Story and images by LtCol Kurt Wheeler, USMCR
One of many elements
within the turnaround
promoted by the
Marine Corps and its
U.S. Military companions
is a rekindling of
relations with sheiks
and tribal leaders.
LtCol Harold C. VanOpdorp, commander of 1/24 (above left), listens intently to a Fallujah-area sheik throughout a gathering of native leaders, and a schoolboy (above proper) waves the Iraqi flag throughout a medical help effort close to Ramadi. The Marines should strike a stability when reinforcing the democratically elected leaders and guaranteeing the normal function of the sheiks so {that a} sense of nation is cultivated among the many Iraqis.
18 LEATHERNECK OCTOBER 2007
After 4 years of going toe to toe with a relentless enemy who appeared to re-emerge in a single space after defeat in one other, Marines throughout Iraq’s Al Anbar province are going through an unfamiliar state of affairs—sustained success. For greater than a 12 months, U.S. Marine and Military items in Multi-Nationwide Pressure-West (MNF-W) have been constructing on a string of optimistic developments which might be including as much as enhanced safety and stability in probably the most difficult areas of Iraq.
Whereas Congress and the American public have shifted their consideration to the Baghdad space, anxiously measuring the affect of the “surge,” U.S. Marines have achieved regular progress in western Iraq. The Marines’ space of operations (AO), Al Anbar province, has been probably the most violent and lethal elements of the nation throughout a lot of the struggle. Considered one of Iraq’s 18 provinces, its 53,000 sq. miles (in regards to the dimension of North Carolina) comprise lower than 10 % of Iraq’s inhabitants, but it surely has accounted for almost one-third of the U.S. fatalities through the struggle. This pattern has reversed over the previous six months, as assaults and casualties have declined. Suc-
cess is being solid by younger Marines and noncommissioned officers.
Sergeant William J. Chesak could also be typical of the “satan canines” at present on the tip of the spear for the Marine Corps. Throughout his 2006-07 tour in Iraq with Firm A, 1st Battalion, Sixth Marine Regiment (his third fight tour since enlisting in 2003), this younger squad chief from Centreville, Va., witnessed a change in his firm’s space of operations in central Ramadi. His sector, which had been probably the most violent within the provincial capital, a metropolis of 400,000 alongside the Euphrates River, has seen regular enchancment.
The sergeant described his mission as securing areas within the metropolis to permit the Iraqi police (IP) and troopers to take management. Whereas this process was sophisticated by the problem of successful the belief of native residents subjected to instability and intense violence, he however noticed dramatic progress. Chesak mentioned, “It’s a totally new life for them; they’re very appreciative of it.”
Through the early levels of Operation Iraqi Freedom, former regime components and al-Qaida-led overseas fighters, each