Posted on 08/04/2005 5:53:50 AM PDT by Jarhead1957
Brig Gen. Carter Ham, deputy director for operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff gestures during a Pentagon news conference, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2005 to discuss Marines in Iraq. A Marine amphibious assault vehicle on patrol during combat operations near the Syrian border hit a roadside bomb Wednesday, and 14 Marines were killed in one of the deadliest single attacks in Iraq against American forces. (AP Photo/Heesoon Yim)
The Marines have one of the roughest assignments in Iraq: pacifying the perpetually restive Anbar province, home to Fallujah, Ramadi and Haditha, all sites of heavy American casualties since the insurgency went into high gear last year.
Underscoring the heavy load, the Marines have taken casualties disproportionate to their numbers in Iraq.
Marines number more than 23,000 out of 138,000 members of the U.S. armed forces in Iraq, or 17 percent. Yet they have lost at least 530 of the more than 1,820 U.S. personnel who have died there, or 29 percent, Marine officials said.
On Wednesday, they lost 14 when a roadside bomb detonated under an amphibious assault vehicle in Haditha in western Iraq. Just two days earlier, seven other Marines died.
Some military experts pointed to Wednesday's attack to note the Marines are performing duties somewhat different from those for which they are organized and equipped. The amphibious vehicle, for example, was designed to get troops ashore and is less armored than some other infantry carriers.
"It's basically designed to get across the beach and get a few dozen miles inland," said John Pike, a military expert with Globalsecurity.org. "The point being, once (Marines) had managed to secure the beachhead and get a few miles inland, the Army would come ashore and take over from there."
Beyond that, occupation and stabilization duties often require expertise and equipment distinct from amphibious assault and the rapid capture of enemy-held territory, experts said.
"The entire Marine force was designed around the concept of amphibious warfare, which is a good deal different from the kind of conflict they're fighting in Iraq today, hundreds of miles from the sea," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute think tank. "The Marines are a light force; they kick in the door but they are not supposed to occupy all the rooms."
Still, the service has tried to adapt to changing missions, studying concepts like urban warfare and nonlethal weaponry. Marines took the lead in supplying food during a famine in Somalia in the early 1990s.
They, along with the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, comprised the leading forces in the drive toward Baghdad in 2003.
Since the invasion of Iraq, the Army's effort to keep its troops fresh by rotating them in and out of the country has created a need to use the Marines as a stabilization and counterinsurgency force in parts of the country, experts said.
The Marines killed Wednesday were part of a sweep for insurgents in communities along the Euphrates River between Baghdad and the Syrian border. At the Pentagon, Brig. Gen. Carter Ham said similar operations were under way in several communities at once, to prevent insurgents from skipping to towns without a strong U.S. presence.
He suggested the attacks on the Marines were the insurgents' response to their stepped-up operations.
The Marines killed Wednesday were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines based in Brook Park, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, and attached to the Regimental Combat Team 2. Nine of them were from a single smaller unit in Columbus. A civilian translator also was killed and one Marine was wounded.
Six more Marines were killed in Haditha earlier this week. A seventh was killed by a car bomb in Hit.
In November, Marines led the assault to retake Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold 40 miles west of Baghdad. They had regular clashes with insurgents there and in nearby Ramadi for months before.
In January, 30 Marines, along with a Navy sailor, were killed when their helicopter went down in bad weather. The military, however, still has not issued a finding on the cause of the crash.
___
Associated Press Writer Pauline Jelinek contributed to this story.
OK-why Bradley?
Referred to by Schwarzkopf as "nothing more than a speedbump." Later to be called the "82nd Truckborne", stuck in the rear with the French.
Yep.
That's what my college roommate, who was with the 82nd at the time, said.
Light forces will always be speedbumps ("crunchies") for armor, wether they are Army or USMC.
Actually, it wasn't much of a secret. The armored cav guys blew through the Jihadi defenses and occupied positions BEHIND them. This greatly reduced their ability to move around the city.
The Marines had the job of moving up block by block, kicking in every door and fighting at extreme close quarters. Army mech/cav battalions don't have enough rifleman to do that job...especially in a high casualty environment.
Reminds me of the old joke, "Why did the Army stop retreating? Because they surrendered."
Yes. And when they arrived they had to borrow food, water and ammunition from the MPS ships the Marines had brought in from Diego Garcia.
Also, which was the first service to have heavy armor on the ground?
Sorry, but even now the USMC is overly reliant upon the Army log trains. The USMC has even admitted as much. A few instances of one service borrowing from the other isn't a big deal (it's a good thing), but it cuts one way far more than the other, and when it becomes habit and necessity, there's a problem.
Incorrect. Marines took part in Operation Torch in North Africa on 8 November 1942. 306 Marines also took part in D-Day; Eisenhower had four Marines on his staff who were instrumental in planning the amphibious landings, destroying mines and working 5-inch artillery batteries. Numerous Marines; Peter Ortiz, John Bodnar, Jack Risler, Frederick Brunner, Walter Taylor, John Hamilton aka Sterling Hayden, John Harnicker, Walter Mansfield, Glenn Ford, et al served in Europe with the OSS. There was a Marine Barracks in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. In August of 1944 Marine Detachments from USS Augusta and USS Philadelphia landed on the Islands of Ratonneau and If near Marseille and engaged the Germans. Marine detachments served on numerous Navy vessels in the European Theater. The 1st Marine Provisional Brigade served at Reykjavik, Iceland in 1941-1942.
A DIFFERENT WAR: Marines in Europe and North Africa
MARINES IN WW II EUROPE NORTH AFRICA-THE ATLANTIC
I doubt if the DIs point that out to the recruits when they teach Marine Corps history which is one reason why so many Marines seem to feel free to take cheap shots at the Army.
Wrong. Marine recruits are taught not to drink the tainted Army Kool Aid that so many of you doggies eagerly lap up. The Marine Corps did in fact serve in the ETO, albeit in a limited, yet significant, role in WWII.
Want to discuss Major General Ralph Smith USA of the 27th Division being relieved for cause on Saipan?
Thanks for the ping!
Bradley was conspicuous in his absence at Inchon.
Schwarzkopf also had the following to say on 27 February 1991 from Riyadh:
'I can't say enough about the two Marine divisions. If I use words like "brilliant," it would be an under-description of the absolute superb job they did in breaching the so-called impenetrable barrier. It was a classic, absolutely classic military breaching of a very, very tough minefield, barbed wire, fire trenches-type barrier. They went through the first barrier like it was water. They went across into the second barrier line, even though they were under artillery fire at the same time. They continued to open up the breach. And then they brought both divisions steaming through that breach. Absolutely superb operation, a text-book, and I think it will be studied for many, many years to come as the way to do it.'
Now you've done-it! Woke up that nutcase SMEDLEYBUTLER.
Your posts and the fact that you chose to emphasize that line (the bold was not in the original was it?) tell me that you cane on here looking to run another serivce down.
My deepest apology, I should not have put the empasis, it would have made it read different.
Yeah, boy what a joke Bradley was getting that wrong after all the whipping the Germans business(rolls eyes). Does your head hurt when you talk about all these great Army generals who will be remembered forever for all that they accomplished and yet you still can't name a great Marine victory in WWII Europe or the Civil War?
You going to admit that you're wrong or are you going to remain an obstinate illiterate? Truth is, you know nothing, like many of your Army brethren, of Marine Corps history in the ETO.
Ok-I accept your apology. Truce?
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