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'America's Battalion' Scours Area for Weapons

by Lance Cpl. Erik Villagran

Marines from 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment are reaching into every nook and cranny to get weapons out of the hands of insurgents.

Lance Cpl. Brian R. Angulo, a 19-year-old combat engineer from Redding, Calif., attached to Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5, searches a berm in Gharmah Dec. 15. Combat engineers and Marines from Weapons Company searched throughout the city for weapons caches. They found a total of four caches and destroyed them all. (photo by Lance Cpl. Erik Villagran)

Marines from Weapons Company assisted combat engineers in searching for weapons caches throughout Gharmah. They searched for two days from dawn to sunset, unearthing stockpiles of insurgent weapons.

"Cache sweeps are huge," said Cpl. Stephen P. McLaughlin, a 23-year-old squad leader from Brockton, Mass. "Hopefully with what we found here there will be less insurgent activity. Our platoon provided security on the ground for the engineers to walk through with metal detectors."

They convoyed to the area they planned to search, and the platoon commander divided his Marines up to ensure every engineer had security. Security was necessary for everyone because of the history of insurgent activity in the area.

"Security is important because the engineers don't have a set path," McLaughlin said. "Anticipation was high. The area was close to where one of our Marines was hit."

Grunts led the way as engineers directed them where to go. They stayed alert, searching every direction for a possible threat.

"We know what the engineers are looking to search," said Lance Cpl. Patrick W. O' Callahan, a 19-year-old rifleman from Greeneville, N.C. "If there's anything suspicious, we'll jump ahead and search it."

They jumped ahead on more than one occasion to search suspicious vehicles or homes. Marines faced different types of terrain as well as the enemy threat.

"We had a lot of terrain features to work around," said Lance Cpl. Kyle K. Salmon, a 19-year-old rifleman from Dover, Del. "We got the job done, though."

Marines stomped through ankle-deep mud, splashed through water and jumped across canals. They didn't let anything keep them from searching every inch of their area.

Their hard work paid off throughout the day. They found and destroyed four weapons caches. Their findings included anti-aircraft rounds and large amounts of machine gun ammunition.

"It feels good to find the caches," Salmon said. "It takes care of part of the insurgency. It takes weapons that could potentially hurt Marines and Coalition Forces."

Marines were pleased with how the searches went. They took some contraband out of insurgents' hands and made the streets safer for them to travel on.

"There is stuff buried out here that will take years to find," McLaughlin said. "Every little bit counts, though. It may be the little bit we found today that will make the difference tomorrow."

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