TwinMom7
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Marines Stay Busy While Awaiting Relocation Orders
WAR ON IRAQ: DESERT DISPATCH
By FRED DODD
A Marine Corps Cobra attack helicopter provides overhead security for Engineer Company B, the South Bend-based Marine Reserve unit, during a convoy in Iraq.
Tribune Photo/FRED DODD
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CAMP ANDERSON, Iraq -- The South Bend Marine Corps Reserve unit's expected move north was postponed Friday, but the Marines prepared to move soon to a location much closer to Baghdad.
On a day temperatures reached 105 degrees in the shade -- what little there is -- the Marines of Engineer Company B managed to stay busy. A group of leathernecks helped with another civil affairs mission. Others convoyed south to Camp Viper to bring more heavy equipment north. And others packed supplies and loaded trucks.
When a civil affairs team went to talk with a local farmer just a few miles north of Camp Anderson, South Bend Marines provided security. They also went along as the civil affairs team returned a truckload of farm workers who had been in custody to the farm area where they worked. The group of about 15 Iraqi men smiled and waved as they left the convoy with cases of food and supplies the civil affairs team had provided.
The convoy to Camp Viper had gone south Thursday and returned Friday afternoon. Sgt. Bryan Chevrie, 24, of South Bend, said the trip to Camp Viper was successful but uneventful.
"We convoyed down to pick up several dump trucks and some Marines who were still down there," he said. "We didn't see any enemy along the way, and we got everything back here safely."
Just across the highway from Company B is a Navy surgical company with a hospital complete with operating room, emergency room, X-ray capabilities, a pharmacy and even a dental unit.
Medivac helicopters fly in and out at all hours. Since the fighting began at Saddam International Airport, which the U.S. has renamed Baghdad International Airport, the number of incoming helicopters appears to be rising.
Company B's senior Navy corpsman, Hospitalman 3rd Class Scott Roth, 22, of Chicago, assisted at the hospital for a while Thursday.
"They had just brought in three Marines," he said. "One was shot in the shoulder, another through the knee," Roth said. He said the two seemed to be in good spirits and were having a conversation.
But the other Marine wasn't so lucky.
"I watched as one doctor worked on him, then another, before realizing he was gone," Roth said. "He was only 18."
WAR ON IRAQ: DESERT DISPATCH
By FRED DODD
A Marine Corps Cobra attack helicopter provides overhead security for Engineer Company B, the South Bend-based Marine Reserve unit, during a convoy in Iraq.
Tribune Photo/FRED DODD
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CAMP ANDERSON, Iraq -- The South Bend Marine Corps Reserve unit's expected move north was postponed Friday, but the Marines prepared to move soon to a location much closer to Baghdad.
On a day temperatures reached 105 degrees in the shade -- what little there is -- the Marines of Engineer Company B managed to stay busy. A group of leathernecks helped with another civil affairs mission. Others convoyed south to Camp Viper to bring more heavy equipment north. And others packed supplies and loaded trucks.
When a civil affairs team went to talk with a local farmer just a few miles north of Camp Anderson, South Bend Marines provided security. They also went along as the civil affairs team returned a truckload of farm workers who had been in custody to the farm area where they worked. The group of about 15 Iraqi men smiled and waved as they left the convoy with cases of food and supplies the civil affairs team had provided.
The convoy to Camp Viper had gone south Thursday and returned Friday afternoon. Sgt. Bryan Chevrie, 24, of South Bend, said the trip to Camp Viper was successful but uneventful.
"We convoyed down to pick up several dump trucks and some Marines who were still down there," he said. "We didn't see any enemy along the way, and we got everything back here safely."
Just across the highway from Company B is a Navy surgical company with a hospital complete with operating room, emergency room, X-ray capabilities, a pharmacy and even a dental unit.
Medivac helicopters fly in and out at all hours. Since the fighting began at Saddam International Airport, which the U.S. has renamed Baghdad International Airport, the number of incoming helicopters appears to be rising.
Company B's senior Navy corpsman, Hospitalman 3rd Class Scott Roth, 22, of Chicago, assisted at the hospital for a while Thursday.
"They had just brought in three Marines," he said. "One was shot in the shoulder, another through the knee," Roth said. He said the two seemed to be in good spirits and were having a conversation.
But the other Marine wasn't so lucky.
"I watched as one doctor worked on him, then another, before realizing he was gone," Roth said. "He was only 18."
