sure my ballistic shield was clear and my
weapon was good to go. That’s all I had
on my mind. As long as that was good,
I’m good.”
These were the first 24th MEU Marines leaving the wire, and Hudson was
in front.
“It is extra scary because you are the
first one who sees everything,” he said.
“Visibility is bad; there is dust, especially
for the gunner. You have no windows, no
shields; you just have to take it all in and
look out for these guys [insurgents].”
Hudson was searching the vast Afghan
desert for everything and anything.
“I had like super hearing and super
sight,” he said.
This was different from every other humvee ride Hudson had ever been a part of …
this was real. “It’s your life! Back there
[home], no one is shooting at you,” he
said, explaining his amplified awareness.
But he is here, not “back there,” and his
vision is essential for more than just himself. “I’m the eyes for the whole convoy.
I’m the first one, so I’ve got to look out
for anyone on the side of the road, IEDs,
potholes and wires.
“Man, there are too many potholes,” he
quipped, still feeling the bruises from
being tossed around.
Hudson’s vantage point allowed him to
view the terrain, scanning for danger, but
that’s not what he saw.
“At first it’s like, you’ve got ears and
eyes and all you are thinking about is
bombs, guns, enemy, enemy, enemy; when
you see those kids you are like wow. It
changes your mind, but you have to stay
focused no matter what,” Hudson said.
While officially named mission 001 and
002, the Marines of BLT 1/6 hesitate to use
a word that conjures memories of their
firefights inside of Iraq’s worst neighborhoods. So the name might be a misnomer,
but delve deeper into the psyche of these
men and you find that putting boots to
ground, or in this case powder-thin dust,
is an important threshold to cross.
Week after week, more Marines arrived
at the base. More Marines waited for the
call from their commander, ordering the
start of operations. When the time came
for the first contingent of Marines to
break from the weapons maintenance, acclimation hikes and rules of engagement
classes, the question of if they wanted to
go never came up—this is what Marines
do. They were going.
“Today was just a test fire of 240s and
50-cal. [machine guns],” said First Lieutenant Micah Steinpfad, Executive Officer, Company A, BLT 1/6, 24th MEU,
ISAF.
Steinpfad is cautious about calling this
a mission. It would be unthinkable to com-
www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck
RAMADI, IRAQ
CPL JEREM Y M. GIACOMINO
CHECKPOINTS BETWEEN SIPS—Cpl Gary L. Jackson, “Golf” Company, 2d Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment, takes a drink of water from his back-packed hydration system while patrolling Iraqi
police checkpoints April 3. He and his fellow leathernecks assess the condition of the area and
create working relations with the citizenry.
pare this to the hornet’s nest these Marines walked into during their last deployment to Iraq, but this was the first chance
for his Marines to get outside the camp.
“The more you can push Marines out,
get them talking to the local people, the
more they start to comprehend what is actually going on out here. The closer they
get to the enemy and civilian populations,
two very different things, I think the more
real this becomes … the more real their
sacrifice becomes,” he explained.
As the Marines rolled out to the range,
they got a firsthand look at the Afghanistan countryside and instantly compared
it to their predeployment training.
“At first it was kind of nerve-racking, I
mean you get all this IED training on
what can be hidden. There was a lot of
trash, so lots of places to hide stuff. [My]
imagination was kind of running wild,”
said Lance Corporal Erick Harber, humvee driver.
Harber, in enemy territory for the first
time, realized that all the training in the
world couldn’t prepare him for the flour-like dust that covers the country.
“When we were back at Camp Lejeune
[N.C.], we were rehearsing and stuff, but
you don’t get the dust you get here. … It’s
tough, and your mind is a lot more active,” he recounted.
CPL ALEX C. GUERRA
A forward observer from BLT 1/6, 24th MEU pinpoints a target on his new Target Location, Designation and
Hand-off System, called the Strikelink, during live fire at a mortar range in Kandahar province. The MEU is
limbering up as it prepares for the rugged environment of Afghanistan.
