On Your Six

Lance Cpl. William Ross, a team leader with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment
photo Sgt. Pete Thibodeau

Patrol Base Hasan Abad

Two Eight Marines waiting to move out from Patrol Base Hasan Abad photo Sgt. Pete Thibodeau

Attack on Patrol Base Bracha

Sgt. Deacon Holten, squad leader 2/8, during an attack on Patrol Base Bracha 10/09/09
All USMC Photos Sgt. Pete Thibodeau

Marines with Two Eight fire at Teliban during an attack at Patrol Base Bracha

Postcards From The Combat Zone &The Female Engagement Team

Marines with the Iraqi Women's Engagement team, 1st Marine Logistics Group, Headquarters and Services Company, and local Iraqi women from Trailer Town, Iraq, pose for a photograph June 26, 2008 photo Lance Cpl. Gabriela Garcia
Marines with the Iraqi Women's Engagement team, 1st Marine Logistics Group, Headquarters and Services Company meet with local women in the Al Anbar province of Iraq June 26, 2008.
photo Lance Cpl. Gabriela Garcia
An Iraqi child shows U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Cresswell J. Matamoros, assigned to Headquarters and Service Company, 1st Marine Logistics Group, and serving with the Iraqi Women's Engagement (IWE) team, a hand sign in Kabani, Iraq, June 28, 2008
photo Lance Cpl. Gabriela Garcia
An Iraqi girl watches U.S. Marine Sgt. Lynsey DeVane, an engineer clerk with Iraqi Women's Engagement (IWE) team, from the 1st Marine Logistics Group, as she takes notes of her conversation with the Iraqi women in Kabani, Iraq, June 28, 2008.
photo Lance Cpl. Gabriela Garcia
Cpl. Mayda Y. Gomez, an administrative clerk assigned to the 1st Marine Logistics Group and serving with the Iraqi Women's Engagement (IWE) team, holds an Iraqi baby in Kabani, Iraq, June 28, 2008.photo Lance Cpl. Gabriela Garcia
Marine Lance Cpl. Mayda Y. Gomez, left, an administrative clerk assigned to the 1st Marine Logistics Group and serving with the Iraqi Women's Engagement (IWE) team, hands out shampoo and soap bars to Iraqi women in Kabani, Iraq, June 28, 2008.
photo Lance Cpl. Gabriela Garcia
Marissa L. Stuart, center, intelligence clerk with the 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion and serving with the Iraqi Women's Engagement (IWE) team, with an Iraqi woman and girl in Kabani, Iraq, June 28, 2008. IWE, a group of female Marines, supports Iraqi women in Anbar province.photo Lance Cpl. Gabriela Garcia
Marines from Female Engagement Team,work with Marines from the 4th Civil Affairs Group (CAG) as they meet with villagers south of Nawa district, Helmand province, Sept. 8, 2009, to learn about the civilians' concerns.photo Gunnery Sgt. James A. Burks
Sgt. Angailque Skean during a cordoned search in Helmand province, Afghanistan, July 28, 2009. Skean is a motor transportation Marine attached to the Female Engagement Team, with Foxtrot Company, 2/8.photo LCpl. Paul Miller

On Your Six America-Lt. Colin Duffy

Lt. Colin Duffy with Two Eight, Police Mentoring Team, , provides security during a local security patrol with Afghan National Border Police (ABP) in the Garmsir district of the Helmand province Sept. 10, 2009.Sgt. USMC photo shot by Sgt Pete Thibodeau

E Co. Two Eight Marines Battle the Teliban

Story/photosBY:Sgt. Scott Whittington Date: 09.06.2009 A squad of Marines with Company E, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, patrolled southeast from here Sept. 6, 2009, prepared to encounter the enemy while also hoping to identify some of the post's blind spots.

When they stepped off, they had received information that told them the enemy might show themselves. Since their July 2 helicopter insertion, only 14 of their early 70 days here have been empty of enemy contact.

"Even though the Marines have suffered some losses here, the Marines are still completely motivated about their jobs," said Capt. Eric A. Meador, Co. E commander.

After crossing an open field with irrigation trenches, members of E Company's 2nd Platoon reached a deep canal with a foot-deep stream running through it.

Meador explained, the majority of his area of responsibility doesn't have regular enemy contact, but this particular piece of real estate was notorious for being an enemy ambush site.

But the Marines were ready as they scaled the embankment on the canal's far side. As reports had predicted, the enemy was waiting and greeted them with an improvised explosive device blast that injured no one and a spattering of small-arms fire that only heightened their alertness.

To the south, in front of the crouched Marines, was a wind-swept cornfield with nearly 8-foot-tall stalks and broad leaves in motion making enemy movement difficult to see. Despite the limited visibility affecting both sides, the enemy had positioned themselves into an arrow head, facing the Marines in the middle. As one side would shoot, the other would attempt to advance farther onto the Marines' flank. The bad guys maneuvered as close as 75 meters – their muzzle blasts getting louder with each bound.

Squad leader Cpl. Evan Steele called a halt. With rounds whizzing overhead, Lance Cpl. Michael R. Webb, 22, the squad-automatic weapon gunner from Louisville, Ky., and the rest of his team countered the enemy push by moving up along a tree line.

"I don't think too much about what I'm feeling during a fight," Webb said. "I just fight."

Seeing their movement, the insurgents prematurely detonated a second IED, thinking the Marines were closer to it than they were. Steele then radioed for mortar rounds to blanket both enemy positions. "Shot out," Marines yelled as they heard the tubes launch 81 and 60 mm mortars from a mile away. A few seconds later, the rounds splashed on target with a sound like a rapid-fire, kettle-drum solo.

Pushing along the tree line, the Marines spotted one insurgent, and engaged him causing his quick retreat. The Marines then turned to engage a second tree line ahead of them where more insurgents had taken position in and near a building. Cpl James Greenlee, 23, machinegun squad leader from Coppell, Texas, fired a deafening light-anti-armor weapon into the corner of the structure the enemy was popping out and firing from.

Shortly after that explosive thud, the enemy fire stopped. Some of the insurgents left the area on motorcycles. Two were captured not too far away.

"It's always good to get HE (high explosives) down range," said Pfc. Janos V. Lutz, 21, machine gunner and a Davie, Floridian. "It definitely shut them up."

The Marines, not knowing what else lay in the cornfield ahead, pulled back to Combat Outpost Sher under the whopping rotor sounds of an AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter and a UH-1N Huey gunship overhead.

"They come back wet and muddy with a smile on their faces, because they know they're doing what they joined to do," said Meador, a William Carey College graduate. But he stressed there have been no civilian casualties reported here, "The Marines understand the balance between counterinsurgency and building relationships. They are very aware of what they are shooting at."