explosives disguised as roadside rocks. Some of these included shaped-charge stand-off munitions fired with mechanical 'sling-shots'.
A similar method has already appeared in northern Iraq. On February 7 soldiers of the US 22nd Infantry Regiment patrolling the streets in downtown Tikrit suspected a traffic circle curb disguised as IED.
http://www.combat-diaries.co.uk/diary25/diary25military.htm
A couple of weeks ago I located a picture of what appeared to be a concrete curb that was an IED.
Thanks for the ping!
Amen.
C'mon, admit it. You're a DNC plant.
The gig is up.
I find your posts hilarious. But then, I often laugh at pompous, glass-half-full-sour-grapes Democrats.
You guys really are funny when you're out of power.
Good morn...afternoon to ya.
Tomas, let's see if I got your points:
"We are playing their game and we are playing it well indeed"
= everyone from the CINC to the newest fighting troop in IRAQ is so stupid that they have no idea what they are doing. did I get it?
"I personally would like to see pressure placed on the Syrians and Iranians to cease and desist from supplying the terrorists in Iraq"
= Have our troops betray our committment to help the Iraqis fight for their freedom and pack up lock, stock & barrel and pretend they're fighting for Alsace Lorraine...when the going gets tough, they can just spin and twirl and aim the other way. Our troops should start a new US legacy that we fight so that we can cut and run and leave a fledgling democracy & our reputation in tatters.is that it?
"Actually we probably are focusing too much on Iraq and less on the more important goal, destroying Islamic Terror"
= Forget about fighting for freedom, the troops should wage war on the religion of Islam and hunt down every member from innocent baby to grandma as an "Islamic Terrorist", let's make this the American way. Ah, I think I get it!
"And since Islamic Terror has its biggest proponent in Iran, we should cut off the head of the snake, ie Tehran. Level Tehran with a promise of more to come if Islamic Terror did not cease, and it would cease one way or the other, in a much cheaper and quicker way than the present strategy of door to door, bullet magnet patrol war fighting we presently employ"
=Let's make our troops terrorists themselves, with a helter skelter offense. Their morale will shoot up if we order them to fight the WOT with an off with their heads, innocents & terrorists alike foriegn policy! Yea, that sounds like a plan.
"In the mean time, it is becoming clear to the entire earth that there are no more heroic and professional youths than those that comprise the troops in the U.S. Military"
=but, but, but, but,even tho you think our troops are really stupid; relious terroritist look alikes; men & women who could ever intentionally target & slaughter innocents-
YOU DO SUPPORT THE TROOPS?
hey y'all it's moooooooooo time!
So I see! Taking him to school again, are you? Good job!
(I think he works for the DNC...)
And you know that too.........unless you actually ARE a leftist, and your brain is fried.
Are you?
(I'm really curious now. Are you associated with the DNC and functioning as a troll? The way you leap from thread to thread to spread anti military poison, I'm beginning to wonder).
Tomas, Allegra thinks you are a troll from the DNC....that would explain your blind spot in differentiating between an enemy, an ally, a sympathizer and a neutral party.
By your logic (and tagline), we should have destroyed Switzerland in WWII, in spite of their neutrality, because the Enemy ran back & forth through it....
Using your "tactic" Korea & VietNam offered us even more because there were isolated sympathizer targets in all those border countries; we should have attacked Red China, Laos, Thailand....wait a minute, we should have attacked the entire world, after all, having a border with an enemy country, or having even one enemy sympathizer in your populace is enough to warrent your total destruction in the Tomas overall war plan.
Carry on, you're doing an excellent job! ;*)
By your logic (and tagline),
So far, Tomas & icon have backpeddled past VietNam, WWII and the 19th century battles in attempts to pitch their nonsense. At the rate they are going,we are fast approaching Shakespeaen times & his play "Comedy of Errors"----
"Every why has a wherefore" ActII Sc2
"In Vietnam, Our Presidents LBJ/Nixon claimed that communism was a political system of Peace"
Got a source a source for that red herring, Tomas?
Maybe you are confusing those guys (with all their faults & foibles!) with some real communist sympathizers?
Grandma remembers John F Kerry & Jane Fonda who bent over and kissed their own backsides supporting communists in VietNam:
"Kerry's Soviet Rhetoric: The Vietnam-era antiwar movement got its spin from the Kremlin" SOURCE-The National Review 2/26/04
Jane Fonda ---oh heck, where to start? Her treasonous radio broadcasts....her photo ops with our POWs or her infamous anti US aircraft pic.....how about her coziness with Madame Binh? SOURCES - too many, they would crash this thread.
"Get your brain out of Viet Nam" ya think that's where he left it? He has a few brain cells mired in his memory of how we fought WWII too.
Since Tomas & I are corresponding on matters of life and death, I decided to pay him a personal visit & clicked on his name....his page made me seasick-gave a whole new meaning to where angels fear to tread.
People who want to think that Iraq is like is Viet Nam for whatever twisted reason, whether it be from leftist brainwashing or something else, will do just that.
The problem, as I see it, is that they are viewing it through a hostile prism and finding the 'evidence' that supports their presupposed view.
Iraq is so clearly NOT Viet Nam, that it is pointless to argue with anyone who thinks it is.
"Twisted reason or something else"....they must have mad cow disease.
It's time for me to follow my sister dumb cows and quit trying to reason with them.
(they'll still get a swift backward kick if they get too close)
It was fun to watch though. Thanks for trying. I learned the hard way to sit back and laugh, as Allegra now does.
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