NEWS

WIRES

OTHER

Marines Trek Uncharted Space During Operation Mars' Lance

by Cpl. Ray Lewis

Infantry Marines of L Company 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment went where no Marine has ever gone before during Operation Mars' Lance here Dec. 12.

Cpl. Jae-Te Starks provides cover for his fellow Marines during Operation Mars' Lance in Julayba, Iraq, Dec 12. Starks and other Marines assigned to L Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment were in the area to protect innocent Iraqis who were terrorized by insurgents. Marines fought and killed insurgents there and found a massive weapons cache. Starks, 22, is a team leader from Alexandria, Va. All the Marines are currently serving a seven-month deployment in the Habbaniyah, Iraq, area under Regimental Combat Team 5. (photo by Cpl. Ray Lewis)

"There hadn't been any Coalition Forces in the area for a while," said Sgt. Joshua W. Simonson, a squad leader with L Company.

Marines pushed into regions west of Habbaniyah that's seen little-to-no Coalition presence. They trekked into the area to fight insurgents, denying the anti-Iraqi Forces any safe haven, said Simonson, 23, a rifleman from Bellingham, Mass.

And they found a fight.

"We were sent up by a river for re-supply when insurgents opened up," Simonson said. "We fired back for a good 50 minutes or so."

The insurgents couldn't compete with the Marines.

"We showed the insurgents were cowards," McConnell said.

Marines soon had the insurgents cornered.

"Then it was over," said Cpl. Anthony R. Sandoval, 22, a squad leader from Henderson Nev.

The leathernecks' treacherous threat headed for death when Marine air support sent in bombs. The entire enemy was destroyed. Now, Marines could focus on searching the rest of the rural area.

"We found a great number of improvised explosive devices, ordnance, weapons caches and rocket-propelled grenades," Simonson said.

Simonson's company found an out-of-this-world weapons cache

L Company discovered ammunition cans, bags of rocket propellant, speed-bump improvised containers, propane-tank IEDs, AK-47 assault rifles, sticks of TNT, RPGs, mortars, high-explosive projectiles with detonation cord in fuse wells, projectile fuses, electric blasting caps and surface-to-air missiles, explained Lance Cpl. Michael P. Bonner, 21, an intelligence specialist who was attached to L Company at the time.

"It was a big hit on the insurgency," Bonner said. "It answered a lot of questions on weapons and tactics that the insurgents were using."

The cache will help Marines locate targets around the area and gain more knowledge of their capabilities and weapons systems, Bonner said.

"The Marines who found the cache helped save lives of Marines in the future and make the area safer for the Iraqi locals," Bonner added.

Then when it was all clear, Marines also took time to visit with the villagers.

"The people were nice, but they were just scared of the insurgents in the area," Simonson said.

Still, the Iraqi people welcomed the Marines with open arms.

"We'd go in and use houses as over watch," Simonson said. "They'd cook, make tea. They were very nice, very hospitable."

The Iraqis were there for the Marines, so Marines will be here protecting the innocent Iraqi people.

"We got a lot done," said Navy Seaman Douglas M. Watkins, 20, a hospital corpsman assigned to L Company, who is also from Delta, Pa. "We found caches, took out insurgents and cleaned high-traveled roads and made some friends out of it too."

judythpiazza@gmail.com