One-star: 1st Recon to aid in Marjah fight

[unhappycamper]

One-star: 1st Recon to aid in Marjah fight
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jun 2, 2010 7:51:19 EDT

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — The Marine Corps will send elite reconnaissance Marines to the former Taliban stronghold of Marjah to buttress combat operations already underway by two conventional infantry battalions there, a top officer here said.

First Reconnaissance Battalion, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., is arriving at this hub of Marines operations this week, and will soon be sent to the countryside surrounding Marjah, said Brig. Gen. Joseph Osterman, commander of 1st Marine Division (Forward), based here. Their area will include the Sistani Desert to the west of Marjah and Trek Nawa, a sprawling area to Marjah’s east filled with farm compounds still controlled by the Taliban. Marines believe the Taliban is coordinating attacks on Marine patrols from both areas.

“First Recon, before they even left (the U.S.), were training in more of a ground combat-type of role,” Osterman told Marine Corps Times during a Tuesday night interview. “They still retain a lot of their reconnaissance skills and the maturity that goes with that type of unit, but basically they’ll be working those outer areas.”

The decision to send recon Marines to Marjah wasn’t made because commanders in the region need their ability to go deep behind enemy lines without detection, but because the other infantry battalions the Corps has in Afghanistan already have defined missions underway.

“Once we go into an area, we never want to leave it until it’s ready to be transitioned to Afghani control,” Osterman said. “With the units that are out here and the timing of where they are and how things are going, it makes more sense to deploy recon than it would be to uncover somebody else and sharing” the job.