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10/7/2009 -- "Word can't describe it; this is
great - it really is," said Cpl. Clinton R.
Smith, a welder with Headquarters and Service
Company, 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance
Battalion, after embracing his 3-year-old
daughter, Maddison, for the first time in more
than six months. Smith, along with 88 other
Marines and sailors, returned to the Combat
Center Wednesday from their deployment to Ninawa
province in the northwest corner of Iraq, near
the Syrian border. While deployed, the battalion
performed security and counter insurgency
operations, smuggler interdictions, as well as
mentoring and working alongside Iraqi Security
Forces, according to Maj. William Speigle, the
battalion's executive officer . . . "They all
did a phenomenal job," he said. "They lived in a
completely expeditionary environment the entire
time - most Marines spent nearly everyday
operating outside the wire during combat
operations, living day to day out of their
vehicles and sleeping in the dirt." 3rd LAR also
had the unique task of being the last light
armored reconnaissance battalion planned to
deploy to Iraq and were responsible for "closing
out the LAR footprint" in the country,Speigle
explained. "We were accountable for an excess of
$114 million worth of equipment. We turned in
every bit of LAV equipment other units had used
throughout OIF," he said. "This battalion was
part of the initial invasion in 2003 and we were
the last battalion to deploy to Iraq; everyone
did exceptional and upheld the legacy."
Photo by Cpl. Corey A. Blodgett |
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