Local Marines destined for Iraq
Four Eastern Upper Peninsula men are part of a group of 200 U.S. Marine Reserves making their last visit to Michigan before being deployed into the Iraq conflict.
“We've been training in California since June 1,” said LCpl. Jacob Green of Sugar Island regarding his unit - Bravo Company First Battalion/24th Marines out of Saginaw.
http://www.sooeveningnews.com/articles/2006/08/03/news/news881.txt
By SCOTT BRAND/The Evening News
SAULT STE. MARIE
“Then we'll be in ‘The Sandbox',” added LCpl. Mike Ferraro of Sault Ste. Marie.
Two other members of the unit - LCpl. Rudolph Mendoza of Newberry and PFC Rand Litzner of St. Ignace - were also back home. Their hectic schedules preventing them from visiting The Evening News' offices on Wednesday.
All four will head back to California on Monday.
The mobilization or pre-deployment training will continue for another month or so before this unit is sent to Iraq sometime in mid-September. Green and Ferraro both indicated they were looking forward to deployment.
“They still need our help over there,” Green explained.
The four Eastern Upper Peninsula men will be able to draw on the experience of their battalion cohorts since this is the second time this particular unit has been deployed to the Middle East. In 2002, the U.S. Marine Reserve Unit out of Saginaw was deployed to Kuwait, where it spent months guarding a base.
“We've got great leadership,” said Ferraro of his superiors.
With training going on in Camp Horno - a place inside the larger confines of Camp Pendleton - the pair said they have spoken to many returning soldiers in recent weeks.
“We've talked to other people, and they'll say every place in Iraq is different,” said Green, adding there does not appear to be any consistency even in the same place. “It changes constantly.”
Ferraro indicated the important message he takes away for these discussions is a simple one: “Don't get complacent.”
Green, a 2004 graduate of Sault High, is the lead gunner for a three-man mortar team. The 60 mm mortars are capable of striking a target more than two miles away.
Ferraro, also a 2004 Sault High graduate, is part of a four-man fire team and carries 90 percent of the firepower for his group as a sawgunner.
Litzner, from the description of his buddies is a gunner, while Mendoza is classified as an assault man.
The four have been training together every day since arriving in California back in June, but Ferraro and Green both realize they might not be together once they hit their battle stations in Iraq.
When not serving in the Marine Reserves, Green is a prep cook for an unspecified eatery with the Sault Tribe, and credited them with being very good about his departure. Ferraro was a pizza-maker for the now-defunct Nana's Restaurant, and admits he will have to seek new employment once he returns home to Sault Ste. Marie at the end of his tour.