For personal reasons one part of the surge has held my interest lately, the operations southeast of Baghdad being carried out by Task Force Marne (I believe the name Marne comes from a large road that traverses the area, not a reference to the Marne river made famous in WWI as a battle ground, though I am sure that resonated.) The reason is that is where my brother will be deploying, operating out of Forward Operating Base Hammer. The area has seen little coalition presence over the course of the war and thus has been ruled by a combination of insurgent groups including both JAM (al Sadr’s bunch) and al Qaeda.
For a look at what is happening in this long neglected theater I suggest starting with Jeff Emanuel who is embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division at this time. Like others he sees progress, and challenges.
About Lance
I want to thank everybody who has encouraged me over the past few years to do this. I doubt it will hold but a few people's interest, but that is okay with me. Special thanks go to Peter over at http://www.liberalcapitalist.com.
I value my privacy a great deal, so I will guess you will have to get to know me over time to find out much. I am in the financial services, wealth management, investing or whatever you want to call it business. I have children, my oldest is entering college.
I have no great or imposing academic background, my grades varied from high enough to get invited to an honors program at my university to frustrating enough to cause my father great grief. My major was history, with a minor in ethics. My main interest towards the end was in the history of economic ideas before life took a turn and I ended up never going on to graduate school. However, I have a fair knowledge of history, economics, investing and would probably be considered well read. My tastes are eclectic and I pretty much find the entire world interesting.
I have an enduring interest in how people learn about and analyze the world; my posts here will examine this topic in detail over time. I make no claims to be above the very biases and errors I see in others, in fact it is my belief that we are incapable of escaping them, only moderating their control over us.
I am a member of no political party, but I would broadly consider myself a man of the right. I am inclined to free market economics, limited government and a fairly narrow view of the role of the state. A small L libertarian if you will. However, if you are looking for broad based "the left believes..." or "wingers are so...." types of attacks on liberals, conservatives, neo-cons or whatever enemy you want to slam, look elsewhere.
Lance
“Marne” comes from the 3rd ID motto “Rock of the Marne”. It’s common to put a division identifier in an operation name if it is a division level op. It lets you know which division HQ is running the op.
You remember “Arrowhead Ripper”? That was a 2ID op (the 2ID has an indian head on their patch) even though a BCT from the 1st Cav was involved. Operation Marne Torch was a previous 3ID op that included a BCT from the 25th ID.
Cool, but a soldier told me about a road as well, but that makes sense. Or my memory could be confused, I was out drinking beer.
They could have named the Main Supply Route (MSR) Route Marne or something.
I bet that is it. Makes sense to me.
Lance,
welcome to 3ID. What unit is your brother with? If 1-15 Inf, what Company?
He is with the 1-3 Cav. He transferred in a few months ago so that when he was in the states he could be closer to his kids. He was in the Abu Ghraib area in his previous stint.
Thanks for the welcome. I’ll be following the action there pretty closely, so feel free to send tips and observations from you and your fellow soldiers whenever you feel like it. I am thinking of putting something up on the operations there on a daily basis. Good, bad or ugly, anything you guys want to have me look at, or tell me directly, let me know. I think I will start by reading The Dog Face Daily and putting some of that out on a regular basis.
Good luck Guys, and thanks for stopping by.
Lance,
I’m not a soldier, but a soldier’s parent. I kinda thought that your brother might be Cav. The guys at 3-1 Cav are pretty dam good. 60% of the Brigade has been there at least once before. 2-69 Armored has been parceled out to 10th Mountain and 1st Cav Div in places West and North of Salman Pak, i.e. in Baghdad proper, in Company sized units or smaller. Jeff Emanuel has been the best source of news since 1-15 got there in March. He seems to be well North of Baghdad now. My kid is with A Co. 1-15. The Brigade aviation element is first rate, and our guys get great support from them and from the AF (F16s and B1s, no less).
For Brigade news that keys on 3-1 Cav, see these links:
http://hammerslogger.gulfeast.com/index.php
and
http://footprintsinthesandsofiraq.blogspot.com/
the Brigade daily is here:
http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=pubs/pubs_show.php&id=2103&name=The%20Dog%20Face%20Daily
and the Brigade Chaplain is here:
http://chrandall.com/blog/
and the bad news is here: http://icasualties.org/oif/Details.aspx
which you’ll want to check when you hear about casualties. They’ll be listed as Task Force Marne until the names are released, but Task Force Marne is huge, and includes all of 3ID, some of 10th Mountain and 1st Cav Div.
These guys do good work:
http://www.blackanthem.com/
as does:
http://www.blackfive.net/main/
and
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/
although you’re probably already familiar with these.
More to follow!
wfarb
Lance,
I’d like to catch up on the deployment; send me an e-mail at wfarb@juno.com