'Diablos' Take The Reins From 3rd Cavalry [Image 1 of 6]

NINEWEH PROVINCE, IRAQ

11.12.2008

Photo by Sgt. Geoffrey Ingersoll 

I Marine Expeditionary Force

A Light Armored Vehicle from Company D, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance, tears through a field toward a hardball road, Nov. 12. The LAV has eight wheels, carries a capacity of six riflemen, a three-man crew, and boasts a 25 mm machinegun turret. LAVs can reach out and touch the enemy from a distance, or drive up and drop off Marines for a more in-close-and-personal approach. In short, range and terrain are no obstacles for the LAV. The Marines manning these vehicles, the "Diablos" of Company D, accepted responsibility for battle space in the Nineweh province, Nov. 10. The Marines relieved soldiers from the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Mission accomplishment for the Diablos is to enable stabilization of Mosul by maintaining presence in towns, villages and along trade routes used by FFF and insurgents. The Marines make up one element of the first Marine Air Ground Task Force outside Anbar in Iraq since 2004. They traveled to the Nineweh province to kick off Operation Defeat al-Qaida in the North II, an operation aimed at stamping out the insurgency just west of the restive city of Mosul.

• Date Taken: 11.12.2008
• Date Posted: 02.04.2012 05:41
• Photo ID: 136646
• VIRIN: 081112-M-8187I-002
• Resolution: 3504x2336
• Size: 1.56 MB
• Location: NINEWEH PROVINCE, IQ