American Infidel

By Jennifer Hlad

I got a new press release from the MEU today.
The Marines are still working to clear routes in Helmand province; however, they noted that everyone is supporting those operations, but not every Marine from the MEU is actually in Helmand province.
Here are some of the key developments they noted:

The Marines have discovered 9 caches. The caches contained variations of mines, rocket propelled grenades, mortars, and IED making materials.

Marines have identified and control detonated 4 IEDs.

The Marines have discovered and destroyed several fortified enemy positions.

On two occasions, Afghan citizens brought children to the Marines for medical treatment. The Marines provided medical care for and evacuated two children: one was an 11 year-old boy with abdominal wounds which his father said was inflicted by insurgents and one was a child with third degree burns from boiling water.

Leading up to operations in Garmsir, the Marines successfully ran more than 20 convoys up to distances of 100 miles. This was done across a land riddled with mines, IEDs and hostile terrain.

“The insurgents are finding that every time they engage with the Marines, they lose,” said Col. Peter Petronzio, commander of the 24th MEU. “The Marines are gaining ground every day and secure more of the routes through the district. The support we have received from our allied partners has contributed to our many successes thus far.”

Photos taken by Cpl. Andrew Carlson and Cpl. Alex Guerra

  

     

I bought a manly looking journal for my nephew who is deployed in Afghanistan in Helmand province. I'm having people write in it their encouragements and appreciation for his service. If you would like to write some encouraging words for him, please feel free to do so. I'll print them off and paste your words in his journal. You can write something long or short. It's up to you. I'll be sending this journal to his wife Monday, May 21st so she, his family there and his friends can write in it. Then she will send it to him.

Please know your words matter. I've started several of these journals. One was for a National Guardsmen who was getting very discouraged by all of the false media reports about Iraq. He actually told me "I will treasure this always." I gave him his journal when he came home on RR. He took it back to Iraq with him and he said he read it all the time.

Another one I started for a Marine from my community that was injured badly in Iraq. I did not know this man, and I only seen him once but never talked with him. However I did meet his mom, and to this day I'll never forget her words of thankfulness. Anyway I took his journal with me everywhere I went and I asked everyone I came in contact with if they wanted to write in it. Many people wanted to and did. He's had several surgeries and is still recovering. This was about a year and half ago. When I took the journal to his mom, she welcomed it in tears. A couple of days ago I seen her and she seen a journal in my hand and wanted to know what it was for and I told her. She was the first person to write in it.

Her son, his wife and their baby moved to California right after I got the journal to him. So I never met him or his family. But...his mom told me "He said that journal made a big difference in his life. It helped him in his recovery and he still reads it." I did not know that until a few days ago.

So please know all of your encouraging words matter!

If you want your full name with your words but are not comfortable with your name on the internet, you can send your words encouragement to me by private message here on Vox.

To all of you who do participate in this, I want to tell you up front "You're doing a great service for one who is doing a great service for you and for this country."

I'd also like to encourage you to do the same for any of our troops and/or their wives/families. Their service is of great honor as well.

Thank you so much
Twana

This is a good article found at The Captain's Journal

After sitting idle mired in NATO bureaucratic red tape for six weeks, the U.S. Marines have finally been deployed into the Helmand Province where they have targeted a Taliban stronghold town called Garmser.

US Marines pushed into a stronghold of extremist Taliban resistance in southernmost Afghanistan Tuesday in their first major operation since deploying to Afghanistan last month …

Garmser in southern Helmand is an area of difficult desert terrain that extends down to the Pakistan border across which Taliban reinforcements and weapons are said to arrive to enter a growing insurgency.

Soldiers with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based in the neighbouring province of Kandahar, were airlifted into forward bases in the area last week or moved in on convoys, ISAF said.

From there they launched the operation named Azada Wosa, which means Be Free in the Pashtu language of southern and eastern Afghanistan …

Military officials say Helmand is a nest of hardcore Taliban fighters supported by international Islamic “jihadists” and the centre of Afghanistan’s booming opium and heroin trade.

But for reasons recommended by The Captain’s Journal in October of 2007, the Marines aren’t after poppy according to Major Tom Clinton.

The Marines are entering an area lush with opium poppies. The Marines don’t want to antagonize the local population by joining U.S.-backed efforts to destroy the crop. “We’re not coming to eradicate poppy,” Clinton says. “We’re coming to clear the Taliban.”

The town of Garmser has been under the control of Taliban fighters who have been expecting a fight for some time.

The Taliban presence in Garmser has been a running sore for British forces for the past year, but British commanders have not previously had the combat forces available to push the Taliban out.

The Taliban claims to have several hundred fighters in the area, with prepared bunkers and tunnel complexes that have proved resistant to frequent Western aerial bombing raids.

The Telegraph was able to interview two Taliban commanders operating in the Garmserarea last month, who said they expected to resist any assault by Western forces.

“It will be really difficult for the British,” said Mullah Ghafour, not his real name. “We have 20 kilometres depth of defences, with all kinds of mines. They have tried before to push us back. In Garmser it is a face to face fight.”

But the Taliban are facing the U.S. Marines, many of whom are veterans of the Anbar Province.  Being dug in is not helping the Taliban, who lost their command center today. Read the rest of this article here.

Coalition Forces Capture 13 Militants, Disrupt Insurgency
Wed, 7 May 2008 12:00:00 -0500

U.S. soldier Stephen Phillips, serving in Afghanistan, gave his parents a serious scare when he accidentally called his home from his cellphone during an intense firefight with insurgents. Phillips' cellphone got pressed against his Humvee, causing it to redial the previous number. Sandie Petee, Phillips' mother, and her husband Jeff, were not home, but their answering machine recorded three minutes of the battle (from Fox 12 Oregon):

They heard shooting, swearing and shouted pleas for more ammunition on the phone call from their son.

"They were pinned down and apparently his barrel was overheating," said Jeff Petee. "It's something a parent really doesn't want to hear. It's a heck of a message to get from your son in Afghanistan."

The three-minute call ended abruptly.

"You could hear him saying stuff like, he needs more ammo, or he needs another barrel," said John Petee, Phillips' brother. "At the end, you could hear a guy saying 'Incoming! RPG!' And then it cut off..."

...They eventually reached their son.

Listen to the firefight