Word: battalion
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...combat,” Trama said. Before Morris served in Iraq, he enrolled in the Army’s Infantry Officer Basic Course and Ranger School in Fort Benning, Ga. Morris completed his training as a second lieutenant in May 2005 and in June he reported to the Second Battalion of the 502nd Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division.Morris said his 30-person platoon aimed to provide security for Iraq’s fledgling democracy.Although “the large majority of Iraqis in our sector were grateful for the security that the coalition forces provided, they look forward...
...demanding divisions of the military. Brooks is one of only three Harvard students currently involved in the Marines ROTC. About half of the Harvardians who try the program drop out before graduating. Brooks, in contrast, has not only persevered: he’s been promoted. He was recently named battalion commander, putting him in charge of 65 Harvard, MIT, and Tufts cadets. “I now have six stripes on my arm instead of two,” Brooks says, perhaps more modestly than he should. Last summer, forsaking the beach, the Massachusetts native also persevered through six grueling...
...weeks the 2-69, an entire armored battalion, was cut off from other American forces. The roads in and out of its base were saturated with improvised explosive devices, says Captain Chas Cannon. At one stage, there were 100 explosions a week. "You expected to get hit ... possibly several times," says Cannon. The roads were closed; some food was rationed. But with aggressive combat operations, sniper assaults and the building of precarious outposts, the 2-69 has regained control of the city's main artery, "Route Michigan," the troops' lifeline. Now they are struggling to keep it open. "Anyone...
...door meeting on Capitol Hill last week, Virginia's John Warner, joined by Democratic Senators Carl Levin of Michigan and Mark Dayton of Minnesota, sat across the table from 10 military officers chosen for their experience on the battlefield rather than in the political arena. Warner rounded up the battalion commanders to get at what the military calls "ground truth"--the unvarnished story of what's going on in Iraq...
There are about 160,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq, a number U.S. commanders in the region plan to maintain at least through the Iraqi national assembly elections on Dec. 15. But the battalion commanders, according to sources close to last week's meeting, said that because there are not enough troops, they have to "leapfrog" around Iraq to keep insurgents from returning to towns that have been cleared out. The officers also stressed that the lack of manpower--rather than of protective armor or signal jammers--posed one of the biggest obstacles in dealing with roadside bombs, which have...