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I have just had the privilege of returning to Iraq and more specifically to Al Anbar Province for my third tour. I say privilege for a number of different reasons, not the least of which is the opportunity to again serve with young Americans ---- the best of their generation ---- in combat. A second reason is there is no greater honor for any man or woman than to protect one's country in time of grave danger while wearing the nation's cloth. Finally, I do not think there can be anything more gratifying on this earth for an American than...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Jan. 28, 2008) -- Sgt. Jeremy F. Boutwell, a 23-year-old Marine, knows a thing or two about “honor, courage and commitment.” Boutwell, an intelligence specialist with Headquarters and Service Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, is planning for an upcoming deployment to Iraq after sustaining severe injuries during an attack in Al Anbar Province, March 14, 2004. Boutwell was an MK-19 machine gunner with Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force (forward), when the attack occurred during a motorized routine...

FALLUJAH — It is hard to imagine someone never hearing of this city or of the house-to-house fighting that has taken place here since the war began. U.S. military officials called it “the heaviest urban combat since the battle of Hue City in Vietnam,” nearly 40 years ago. During the early winter months of 2004, Fallujah was at the center of a joint U.S. military and Iraqi offensive against insurgents led by Marines of I Marine Expeditionary Force. Prior to the offensive operation inside the city limits on Nov. 7, there hadn’t been a U.S. military presence since April 2004....

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2007 – President Bush has nominated Marine Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis to receive his fourth star and to lead U.S. Joint Forces Command, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced yesterday. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, commander of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and President Bush’s nominee to lead U.S. Joint Forces Command, escorts Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her May 23, 2007, visit to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif. Photo by Lance Cpl. Jerry Murphy, USMC  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Mattis, currently “dual-hatted” as commander of 1st Marine Expeditionary Force...

NORTH COUNTY ---- Camp Pendleton's Lt. Gen. James Mattis will be nominated for the rank of general and appointed commander of a high-level military planning and strategy unit based in Virginia, the North County Times has learned. Mattis, whose present job is commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command and head of Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force, will become head of the Joint Forces Command and Supreme Allied Commander, Transformation. Multiple sources within the military and in Washington, D.C., confirmed that Mattis, who has overseen Marine Corps forces in the Middle East for the last 15 months and is...

Lt. Gen. James Mattis in his office at Camp Pendleton Tuesday during an interview. Lt. Gen. James Mattis told the North County Times during an exclusive interview this week that while a lot of work has been done in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is much to do to defeat the extremist threats to Middle East stability and long-term U.S. security. "The problem of violent extremists existed long before 2003, and it is going to exist long after the next presidential election," said Mattis, who also commands Camp Pendleton's 25,000-member I Marine Expeditionary Force. "We are going to have to confront...

PENSACOLA, Fla. (NNS) -- Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Mike Mullen presented the Purple Heart to Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Jonathan D. Bryant Aug. 19 during an all hands call at the Naval Aviation Memorial Chapel aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. Bryant received the decoration - one of the world’s oldest military decorations still awarded today - for injuries he received in combat while serving his second tour of duty as a corpsman with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) in May 2004. He was wounded while assisting injured Marines during a prolonged gun battle in Western Iraq....

Iraqi, U.S., Scotch Troops Nab Terror Suspects American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, March 3, 2005 - American and Iraqi troops, as well as a detachment of Scottish Guards, nabbed scores of suspected terrorists and weaponry during a series of actions across Iraq March 2 and today, Multinational Force Iraq officials reported. Marines and soldiers serving with the 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, detained 26 suspected insurgents and seized several weapons caches during operations throughout Anbar province during the last 24 hours. Captured weaponry included two AK-47 assault rifles, two machine guns, a rifle, more than 500 small-arms rounds,...

1/26/2005, 12:22 a.m. ET The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — A U.S. Marine helicopter crashed Wednesday in western Iraq, the U.S. military said. There was no immediate word on casualties. The helicopter went down near the town Rutbah around 1:20 a.m. while conducting security operations, the military said in a statement. The aircraft was transporting personnel from the 1st Marine Division. A search and rescue team has reached the site and an investigation into what caused the crash is underway, the military said.

December 11, 2004 Release Number: 04-12-25 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE INSURGENTS USE HOSPITAL AS BASE OF ATTACK AGAINST SOLDIERSRAMADI, Iraq -- Soldiers from the 1st Marine Division of the I Marine Expeditionary Force were ambushed by insurgents operating in and near the Ar Ramadi General Hospital and Medical College on Dec. 10. Some of the muzzle flashes of insurgent firing positions were observed as originating from windows within the hospital. The insurgents turned off all of the lights in and around the hospital as the Soldiers approached the hospital. Insurgents fired rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire from both sides...

November 22, 2004 Release Number: 04-11-77 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE INSURGENTS FAKING DEAD FIRES ON MARINESFALLUJAH, Iraq -- Marines from the 1st Marine Division shot and killed an insurgent, who while faking dead, opened fire on the Marines that were conducting a security and clearing patrol through the streets here at approximately 3:45 p.m. on 21 November. For more information, please contact Capt Bradley Gordon, public affairs officer, 1st Marine Division, gordonbv@1mardivdm.usmc.mil -30-

November 15, 2004 Release Number: 04-11-46 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FALLUJAH GENERAL IS PREPARED TO TREAT PATIENTSFALLUJAH, Iraq -- Personnel from the I Marine Expeditionary Force's 4th Civil Affairs Group, Multi-National Forces-Iraq and the U.S. Embassy escorted Dr. Madi Kazim, Operations Manager for the Iraqi Ministry of Health, on an assessment tour of Fallujah General Hospital on Nov. 11. Upon securing the hospital on Nov. 8, a 4th CAG team delivered new emergency medical supply kits to the Fallujah General medical staff. At that time the military doctor, Navy Capt. John Williams, concluded that the hospital was functional, stocked with supplies...

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq -- As U.S. forces prepared for what is expected to be the biggest Marine-led urban assault since Vietnam (search), U.S. commanders pumped up troop spirits Sunday, saying they were no different from the storied heroes of Iwo Jima and Korea. Standing before some 2,500 Marines who stood or kneeled at his feet, Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, told them that they would be at the front of the charge. "This is America's fight," Sattler said. "What we've added to it is our Iraqi partners. They want to go...

CAMP BAHARIA, Iraq (Nov. 1, 2004) -- A rifle-mounted scope designed to enhance enemy visibility on the battlefield saved the life of a Marine during a Sept. 17 firefight on the outskirts of Fallujah, but not the way intended. Sgt. Todd B. Bowers, a member of the 4th Civil Affairs Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force, spotted enemy snipers during a security patrol outside the restive town of Fallujah. While returning fire, a sniper-fired round hit Bowers’ advanced combat optical gun site, mounted on his M-16A2 service rifle. Fragmentation from both the ACOG and the bullet were peppered across the left...

Iraq's government yesterday offered the leaders of rebel-held Fallujah a "last" chance to negotiate as an American military commander described the city as a cancer that had to be dealt with. Iyad Allawi, the Iraqi prime minister, indicated that time was fast running out for those who were harbouring insurgents there. "This chance could be the last," he said in a statement, imploring "the leaders and notables of Fallujah to use it to find a political solution". But with military preparations at an advanced stage and American officials suggesting a major offensive could begin next week, there appeared little hope...

1st Radio Battalion trains, supports WTISubmitted by: MCAS YumaStory Identification #: 2004101517341Story by Cpl. Michael Nease Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz. (Oct. 14, 2004) -- A detachment of 16 Marines from 1st Radio Battalion, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., is here supporting Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course 2-05 and getting practical application training on their equipment and role in the aviation side of the Marine Corps war-fighting machine. "Not many people know much about us," said 2nd Lt. Devin Phillabaum, the officer in charge of the detachment. When people hear 'radio,' they often think 'communications,' Phillabaum said....

  Iraqi Construction Apprentice Program Continues Story Number: NNS041001-11Release Date: 10/1/2004 4:04:00 PMFrom 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Engineer Group Public AffairsAL ANBAR PROVINCE, Iraq (NNS) -- Members of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 14 began the second round of teaching construction skills to Iraqi youth in the Iraqi Construction Apprentice Program (ICAP) in July. The ICAP program is designed to take 14- to 25-year-old Iraqi students and teach them enough basic construction to get a job in their local communities. “This is what we came here to do, to help the Iraqi people,” said one of the new instructors,...

Two Marines awarded Bronze Star for counter-ambush Submitted by: MCB Camp Pendleton Story Identification #: 2004923193850 Story by Lance Cpl. Samuel B. Valliere MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Sept. 23, 2004) -- One Marine carried on a relentless, one-armed fight. Another is credited with spearheading a counterattack that left an estimated 30 insurgents dead. Their tenacious response to an enemy ambush last spring near Fallujah, Iraq, earned them the Bronze Star Medal, awarded Friday in a ceremony at Camp Margarita. According to command accounts, Sgt. Eric Kocher and Staff Sgt. Dan Lalota fought valiantly enough to merit the U.S....

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four U.S. Marines were killed in three separate incidents west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Saturday. The four were assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and were killed Friday while conducting security operations in Anbar province, the military said. No further details were provided. The names of the dead were withheld pending notification of their families. As of Friday, Sept. 24, 2004, 1,042 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to the Defense Department. Of those, 792 died as a result of hostile action....

 I MEF's new unmanned aerial vehicleSubmitted by: I Marine Expeditionary ForceStory Identification #: 200482664828Story by Sgt. Robert E. Jones Sr. CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Aug. 26, 2004) -- Two of the top leaders in the Marine Corps came to Camp Fallujah to see I Marine Expeditionary Force’s new “eyes in the sky.” The Assistant commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Spyder Nyland and Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps. Sgt. Maj. John L. Estrada viewed a demonstration of the Scan Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle, August 23 at I MEF intelligence headquarters. “The Scan Eagle is a low-cost, long-endurance fully autonomous...