1st Reconnaissance Battalion replaces 3rd Recon Marines in Afghanistan
December 14th, 2011 | Afghanistan Infantry Kajaki Reconnaissance Sangin | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Cpl. Wiliam Port, a Marine with Company B, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, takes a rest during a security patrol outside of Patrol Base Transformer in October. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Ryan Smith)
Swift, Silent, Deadly, the Marines of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion are back in Afghanistan.
The unit, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., has taken over for 3rd Recon, out of Okinawa, Japan, in the Upper Sangin Valley. They’ll patrol land that remains some of the most treacherous in Helmand province.
Insurgents in the area should remember 1st Recon well. The unit deployed to Helmand in summer 2010, initially taking on the Taliban on the fringes of Marjah district when it was still a violent and unforgiving place.
They shifted their operations that fall to the Sangin area, and hammered away on the Taliban, reportedly killing up to 250 fighters in a few weeks last October. The insurgents began calling them the “Black Diamonds,” a reference to the diamond-shaped mounts they had on their helmets.
Third Recon, meanwhile, has plenty of stories of its own to tell. They played a key role in helping to secure sections of Route 611, and had a hand in clearing operations in Kajaki this fall. This story is just one that illustrates the kinetic activity they saw during their deployment.
1/5 Marines launch Operation Zapoonki Guzaroona
June 3rd, 2011 | Afghanistan Infantry Reconnaissance Sangin | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Marines with 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, and Afghan soldiers patrol May 23 through a wheat field during Operation Zapoonki Guzaroona in Afghanistan's Upper Sangin Valley. (Photo by Cpl. Benjamin Crilly)
It goes without saying that Marine operations in Afghanistan get some pretty interesting names.
There’s Operation Khanjar, the 2009 offensive in Helmand province that seized several districts south of Camp Leatherneck, including Khanashin, Nawa and Garmser. It meant “dagger” in Pashto, an imposing message. The operation was commonly called Strike the Sword in English.
There’s Operation Khareh Cobra, the 2009 offensive to seize control of Helmand’s Now Zad Valley from insurgents. The operation was known as “Cobra’s Anger,” in English, which still sounds like the title to a “G.I. Joe” episode.
And there’s Operation Moshtarak, the 2010 offensive in Helmand that seized Marjah, a collective of farming villages in Nad Ali and Lashkar Gah districts. It meant “together,” in Dari, a concerted effort to note Afghan forces were involved in the assault.
Now comes word that 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., has launched Operation Zapoonki Guzaroona in volatile Sangin district. In official accounts so far, the Corps hasn’t said what the phrase mean, but we’ll pass it on when we find out.
The operation itself sounds significant — and dangerous. Marine officials said Bravo Company 1/5 cleared more than 250 compounds north of the battalion’s area of operations to push insurgents away. They have exploited the boundary between the company and 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, which is based to the north of Sangin district.
Another look at the Marine Corps’ search for a new 1911 pistol
January 27th, 2011 | MARSOC Reconnaissance Weapons | Posted by Dan Lamothe
At left, Springfield Armory's entry in the Marine Corps' competition for a new .45-caliber 1911 pistol. At right, a copy of Colt Defense's prototype entered in the competition. (Photos by Dan Lamothe)
By now, many of you may have heard about the Marine Corps’ search for a new 1911 pistol.
I first reported about it for Marine Corps Times in the fall when a Request for Information was released by acquisition officials, and followed up by walking the floor at SHOT Show last week to discuss the competition with many of the gunmakers assumed to be in the fight.
As outlined in this story, Colt Defense and Springfield Armory have submitted samples to the Corps for the competition, while at least two other bigtime pistol makers — Kimber and Smith & Wesson — have not. Officials with the two companies that bowed out cited competing priorities and the small window of time that the Corps provided to develop and submit samples after a Request for Proposals was issued in the fall.
Another gunmaker, Karl Lippard Designs, has since contacted Marine Corps Times to express its interest in the competition, even though they didn’t meet the deadline to submit samples. Company officials boldly say they have developed a new 1911 A2 design capable of accurately dropping targets at 400 yards — rifle distance. And the guns don’t even look like this.
It has been interesting to see the attention the story has received online in the last few days. Everyone from the 1911forum.com to The Truth About Guns has weighed in, with opinions ranging from excitement to frustration that the Corps is looking at more 1911 pistols, which get dinged on occasion for being difficult with maintenance.
I put it to you, friends: What should the Corps do? Keep in mind the service wants an off-the-shelf solution, and that most of the weapons will likely be fielded to special operators with Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command and door-kickers with Force Reconnaissance units.
Report: Marine assaults on insurgents in Sangin ‘convinced’ tribe to reach agreement
January 5th, 2011 | Afghanistan Infantry Reconnaissance Sangin | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Lance Cpl. David Ortega and Lance Cpl. Miguel Travino, both of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, kneel in a group of trees in southern Sangin, Afghanistan, on Dec. 22. (Photo by Cpl. Daniel Blatter/Marine Corps)
Two news stories published in the last 24 hours include new revelations about the battle in Sangin, Afghanistan, where Marines remain in hotly contested combat.
First, the BBC reports that the Taliban kidnapped and beat an Afghan village elder who helped broker the widely reported peace agreement between Marines and the Alikozai tribe, which spans multiple villages in Sangin district. Sayed Badar Agha was beaten after leading a group of 40 elders in negotiations that concluded with seven tribal elders signing the agreement, the BBC said.
The BBC also reports that Taliban kingpen Mullah Omar reportedly ordered the killing of all those involved in such talks, suggesting a rift may have been opened between local fighters and the so-called “capital-T” Taliban. The agreement called for the tribe to stop attacks on Marines and help U.S. forces push foreign fighters — typically, the best trained insurgents Marines face — out of the upper Sangin Valley.
On the upside, the Washington Post outlined new details about how the agreement was reached in a story this morning. Apparently, the tribe was heavily convinced to cooperate with Marines after an unnamed reconnaissance battalion — The “Black Diamonds” of 1st Recon, no doubt — roughed their fighters up in a massive October assault.
The dynamics changed when the Marines replaced British forces in summer 2010. They increased the tempo of offensive operations and struck back harder at the all of the insurgents, including the Alikozai. In mid-October, a Marine reconnaissance battalion swooped into the Alikozai area and conducted a blistering barrage of attacks that commanders estimate killed more than 250 insurgents.
“That convinced the elders,” said one senior Marine officer involved in the operation. “They began to see the handwriting on the wall.”
The story also says that the Alikozai rose up against another tribe, the Alizai, as far back as 2007 and sought to evict foreign Taliban fighters, but the tribe’s request for help from British forces were refused “because of concern about getting involved in what appeared to be a tribal dispute.” The Alizai eventually killed several Alikozai tribal leaders, forcing other Alikozai tribal leaders to join forces with the Taliban, the Post reports.
So, to recap: Things still aren’t easy in Sangin, but this agreement was reached in large part because of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, and 1st Recon forcing the issue during the last few months. Now, let’s just hope the truce holds.
Reconnaissance Marines gain ‘Black Diamond’ nickname from Taliban
December 15th, 2010 | Afghanistan Infantry Marjah Reconnaissance Sangin | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Sgt. Zachary Zobrist of Bravo Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., engages the enemy during a firefight in northern Trek Nawa, Afghanistan, on Aug. 15. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Ezekiel Kitandwe/Marine Corps)
The Marines of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion are expected to return this week from Afghanistan to Camp Pendleton, Calif., after a seven-month deployment. They were replaced during a relief in place ceremony at Camp Leatherneck last week with 2nd Recon, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C.
First Recon deployed in the spring, and was quickly dispatched to areas surrounding the former Taliban stronghold of Marjah. They eventually also played a role in Sangin, where Marines have faced a tough fight in the last few months.
At the time, Marjah district was likely the most dangerous place in Helmand province for Marines, and 1st Recon was called on by Marine commanders to take on the Taliban in the countryside surrounding Marjah. They eventually played a large role in security operations in Trek Nawa, to the east of Marjah. Remarkably, they did not lose a single Marine.
Lt. Col. Mike Mooney, 1st Recon’s commander, and some of his Marines weighed in on the deployment last week, telling a combat correspondent that the Taliban tagged them with a new nickname: “Black Diamonds.”
Nothing proves this more than the nickname the Recon Marines received from Taliban fighters — “Black Diamonds”. The name comes from the mount worn on the Recon Marines’ helmets that is in the shape of a diamond. For the Taliban, the Black Diamonds became a force they would avoid at all cost.
“We first heard it over the radio in Trek Nawa,” said Cpl. Micah Fulmer, a reconnaissance Marine with 1st Recon Bn. “It followed us to Sangin and they said, ‘Don’t mess with the ‘Black Diamonds.’”
The Marines of 2nd Recon will continue the same mission, with the same message to the Taliban.
“The enemy is going to know and fear 2nd Recon too. They are not going to know what hit them,” Mooney said. “They are going to know the ‘Black Diamonds’ are in their backyard and it is going to be hell on earth for them.”
It sounds to me like the unit is working to build up that recon mystique. But, what’s wrong with that?
Recon Marines over Afghanistan
October 14th, 2010 | Afghanistan Aviation Reconnaissance | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Marines with Bravo Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., parachute over Camp Dwyer, Afghanistan, on Oct. 5 after jumping from a C-130 plane. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Ezekiel R. Kitandwe/Marine Corps)
It’s late in the week, and we can all use a little motivation. So, why not draw attention to a series of photos released by the Marine Corps this week of Marines with Bravo Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, leaping from a C-130 plane over Camp Dwyer, Afghanistan?
The jumps were part of an operation designed to sharpen parachuting, reconnaissance patrolling and maintenance of parachute insert proficiency, Marine officials said.