Another update
I hadn’t realized it had been so long since my last post. It doesn’t seem like the memorial service was that long ago. Chris Pate’s team was pulled off the line and a new team arrived to support 2d Battalion. The new team leader, Chris D., is actually a friend from my first deployment to Iraq in 2003. He is a fellow VMI alumnus, although he graduated several years before I started the Ratline. Chris was in charge of the artillery liaison section that was attached to my infantry battalion for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.



The old MTT team was replaced at the end of July by a new team that is drawn largely from 3d Battalion 2d Marines, another infantry battalion from Camp Lejeune. It’s been an interesting transition for my ANGLICO team, we had built a pretty solid rapport with the old MTT team and it’s taking time to develop that same relationship with the new guys. The new team leader was one of my instructors at the Infantry Officer Course, and we’ve played enough of the “Marine Corps Six Degrees of Separation” game with the other Marines on the team to find some common ground. For those who don’t know, the Marine Corps is, at around 180,000 strong, an incredibly small place. If you talk to another Marine long enough, you can guarantee that the two of you will both know someone who knows someone who knows someone… you get the point. Anyway, there have been some rough spots, but we’re starting to develop that same rapport with the new team.



Before the old team left, the Iraqis had a large outdoor dinner for the outbound advisors. A photographer from the New York Times was present, and took quite a few pictures. There was a genuine sense of camaraderie between the Iraqi officers and the advisors at the dinner, as we all traded jokes and banter in broken Arabic and English. The Iraqis gave each of the outbound advisors a gift, and after dinner the Iraqis and Marines posed for pictures with one another. What a unique experience, something that most of the Marines and soldiers who serve in Iraq will never know.



Thankfully the IEDs in our area have quieted down a bit over the last month. There was a period in late June and early July where we had around one a day. We lost several jundi during that period, unfortunately, and had two advisors wounded by separate attacks on the same day. Both Marines received minor injuries, a broken arm for one and a concussion for the other, but it was enough that they had to be sent back to the States. Now IEDs are a fairly rare occurrence, which has soothed our nerves a bit. There are several reasons for the reduction in attacks, and I won’t get into them, but suffice it to say that the Iraqi Army can claim quite a bit of the credit for themselves.


An Iraqi Army Humvee that was damaged by an IED in early June

Well, that’s all I have for now. To the guys from MTT 3/5, I hope you get home safely and enjoy your post-deployment leave.

34 and a wakeup.  ¶ Sunday, August 13, 2006