1-star: 1st Recon to aid in Marjah fight - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

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

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.

Two battalions — 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, and 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, both out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. — have shared the burden of securing Marjah since Marines initially assaulted it in February. They will continue their operations, with 1st Recon patrolling its own battlespace in the outlying areas.

Osterman said the Sistani Desert can be handled effectively now that 1st Recon has arrived. The 1,000-man battalion replaces a company-sized detachment of Marines with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, out of Okinawa, Japan, and is among the last Marine units to arrive in Afghanistan as part of President Barack Obama’s decision to add about 30,000 combat troops, including 8,500 Marines, to Afghanistan this spring.

Third Recon’s Marines in Afghanistan are based at Leatherneck, and have been used mostly on supporting missions, such as raids, as necessary. First Recon will maintain a headquarters element at Leatherneck, but also will have a forward battalion headquarters and most of its troops closer to Marjah, Osterman said.

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