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AMARAH, Iraq -- The Marines of Charlie Company did not sleep well Monday night. The next day's mission was their most serious yet -- a probable tank battle with an Iraqi armored division in this city on the Tigris River. That night and the next morning, many Marines talked openly about the possibility of dying. At dawn Tuesday, the company rolled out, a vanguard of a task force planning to attack the Iraqi tanks. But not much goes according to plan these days, and that's not always such a bad thing. When the convoy approached this alleged enemy stronghold, the...

SOMEWHERE SOUTH OF BAGHDAD -- Finally, after eight days in Nasiriyah, the call came to move north. "Goodbye, VietNas -- one town conquered by Charlie Company, many more to come," said Pfc. Christopher Daniels, 20, of Pikeville, Ky., as the Marines headed out at dawn Wednesday. But any relief the Marines felt leaving Nasiriyah in their dust was ripped from them just outside town when tragedy struck, handing Charlie Company its first casualty of the war. As the convoy rumbled up a highway, a Marine was electrocuted when he grabbed a low-hanging power line to lift it out of the...

From: Press Service By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, March 29, 2003 -- The remains of American troops have been discovered in southern Iraq near where paramilitary forces loyal to Saddam Hussein have been accused by the Pentagon of executing U.S. service members after they'd surrendered. U.S. Central Command spokesman Air Force Maj. Gen. Victor Renuart told reporters today in Qatar of the situation developing in the vicinity of Nasiriyah. He said a U.S. mortuary affairs team is en route to the site. He said he couldn't tell reporters whether the remains belonged to troops who'd been...

Chemical weapons stored near capital, captured Iraqi claims By Mark Oliva, Stars and Stripes European edition, Saturday, March 29, 2003 SOUTHERN IRAQ — An Iraqi soldier captured in the battle for An Nasiriyah claims that Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons are stored closer to Baghdad. The soldier, a major, was captured by members of the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment. The battalion is part of Task Force Tarawa, which has been fighting in An Nasiriyah for nearly a week. Marines briefly interrogated the 35-year-old soldier when he and another soldier surrendered along the highway into the city, said Capt. Aaron Robertson,...

<p>NEAR NASIRIYA, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. Marines Friday recovered the bodies of seven fallen comrades who died in intense fighting around Nasiriya in southern Iraqi Sunday, officials said.</p> <p>The city has been the scene of the fiercest fighting the Marine Corps has been involved in since Vietnam, senior Marines told CNN, and still is not under coalition control five days after coalition forces first engaged Iraqi paramilitaries.</p>

CAMP RYAN, Kuwait(March 13, 2003) -- Whenever the fighting units of Task Force Tarawa, based out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., need something to help them fight the enemy, they call just one group of Marines - combat service support. A 'jack of all trades,' Combat Service Support Battalion-22 provides the fighting units of Task Force Tarawa with everything they need to complete the mission. "We provide four basic things to Marine units here at CSSB-22," said Lt. Col. Thomas N. Goben, commanding officer, CSSB-22. The Rogers, Ark. native continued "they are food and water for the Marines and Sailors,...