WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon has extended the tour of 2,200 Marines in Afghanistan, after insisting for months the unit would come home on time.
Continue reading "Pentagon extends tour of Marines in Afghanistan" »
WASHINGTON, July 3, 2008 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has approved a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force request that the 2,200 Marines of 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit remain in Afghanistan a month longer than planned.
Continue reading "U.S. Grants NATO Request to Extend Marine Unit’s Afghanistan Tour" »
U.S. Marine Dawid Pietrek, who gave his life for a country that was not yet his own, will be buried with military honors alongside other American heroes.
Continue reading "Fallen DuPage Marine to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery" »
June 26, 2008 · At 53, Abdul Torabi is a soft-spoken man with gray hair, a short gray beard and a quiet chuckle. He was born in Afghanistan, but has lived most of his life in exile in America.
Continue reading "After Long Exile, Afghan Returns to Aid U.S. Marines" »
(6/26/2008) Every marine prepares for battle in his own way. These were the Marines of Alpha Company, Third Platoon, First Battalion of the Sixth Marines. They were preparing for a fight.
A sergeant was killed in Afghanistan on Friday, bringing the number of confirmed casualties in 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, to at least seven in less than one week.
Continue reading "At least 7 deaths in one week for battalion" »
All Things Considered, June 25, 2008 · When compared to Iraq, the conflict in Afghanistan is often described as the forgotten war.
Continue reading "Marines in Afghanistan Weigh In on a Life at War" »
It has been a month and a half since a force of some 1,500 U.S. Marines attacked the Taliban stronghold of Garmsir district in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan.
Continue reading "Marines Try to Improve Image in Taliban Stronghold" »
GARMSER, Afghanistan — Marines are trading gunfire and artillery shells with Taliban militants in the volatile southern province of Helmand, the world’s largest poppy growing region.
Continue reading "Marines make headway in southern Afghan town" »
Family members of a 21-year-old U.S. Marine critically injured in Afghanistan late Thursday have talked with him as he awaits transfer to a hospital in Germany.
Continue reading "Injured soldier: I need you to be strong" »
CAMP BARBER, Afghanistan — The Marines now have a place to call their own.
Continue reading "Task Force 2⁄7 dedicates camp after MoH recipient" »
ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan — Taliban militants destroyed bridges and planted mines in several villages they control outside southern Afghanistan's largest city in apparent preparation for battle, residents and officials said Tuesday.
Continue reading "Taliban Prepare for Battle Outside Kandahar as Thousands Flee Area" »
Afghan Army on High Alert After Increased Activity by Taliban Militants
Afghanistan's army chief, Gen. Bismillah Khan, is in Kandahar preparing his men for a potentially major battle with the Taliban.
Roadside bomb kills 4 US troops training police in Afghanistan
A roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military vehicle on Saturday, killing four Marines in western Afghanistan in the deadliest attack against U.S. troops in the country this year, officials said.
In Afghanistan, tens of thousands of NATO-led U.S. and foreign troops are battling a Taliban insurgency across eastern and southern Afghanistan. NPR's Ivan Watson and David Gilkey spent the past four days traveling across the network of NATO bases in southern Afghanistan and sent this postcard about the journey.
Continue reading "Trip Illuminates Life on Bases Across Afghan Desert" »
CAMP BARBER, Afghanistan - The Marine Corps' top commanders recently visited with Marines and Sailors of Task Force 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, serving here in support of Operation Enduring Freedom
KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan are fleeing to the Pakistani border after being routed in recent operations by the United States Marines, the American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said on Monday.
Continue reading "U.S. Reports Gains Against Taliban Fighters" »
GARMSER, Afghanistan — For two years British troops staked out a presence in this small district center in southern Afghanistan and fended off attacks from the Taliban. The constant firefights left it a ghost town, its bazaar broken and empty but for one baker, its houses and orchards reduced to rubble and weeds.
Continue reading "Optimism Grows as Marines Push Against Taliban" »
WASHINGTON, May 27, 2008 – When Army Col. Thomas J. McGrath arrived in Kandahar, Afghanistan, last year as the commander of the Afghan Regional Security Integration Command, he stopped in on a police checkpoint.
Continue reading "Afghan Police Transform Into Professional, Equipped Force" »
Navy docs staff medical facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan
TAQADDUM AIR BASE, IRAQ ---- It wasn’t a roadside bomb or small-arms fire that put Marine Lance Cpl. Douglas Cox in a hospital bed here last week.
Continue reading "MILITARY: Treating the wounded in the Middle East" »
GARMSER, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Marines who once planned to be in this southern Afghan town for just a few days are extending their mission by several weeks after facing an influx of Taliban fighters.
Continue reading "Marines stay in Afghan town after Taliban influx" »
UK troops working as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in southern Afghanistan have been taking part in a joint operation with US Marines aimed at disrupting Taliban activity in the volatile Garmsir area of Helmand province.
Troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade joined the Marines, from the US 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), as they pushed south of Garmsir where currently, but for a few border security police, neither ISAF nor the Afghan Security Forces have a presence. The purpose of the operation was to extend security authority further south towards the Pakistan border.
Continue reading "British troops help US Marines tackle the Taliban in Garmsir" »
GARMSER, Afghanistan (AP) — The Marines of Bravo Company's 1st Platoon sleep beside a grove of poppies. Troops in the 2nd Platoon playfully swat at the heavy opium bulbs while walking through the fields. Afghan laborers scraping the plant's gooey resin smile and wave.
Continue reading "Marines ignore Taliban cash crop to not upset Afghan locals" »
There is only silence in Garmser, a ghost town on the edge of the desert in southern Afghanistan. The bazaar is a lonely line of abandoned shops and debris-strewn streets. There is just one trader - a baker - whose sole customers are British soldiers and Afghan police.
Continue reading "In ghost town where Afghan war begins, UK fights losing battle" »
GARMSER, Afghanistan: Gunfire rang out at Sgt. Dan Linas' patrol, pinning his squad down against a dirt berm. The Marines looked across the field on their left, at three mud huts and a grove of trees, in search of the muzzle flash.
BEVERLY — A U.S. Marine Corps colonel who grew up in Beverly is leading the first major military operation in years in a dangerous section of southern Afghanistan populated by Taliban fighters.
Continue reading "Marine colonel from Beverly leads strike against Taliban" »
GARMSER, Afghanistan — U.S. Marines contended with 110-degree heat, rugged terrain and an increasingly savvy and war-hardened enemy as they pressed deeper into a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan on Thursday.
Heat, heavy loads, lack of water slow attack on Taliban
GARMSIR, Afghanistan - For the Marines fighting in southern Afghanistan, a shortage of drinking water turned out to be nearly as big a concern as Taliban insurgents.
OUTSIDE GARMSER, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Marines exchanged gunfire with militants Tuesday after pouring into a Taliban-held town in southern Afghanistan in the first major American operation in the region in years.
Continue reading "US Marines move into Taliban-held area of Afghanistan" »
In first operations, U.S. forces also aim to intersect weapons and drug routes
GARMSIR, Afghanistan - U.S. Marines assaulted into this Taliban stronghold early today in a series of pre-dawn strikes, seizing a major insurgent command center and killing a number of insurgents.
Continue reading "Marines seize insurgent command center in southern Afghanistan" »
Hundreds of U.S. forces backed by airpower enter Taliban-controlled South
OUTSIDE GARMSER, Afghanistan - U.S. Marines in helicopters and Humvees flooded into a Taliban-held town in southern Afghanistan's most violent province early Tuesday in the first major American operation in the region in years.
Continue reading "Marines launch massive assault in Afghanistan" »
Harrier jets arrive at base
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of reports from Afghanistan by The Daily News writer Jennifer Hlad, who is embedded with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit there.
KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The dust, fine as powdered sugar, cast a fog in the air as Harriers cut through the sky. As the jets taxied to their spots on a newly built mat, each plane kicked up a small storm of sand in its wake.
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan (Mar. 14, 2008) -- For Marines, “special forces” traditionally means Force Reconnaissance units.
Continue reading "Special Ops Marines deliver in southern Afghanistan" »
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2008 – Nearly a third of the 3,200 Marines scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan next month will be stationed in NATO’s southern and western regional commands to train Afghan security forces to face upcoming threats, a top U.S. military official said today.
The bulk of the 1,000 outbound Marine trainers will be stationed at Regional Command South, part of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, and a “little bit” of the unit will deploy to Regional Command West, said Army Maj. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, commander of Combined Joint Task Force 82, based at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.
Continue reading "General Discusses Marine Deployment to Afghanistan" »
WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2008 – The deployment of 3,200 U.S. Marines to Afghanistan this spring represents a one-time troop movement that partially fulfills a long-time request by NATO commanders for additional forces, a senior Pentagon spokesman said here today.
Continue reading "Marine Deployment to Afghanistan ‘One-Time Deal,’ Official Says" »
KABUL, Afghanistan (Dec. 26, 2007) -- The assistant commandant of the Marine Corps made a quick stop at Camp Eggers today and passed a message from a modern day Marine Corps hero’s family to Kabul-area Marines.
While Marines are getting pre-Iraq training at Mojave Viper in Twentynine Palms, Calif., what about leathernecks heading to the mountains of Afghanistan?
Continue reading "Mountain Viper readies troops for Afghanistan" »
WASHINGTON (March 24) -- Marines accused of shooting and killing civilians after a suicide bombing in Afghanistan are under U.S. investigation, and their entire unit has been ordered to leave the country, officials said Friday.
Thousands of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan may risk permanent brain damage by returning to combat with relatively minor but undiagnosed concussions, often caused by bomb blasts, military researchers say.
Continue reading "Concussions go undiagnosed in thousands of troops, doctors say" »
CAMP TAQADDUM, IRAQ (April 10, 2006) -- Under direction of Marine Corps commanders in Iraq, wearing synthetic athletic clothing containing polyester and nylon has been prohibited while conducting operations off of forward operating bases and camps.
Continue reading "Popular clothing off-limits to Marines in Iraq" »
RECHAH LAM, Afghanistan (March 28, 2006) -- The primary mission of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment is to track down insurgents and render their operations ineffective.
Three years after Baghdad fell, the Navy is poised to dramatically increase the number of sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan, filling gaps in Army and Marine Corps units.
The seamen, called "individual augmentees," support ground operations thousands of miles from the nearest port, in deployments that can be far different from the Navy's traditional role.
Continue reading "1,000 more sailors expected to join ground forces in Iraq" »
Bagram, Afghanistan (AHN) - U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley briefs the Pentagon on the progress of Operation Enduring Freedom, five years into its inception.
Continue reading "The Pentagon Reports On The Progress Of Operation Enduring Freedom" »
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Brig. Gen. Scott G. West, commander of the 21st Theater Support Command, briefly teased friends, family members and loved ones of the 70 soldiers with the 29th Support Group who had just arrived home after their yearlong Afghanistan deployment.
Continue reading "After a year in Afghanistan, Kaiserslautern support unit comes home" »
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (AP) -- President Bush, on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, said Wednesday he remains confident Osama bin Laden "will be brought to justice" despite a so-far futile five-year hunt. Bush also suggested that the United States and India, where he was headed yet, have still not reached a deal over U.S. help for India's civilian nuclear program.
As the United States confronts terrorism, military personnel have to make a cultural shift as they fight what officials now call "the Long War," senior DoD officials said.
Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview that the generation of servicemembers entering the military today must focus on how the United States will deal with extremist networks that threaten America and its allies.
Continue reading "Military Culture Must Change for 'Long War'" »
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2006 – Humanitarian efforts continue in Afghanistan as coalition forces helped remove snow from impassable roads and built "hygiene facilities" at a small school. In addition, international diplomats visited a provincial reconstruction team Jan. 21.
Continue reading "U.S., Coalition Efforts Helping Improve Afghanistan" »
ESCANABA - No snow or evergreen trees were anywhere in sight near Camp Blessing in December, but a Christmas stocking was hung there with care. Marine Cpl. Joseph Roy, Gladstone, and his fellow Marines at the camp in Afghanistan were blessed with some extra-special Christmas gifts and holiday greetings, compliments of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) staff at the CAA. The handmade Christmas stocking was crafted for Roy by Mae St. Juliana of Hermansville, an RSVP volunteer.
JALALABAD, Afghanistan - 1st Lt. Ryan B. Cohen, platoon commander, and a radio operator call in artillery support after being attacked by anti- coalition militia forces during Operation Sorkh Khar.
(2/3)
Continue reading "Marines, sailors search 'difficult' valleys" »
Need a touching, personalized gift for that special loved one overseas?
Talking Holiday Cards is a GREAT idea!- Mail Call never Sounded so good!
Not only is it a great gift idea to send a touch of home to your hero, but it also support a GREAT cause- $1 from every card comes back to MarineParents.com, Inc. for the care package project and $.50 from each card goes to a wounded soldiers organization.
Continue reading ""Wishes from Home" Talking Holiday Card" »
MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif.(Dec. 8, 2005) -- Marines are trained to deploy: Married or single. This includes single parents.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2005 – Two U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopters involved in combat operations made emergency landings today in separate locations in southern Afghanistan, injuring five U.S. soldiers and one Afghan National Army soldier.
Continue reading "Emergency Landings Injure Six in Afghanistan" »