The Marine Corps’ footprint in Afghanistan is changing dramatically as a drawdown in forces continues throughout the summer. The latest changes include a shift in central Helmand province in which one infantry battalion — 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. — is distributed across Marjah, Nawa, and several other districts, with Afghan forces taking a leading role. Second Battalion, 9th Marines, and 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, both out of Lejeune, left the battlefield recently and were not replaced. The Corps also has realigned all remaining infantry units to fall under Regimental Combat Team 6, out of Camp…
Browsing: Nawa
The Ready Battalion is back in action. Second Battalion, 6th Marines, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., has replaced 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, in Afghanistan and is now patrolling Nawa district in central Helmand. Its a mission that will likely be complicated by the Corps’ pending drawdown in Afghanistan — Nawa is one of the next three districts in Helmand in which the security has been identified for transition this spring to Afghan control. The Walking Dead of 1/9 were formally replaced by 2/6 in a ceremony at Forward Operating Base Geronimo late last month, but were still in theater through…
Odds are, many of the Walking Dead are dead bored. That’s the reality of deploying with a Marine unit in an area that has largely been pacified. First Battalion, 9th Marines, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., must remain on its toes, but it is deployed in Nawa, Afghanistan, a community that has been highlighted by many experts as an example of success in the war in Afghanistan. Nawa first showed substantial signs of improvement last summer, even as neighboring Marjah district remained a volatile area in which Marines fought for their lives daily. They’re both widely considered to be in…
It looks like the force laydown as we know it in Helmand province, Afghanistan, is evolving. As pointed out in this Marine Corps news release, forces with 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, are now operating out of northwestern Marjah, the former Taliban stronghold that Marine forces assaulted in February 2010. The Island Warriors have forces based at Combat Outpost Yazzie, a patrol base that Battle Rattle readers will remember from my May 2010 embed downrange. That means there’s plenty of catching up to do on which Marine units are based where in Helmand. Last summer,…
Last week during an interview with Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, the outgoing Marine commander of Regional Command-Southwest, I asked for his thoughts on something hanging over everyone’s head in Afghanistan: The planned drawdown of U.S. forces. It was the kind of question I asked because it’s what people in my job are supposed to do, even though there’s an understanding he couldn’t answer it directly. Here were his thoughts: That decision will be made at a level much above mine. The way I see it, there will be a thinning out, a gradual reduction of coalition forces within a given area…
Sometimes, Battle Rattle aims to take on big-time issues. We cover the hardships that grunts face downrange, for example, or we offer a tip of the cap to heroes no longer with us. This is not one of those blog entries. Nope, this time I simply want to say the following: Dude, that’s a pretty cool photo of a Marine and a camel.
Two more infantry battalions have completed their deployments to Afghanistan and were replaced in theater with fresh troops from Marine Corps Base Hawaii and Calif., Marine officials said. Second Battalion, 1st Marines, out of Pendleton, replaced 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. Marines with 2/1 will be based in Garmser, Afghanistan, a district that made strides in security during 3/1’s deployment. Similarly, Hawaii’s 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, will replace its sister battalion 3/3 in Nawa district. It could be somewhat of a transitional deployment, considering Marines there have begun shifting control of some bases to Afghan forces. The district is considered perhaps…
For months, Marine leaders in Afghanistan have cited the district of Nawa as an example of what the Marine Corps can accomplish in Helmand province. Home to about 80,000 people along the Helmand River, it has improving security and a stability that is still sorely lacking in other districts. Now, with the traditional Afghan fighting season coming to a close, the Corps is beginning to transfer bases in Nawa to Afghan control, the Washington Post’s Rajiv Chandrasekaran reported yesterday. It’s the first district in Helmand in which it has been possible since a buildup of forces began last December. The move…
Not long after I first started at Military Times, I had a conversation with a colleague, Andrew Tilghman, about a particular memory he had of an embedded assignment in Iraq. Covering Army operations in violent Mahmudiyah in 2006, he had several striking conversations with Army Pfc. Steven Green, who offered a simple statement: “I came over here to kill people.” Tilghman, not yet employed by Military Times at the time, later wrote about the encounter for the Washington Post. The memory became especially vivid after Green was convicted of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, then killing her and her family.…
