22nd MEU Afghanistan Recap: MEU drives stake into Taliban heartland

Lance Cpl. Darin Emde surveys a mountain in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province for Taliban snipers firing upon him and his fellow Marines in Charlie Co., Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 6th Marines. BLT 1/6 is the ground combat element of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), and was conducting Operation ASBURY PARK. Photo by: Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks
22nd MEU Afghanistan Recap: MEU drives stake into Taliban heartland
Submitted by: 22nd MEU
Story Identification #: 20049351424
Story by Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks

NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain (Sept. 3, 2004) -- During its failed decade-long involvement in Afghanistan, the Soviet Union and its Communist Afghan allies rarely, and never successfully, penetrated the country's remote and inaccessible Oruzgan province.

During this time, and in the years of bloody civil war that followed, the Oruzgan province served as a breeding ground for anti-government sentiment. In fact, Mullah Omar, leader of the fundamentalist Islamic Taliban movement, hails from the region.

It was into the Oruzgan province that the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) initiated the first conventional U.S. military expedition the region had seen and subsequently executed what Army Maj. Gen. Eric Olson, commanding general of Combined Joint Task Force 76, called "the most successful military operation since Operation ENDURING FREEDOM began."

Designated Task Force Linebacker, the MEU consisted of its Command Element, Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 6th Marines, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 266 (Reinforced), and MEU Service Support Group 22. The MEU's commanding officer, Col. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., also had under his operational control several companies of the Afghan National Army and eventually the Army's 2nd Bn., 5th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division.

Starting with overt vehicular reconnaissance patrols toward the town of Tarin Kowt in mid-April, near which the MEU established Forward Operating Base Ripley, the MEU conducted more than a dozen major combat offensives and civil military operations through late July. During the course of these missions, the MEU's achievements included:

- 101 enemy fighters killed in action
- 9 enemy fighters wounded in action
- 96 battlefield detainees
- 361 combat patrols
- 175 village/compound cordon and searches
- 2,502 weapons confiscated and destroyed
- 75,00 pieces of ordnance/explosives confiscated and destroyed
- 58,000 Afghan citizens registered to vote in the country's upcoming elections
- 2,027 medical or dental patients treated
- 108 civil affairs projects begun or completed

These successes were not without cost. Cpl. Ronald R. Payne Jr., a light armored vehicle scout with BLT 1/6, was killed during a firefight with Taliban fighters on May 7, and 14 other Marines and a Sailor were wounded in action during the course of the MEU's time in-country.

The MEU's campaign marked the longest incursion by a Marine Expeditionary Unit into Afghanistan, and one of the furthest in-land pushes in Marine Corps history.

"Never again can they use this place [Oruzgan Province] as a sanctuary," Olson said in an address to the MEU at Kandahar Air Field as the unit prepared to leave Afghanistan. "You went places that has never seen an American. You proved to the world the United States is going to take this fight to the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan unafraid and absolutely determined."

While accolades from senior military officers offer a glimpse into the MEU's accomplishments, the most telling description of the individual Marines and Sailors' service comes from a Taliban fighter.

"These Americans are not like the ones before," he told interrogators after his capture during Operation ASBURY PARK in early June. "They stay and fight. Wherever they go they create death; they are death walkers."

This is the final installment in a 11-part series chronicling the 22nd MEU (SOC)'s operations and missions in Afghanistan. After its retrograde from Afghanistan, the MEU served briefly as the Central Command theater reserve before beginning its voyage home.

The unit is scheduled to return to the United States in mid-September.

For more information on the 22nd MEU (SOC)'s role in Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, visit the unit's web site at http://www.22meu.usmc.mil.

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Photos included with story:

	Two Marines from Bravo Co., Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 6th Marines test fire their rifles prior to kicking off Operation THUNDERBALL, a cordon and search operation in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province on May 30, 2004. BLT 1/6 is the ground combat element of the 22nd Marine Expeditonary Unit (Special Operations Capable). Photo by: Cpl. Jemssy Alvarez

	Smoke and flames erupt from a cache of weapons, ammunition, and explosives destroyed by Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technicians from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) during Operation BLADE RUNNER on May 25, 2004. Photo by: Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks

	A young Afghan boy stands near a Marine from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) as the Marine's comrades search a village in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province during Operation THUNDER ROAD. The 22nd MEU (SOC) spent nearly five months in Afghanistan conducting combat and civil military operations. Photo by: Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks

	Sgt. Christine Griego searches an Afghan woman during Operation THUNDER ROAD, a mission conducted by the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province. Normally assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 266 (Reinforced), Griego participated in the mission alongside the infantrymen of Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 6th Marines. Photo by: Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks

	A Marine from Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 6th Marines, the ground combat element of the 22nd Marine Expeditonary Unit (Special Operations Capable), holds a notebook in which Afghan villagers have pledged their allegiance to the central Afghan government and denounce Taliban insurgents. Although completely unofficial and unbinding, the villagers' willingness to speak out against Afghanistan's anti-coalition is a tangible reminder of the MEU's success in routing the enemies of freedom in rural Afghanistan. Photo by: Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks

	Smoke erupts from the mountaintop in central Afghanistan where anti-coalition militia have taken refuge during a pitched firefight with elements of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable). The smoke was caused by a bomb dropped from an Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber called in to support the MEU's attack during Operation ASBURY PARK. Photo by: Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks

	Lance Cpl. Darin Emde surveys a mountain in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province for Taliban snipers firing upon him and his fellow Marines in Charlie Co., Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 6th Marines. BLT 1/6 is the ground combat element of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), and was conducting Operation ASBURY PARK. Photo by: Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks

	A marksman from Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 6th Marines, the ground combat element of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), surveys the area around Khas Oruzgan, Afghanistan during Operation PEGASUS, a security operation that ran through May and into June 2004. Photo by: Lance Cpl. Charles G. Poag

	Lance Cpl. Jason Charest, of Dover, N.Y., a bulk fuel specialist with MEU Service Support Group 22, refills vehicles from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) during Operation ULYSSES IV in south-central Afghanistan in mid-April 2004. Photo by: Cpl. Robert A. Sturkie

	First Lt. Kris Cozad, executive officer for Charlie Co., Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 6th Marines, coordinates the helicopter extraction of his Marines in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province during Operation EL DORADO. BLT 1/6 is the ground combat element of the 22d Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), and was supported in the operation by the helicopters from Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 266 (Reinforced). Photo by: Cpl. Robert A. Sturkie

	Weapons at the ready, two Marines from Bravo Co., Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 6th Marines enter a building during Operation CADILLAC RANCH, a cordon and search operation in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province on June 25, 2004. BLT 1/6 is the ground combat element of the 22nd Marine Expeditonary Unit (Special Operations Capable). Photo by: Cpl. Jemssy Alvarez

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