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CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — Marines from the 2nd Battalion 11th Marines Headquarters Battery plan to prove yet again, that no matter what their job is, every Marine is a rifleman.
These Marines don’t have much infantry background; motor transport mechanics, radio communications operators, artillerymen and even one cook serve as mobile assault platoons.
They throw on protective vests and Kevlar helmets after loading up ammunition to head out one a mission. In past months they’ve been through firefights and have hit improvised explosive devices during patrols.
Their uniforms bear the signs of what they have encountered. Brown dirt stains the knees from kneeling during foot patrols and their boots are rugged and worn from the many miles they’ve walked.
The group gears up to leave Patrol Base Boldak for an operation in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Up armored vehicles roar to life, black smoke clouding the already dusty air.
The Marines mount into their trucks and roll out of the base, ready to conduct a census in the area. They plan to set up checkpoints and speak with local Afghans to gather data on the people living in the area.
A native of Boston, N.Y., Lance Cpl. Danny Castro is a motor transport mechanic by trade, but now conducts operations with the 2/11. He is the first to get out of the vehicle when the platoon stops at a village. Castro mentions a sewed four-leaf clover patch on his vest.
“I’ve got the luck of the Irish,” said Castro.
That luck helps Castro keep his team safe outside of the wire. His job is to operate the compact metal detector, a portable tool resembling something a Florida beach-goer would use to find buried treasure.
Instead of searching for treasure, Castro uses the metal detector to find buried improvised explosive devices. He clears the way for other Marines to pull security around a compound of houses made of mud.
“This is completely outside of the job I’ve been doing for the past four years, it’s all new,” said Castro, who was usually found in the motor pool back home. “You get to see different sides of the Marines in a combat zone like this.”
The day is quiet as the Marines talk to locals about activity in the area.
An Afghan child runs around the Marines and gives them high-fives. One Marine offers the little boy a bag of potato chips as his father talks with the team.
The platoon stays vigilant, using the scopes on their weapons to look for danger. Soon, it is time to head back to base with no firefights taking place this day.
Despite not having an infantry background, 2nd Lt. Matthew Lowen, a platoon commander with the 2/11, said his Marines have done an incredible job coming together.
“They’ve really stepped above and beyond what I think anyone expected of them, they’ve proven that a Marine truly is a rifleman first and cook, communications technician, or motor transport Marine second,” said Lowen.
| Date Taken: | 03.09.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 03.17.2012 06:26 |
| Story ID: | 85406 |
| Location: | HELMAND PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 845 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Every Marine a rifleman embodied by service members of 2/11, by SGT Laura Bonano, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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