Marine Corps News Room

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b5_5deploy-1rmay31,0,6966451.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed

By Daniel Patrick Sheehan
Of The Morning Call

An area Marine Reserve unit departs today for North Carolina to begin training that will culminate in an imposing mission: security detail at an American military base in one of Iraq's most volatile provinces.

The Reading-based unit — Battery I, 3rd Battalion, 14th Marines — is an artillery battery, but will be trained over the next several months for a host of new duties: among them, securing the military convoys that frequently are targeted by the improvised bombs of the insurgency.

About 150 Marines, including many from the Lehigh Valley, will train at bases in North Carolina and California prior to their rotation in Iraq's Anbar province, which is expected to begin in late summer and last seven months. The unit has deployed to the Middle East once before, assisting the liberation of Kuwait in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

''I am anxious and ready to serve my country,'' said Cpl. Michael Walsh of Fogelsville, 25, who started working as a state trooper in April and will soon patrol far more dangerous highways in Iraq's desert heat. Inspired to enlist after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Walsh said he and his fellow Marines are ''ramped up'' for their first overseas assignment.

''They just want to get over there and serve their country,'' said Walsh, who is based at the state police barracks in Fogelsville.

Anbar, a desert area in the west of the country, has been a hotbed of insurgent activity. About 1,500 American troops were moved to the province from Kuwait this week to help with security in the fledgling days of Iraq's new permanent government.

Gunnery Sgt. Michael Weber of Northampton, a 19-year Marine veteran inspired to enlist by a recruitment commercial aired during an early 1980s Super Bowl, was part of the battery's 1991 Gulf War deployment. He has already begun instructing his fellow Marines in what to expect.

''The temperatures go upward of 115, 120 degrees every day,'' said Weber, 38. ''You have a lot of gear with you, 40 or 50 pounds. You need to be in good physical shape, which of course these guys are.''

Walsh is single, but Weber will leave behind his wife and three children, ages 9, 6 and 3. The silver lining to deployment these days is that communication is immensely more sophisticated than in earlier wars. A letter will reach a soldier in less than a week, compared to two to three weeks or more during the Gulf War. Troops also have access to e-mail and instant messaging. Those technologies weren't available 15 years ago.

Maj. Jim Thomas, the battery's peacetime wartime support officer in charge, said he and other battery personnel will remain in Reading to assist reservists' families.

''That's a very important issue,'' Thomas said. ''If the Marines know their families are taken care of, they'll be able to concentrate fully on the mission at hand.''