Lance Cpl. Christopher J. Gray, a rifleman with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, peers through his rifle combat optic, which now has a hole through it caused by an insurgent's bullet. Gray's head was only six inches away from the impact when it struck his rifle during a firefight, May 15. Gray suffered a minor shrapnel wound to his face and continued to fight during the engagement. Gray, 20, is from Warner Robins, Ga. Photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

All Marines endure some risk of serious injury or even death while deployed to combat, but for Lance Cpl. Christopher J. Gray, a few inches and a punctured rifle is all that separated him from a very bad day on the battlefield.

Gray, a 20-year-old rifleman with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and his Marines are no strangers to direct conflicts with insurgents in Nawa’s northern area. On May 15, during the final patrol of his deployment, Gray and his seasoned squad were in a firefight near Patrol Base Poole.

The squad was engaged by approximately eight insurgents from two locations with machine guns and AK-47 rifles. The patrol found cover in a nearby irrigation canal during the battle and Gray, who had his M-16A4 up in his shoulder looking through his rifle combat optics at a nearby building, heard the crack of a bullet and felt a sharp pain in his face.

Gray said he heard and felt shock of the bullet’s impact, causing him to drop his rifle to his side. When he noticed blood on his face, he notified his patrol leader, but continued to fight.

An insurgent's bullet punched a hole through the base of the rifle combat optic of Lance Cpl. Christopher J. Gray, a rifleman with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment. Photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

It was not until the firefight was over and Marines began to return to the patrol base did Gray notice that the bullet had punched a hole right through the base of his RCO’s aluminum housing, sending the metal shard into his cheek.

Only six inches separated his right temple from the bullet’s impact on his weapon.

Gray said looking back on the events after they happened made him realize just how close he had come to being seriously injured or killed.

“That was my last patrol before going home,” said Gray, a native of Warner Robins, Ga., while shaking his head.

Gray’s squad has already endured one of their Marines killed in action in January. That Marine is now the namesake of their patrol base. In total, Bravo Company has suffered three of the battalion’s five fatalities during the deployment.

“When I first saw what happened to Gray, I thought it was a little too close for comfort,” said 1st Lt. Paul C. Trower, 2nd Platoon commander, Bravo Company, 1/3 “When Gray arrived, he was fine, but a little shaken up and had some adrenaline pumping. He was very calm, considering what had happened.”

Trower, 25, from Fort Hood, Texas, said as a platoon commander, hearing about engagements and close calls like that makes him hold his breath, but was relieved that all of his Marines came back alright.

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Story by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

Within minutes of leaving the protective barriers of Observation Post Khers for a security patrol Dec. 21, a squad of Marines and Afghan national army soldiers heard the sharp pops of small arms fire nearby.

“They always shoot at us,” said Sgt. Mike L. Osburn, a squad leader with 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, who led the patrol. “It wasn’t very close. They don’t really want to fight today.”

For Marines operating from the joint Marine and ANA outpost, referred to by Marines simply as “ManBearPig,” getting shot at by Taliban insurgents from a distance is a daily occurrence in this remote northwestern area of Nawa district. ManBearPig is argued to be one of the most dangerous and isolated posts Marines maintain in Nawa.

“Sometimes the shots come close, but usually they’re not very accurate,” said Osburn, a 25-year-old from Raleigh, N.C., who has completed previous combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan with 1/3. “A few days ago we took machine gun fire that hit our guard tower and around the barricades. You always have to keep an eye over your shoulder.

“It’s kind of like the ‘Wild West’ out here,” said Osburn, who leads his Marines on security patrols through what he describes as very muddy, flat and unforgiving terrain where Afghans farm the desert landscape using irrigation canals. “It’s not gun slinging every day, but it’s not very friendly. When our patrol walks by, kids run into homes, people stop farming and just kind of disappear. It’s like an old western where everyone in town knows the bad guys are about to show their face around the corner.”

Another danger for Marines and ANA soldiers at ManBearPig is the threat of improvised explosive devices, both on and off of roads. One nearby road is so scarred by blasts and visibly peppered with waiting bombs that Marines, civilians and insurgents alike know to keep well clear of it. Not long ago, Marines discovered an unlucky insurgent who tried planting a bomb and was killed when he accidentally stepped on another bomb’s pressure activation plate, said Osburn.

Bravo Company Marines say conducing counterinsurgency operations and working with the population at Nawa’s northwestern edge is challenging due to the Taliban’s undermining influence and intimidation of local citizens who are afraid to come forward. Sometimes the only way Afghan citizens will speak with Marines is behind a wall or building, where they know insurgents can’t see.

“We embed ANA soldiers in each of our patrols,” said 2nd Lt. Victor P. Barnes, Jr., platoon commander, 1st Platoon, Bravo Company. “They notice a lot of the little things in town faster than we do. They can tell when something’s out of the norm.”

Typically, ANA soldiers enlist from Afghan provinces other than Helmand and speak mostly Dari, but an advantage of serving alongside this unit of ANA soldiers is nearly all of them speak Pashto, the primary language in Nawa. This allows the ANA to take the lead in interacting with local citizens if an interpreter is not around, said Osburn.

“Living here with the ANA is very interesting, and we all get along great,” said Barnes. “Thankfully, we have an interpreter, but we’ve learned some Pashtu, they’ve learned some English, and we’re teaching them some of our tactics.”

Last week, Marines also included ANA soldiers in their Marine Corps Martial Arts Program training to further enhance the soldiers’ combat effectiveness.

When not on patrol in the often knee-deep mud which can stop vehicles in their tracks, Marines spend time at ManBearPig standing guard posts or enjoying precious hours of rest.
Some Marines pursue personal interests in their off time, like Lance Cpl. Ryan C. Jensen, a machine gunner with Scout Sniper Platoon, Bravo Company. Jensen said he has goals of developing his creative skills in many different ways over the months he expects to spend at the small camp.

At night Jensen often plays his harmonica, guitar, drumsticks, reads and writes, or draws in his sketchbook. Recently, he has begun writing rap lyrics for a satirical music video in which he and his platoon mates will star.

“I think we got the lucky card and will be at ManBearPig the whole deployment,” said Jensen, a 24-year-old from Sonoma, Calif. “When you’re not getting bullets flying over your head, this is a peaceful place. There’s a lot to see here for inspiration you can write about. I really want to leave here having bettered myself.”

But ManBearPig is certainly not all quiet or fun and games, Jensen warned.

“We’ve trained hard and we want to be where the action is,” he said of his platoon. “We took a [rocket-propelled grenade] attack the first day we were out here and it was a real wakeup call. Right now, this is the place for fighting bad guys.”

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Story by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

A crowd of Nawa citizens forms a along the bank of the canal as Marines of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, prepare to recover a stuck car near Forward Operating Base Spin Ghar Dec. 22. Photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

When the unoccupied car of a Nawa citizen careened down a steep canal embankment and splashed into the swift, cold waters just outside Forward Operating Base Spin Ghar Dec. 22, Marines quickly came to the rescue.

A squad of Marines with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, were on scene within minutes to assess the accident. A humvee was brought out to tow the vehicle back up the embankment.

“The car was parked on top of the hill and the emergency brake wasn’t on,” said Lance Cpl. Adam D. Masle, rifleman, 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, who was standing his guard post and saw the car plunge into the water. “It started to roll forward and then went over the side and right in. The little kids there were watching it and then the owner came out and he looked really mad.”

The car came to a stop with the front right tire and bumper submerged in the canal and the other front tire sunken into the muddy embankment. When the car’s owner first saw it, he quickly made his way down the hill and tried to reverse the car, only making his predicament worse, Marines said.

As Marines positioned their humvee to pull the car out, a crowd of children and local residents began to form on the road to watch the events unfold, but were asked to stand back for their own safety.

Once the car’s rear axle was rigged for tow, Lance Cpl. Lance Cpl. Edward J. Stevens, III, a rifleman with 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, slowly drove forward as his fellow Marines guided him.

The car jutted backwards as it freed from the mud, but was eventually pulled back to the high ground of the road to the driver and crowd’s rejoice.

“I had good directions and Marines were watching all around so it wasn’t very difficult,” said Stevens, 19, from Potaski, N.Y. “We’ve towed out our own vehicles, but not a local national’s.”

The Marine patrol and humvee quickly packed their gear and returned to their normal duties at the forward operating base as the car drove away.

“We helped the people out and showed our support here, that really improves relations and wins hearts and minds,” said Masle, 20, from Fulton, N.Y. “And I think that guy will use his brake from now on.”

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Story by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

Seaman Timothy Wienke, hospital corpsman, Police Mentoring Team, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and Cpls. Carlos Martinez and Carlos J. Orellana, military policemen, PMT, 1/3, chop vegetables, season meat and cook sides at the Patrol Base Jaker custom field kitchen, Dec. 5. Marines built the kitchen area at Jaker by hand and they say it provides them the luxury to cook and eat something other than field rations while living Nawa District's bazaar. Wienke, 21, is from Chicago, Martinez, 22, is from Roma, Texas, and Orellana, 22, is from Houston. Photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

When Marines hear they must live at a small patrol base for a long period of time, many think of primitive facilities, dirty conditions and bland, prepackaged meals coming from brown bags.

For Marines with the Police Mentoring Team assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, living on Patrol Base Jaker near the Nawa District’s bazaar means good eats. Dozens of Marines of Alpha Company, 1/3, and Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, skipped the regular meal lines, Dec. 5, and followed their stomachs to the improvised wood stove kitchen on camp, where Sgt. Juan A. Flores and his team were frying chicken, cooking rice and topping it all with fresh pico de gallo over Afghan flat bread. Their fresh ingredients were purchased from the bazaar earlier that day.

The 1/3 Lava Dogs living at Jaker inherited the kitchen from the Marines of 1/5, from whom they recently took over the area. The hand-built, dual-burner stove is made from engineer stakes, barrier steel wire grates, British military ammunition cans and parachute cord.

“Before we made it in October, everyone had their own little cooking areas when we first got here, so we consolidated them into one big one,” said Cpl. Michael H. Gobel, a humvee driver for Charlie Company, 1/5, who helped construct the kitchen.

“We looked through the junk pile and scavenged parts to build with,” said Gobel, 21, from El Cajon, Calif. “I used it to cook on every night I was here. It was way better than the usual chow and I’m glad we’re able to pass it on the 1/3 Marines so they can enjoy it.”

“Out here, real chow halls are not easily accessible, so you rely on your Marine ingenuity to make things better,” said Flores, PMT platoon sergeant and a 28-year-old from Los Angeles. “We want to live as comfortably as possible, and dinner is a big deal to all of us. Preparing a meal together, cooking together and eating together – it’s just like family.”

Flores said he was very happy to see a kitchen already in place on the camp, saving his Marines the effort of building one. Before his team deployed from Military Police Company at Camp Pendleton, Calif., he had already dreamed of making his own meals while deployed.

“When I was deployed to Iraq last year, my staff [non-commissioned officer in charge] wanted to make life better and decided we were not going to eat [Meals, Ready-to-Eat] every day if we can avoid it. We were living in a house with the Iraqi police as we trained them, so we bought and rented pots and pans, a stove – everything we would need to make a good dinner every night.

“Pretty soon, we had infantry Marines from down the street fighting to come over to our house for dinner,” said Flores.

Meals usually start early in the afternoon with PMT Marines chopping vegetables, gathering wood scraps, preparing and seasoning meat, cleaning pots and pans, and buying last-minute ingredients. Their seasonings and spices are mostly collected and donated from care packages. “Out here we can grill it, boil it, bake it or fry it,” said Flores.

Flores admits his team’s cuisine has a Mexican bias, since his main chef and more than half of his Marines are Mexican-American or married to Hispanic women. Judging by the crowd and smiles on faces of Marines gathered around the kitchen, nobody seems to mind.

For other Marines like Cpl. Carlos J. Orellana, PMT, 1/3, who are not as experienced with cooking, they take it as a great opportunity to learn.

“It’s exciting for me to be able to do this here,” said Orellana, a 22-year-old from Houston. “I cooked a little back home, but this is cooking in the raw. It’s a whole new experience and I’m going to learn a lot, too.

“What’s great about this is that it all comes down to taking care of people,” said Orellana. “If someone says, ‘Wow! This is really good!’ then that made everything worth it for us.”

As the PMT Marines begin training local Afghan national police forces, they won’t always be at Jaker to cook, but when they are, “you’ll see us cooking,” said Orellana.

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Story by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

Jayne, Michele, Megan, Kate and Mary Beth of the St. Louis Rams cheerleaders put on a performance for the Marines of 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment during a recent visit to Forward Operating Base Delaram, Afghanistan.

With bright white smiles and cheery attitudes, five of the St. Louis Rams cheerleaders visited Forward Operating Base Delaram here recently to put on a show and help boost the morale of the Marines of 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment.

The cheerleaders arrived by helicopter at 9:30 a.m. and were greeted by Lt. Col. Patrick J. Cashman, 2/3′s battalion commander, Sgt. Maj. Jason E. Patrick, the battalion sergeant major, and Gunnery Sgt. Joshua T. Laverty, Headquarters and Service Co. gunnery sergeant.

Although the ladies were there to entertain, the Marines of 2/3 decided to do some entertaining of their own by putting on a couple of demonstrations for them and giving them a tour of the base.

Laverty was in charge of their security and showing them around along with making sure they had everything they needed while on site.

“They seemed very excited to be here and to do the things we had planned for them,” said Laverty. “They were also extremely receptive to everything we told them about, and they were filled with questions. The whole day was definitely a refreshing change of pace.”

While being shown around the base the cheerleaders talked and took pictures with Marines they met. They also gave out posters they had autographed.

“It really shows their character – being willing to come out here and do what they do,” added Laverty. “I’m really thankful for their generosity. What they do really helps boost morale.”

They were shown the mortar pits and given an exhibition on the unit’s adopted weapon system, the 120mm mortar, normally organic to the Army. During the exhibition of the 120mm system the cheerleaders had their photos taken with the mortarmen while holding some of the 120 mm rounds.

Michele, one of the St. Louis Rams cheerleaders, looks through a Marine sniper's high powered rifle scope while Gunnery Sgt. Matthew W. Marks, Sniper Platoon platoon sergeant, steadies the weapon during a recent visit to Forward Operating Base Delaram, Afghanistan.

Weapons Co. scout snipers gave the cheerleaders a chance to look out over the city of Delaram through high powered rifle scopes and try on a Marine combat load – to give them an idea of the amount of weight Marines carry on their body when they are standing post or outside the wire.

Before breaking for lunch, the cheerleaders were introduced to the Improvised Explosive Device sniffing dogs. Charlie, the dog, and her handler Sgt. Andrew T. Ustaszewski showed them.

“This was all very amazing, and we got to see a lot of cool stuff,” said Marybeth, a five-year Rams cheerleader. “This experience really gave me a new appreciation for what the Marines do.”

The cheerleaders started their hour-long show promptly at 3 p.m. in their Rams’ cheerleading uniforms. Part of the show was a question and answer portion where the Marines competed for calendars. Marines also earned prizes in the best “touchdown dance” competition.

“I really loved the opportunity to come out here and see what you guys do and how you live,” added Marybeth, who is also a registered nurse. “Coming out here is an honor for us and we really support everything that our military does.”

“This was awesome!” said Megan, the cheerleaders’ captain. “I came out last year, and I by far think that this was a much better experience.

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Photos and story by Lance Cpl. John Hitesman