Returning unit has seen many sides of fight

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From the invasion to the ‘surge,’ 1st Battalion has seen it all


Returning unit has seen many sides of fight
By Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, December 9, 2007

SALMAN PAK, Iraq

In the early morning light, in the first hours of the Iraq invasion, soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment were among the first ground troops to cross the border.

As a long column of vehicles rolled through the berm, marking their entry into war, they were greeted by a hand-painted sign placed by engineers who had cleared the lane: “Welcome to Iraq.”

Few thought they’d be there long, and fewer thought they see Iraq again. But as with many units, the battalion — part of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division — is now on its third combat tour. And it has seen each major phase of the campaign: the invasion; the move to large, isolated “Super-FOBs” while the insurgency grew; and the counterinsurgency “surge” this year that has military leaders optimistic about greatly reduced violence.

“The biggest difference is that at the battalion level, we’ve been relieved of the pressure to immediately begin the transition to Iraqi security forces,” Lt. Col. Jack Marr, commander of the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry, said in an interview on Combat Outpost Cleary in late November.

“Now we are being allowed to work with our partners to get the security straight first,” he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50841