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

A view of the two main buildings at Patrol Base Sullivan, Nawa District, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Sept. 11. 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment is deployed with Regimental Combat Team 3, whose mission is to conduct counter insurgency operations in partnership with the Afghan national security forces in southern Afghanistan. Photo by Lance Cpl. John McCall

Marines possess an uncanny ability to call any place “home,” whether it’s a mixture of sand and gravel, or in this instance, a Taliban compound.

Marines with Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, have been operating out of what Marines refer to as “the mansion” here, since Aug. 1.

According to what local Afghans have told Marines, the compound belonged to a drug lord who was having it built to house his entire family. However, the construction was never completed because he was arrested and taken to prison.

Marines were sent to the compound to clear it out, believing it was a Taliban stronghold. They expected resistance when taking over the compound, but were met with an empty home in need of some landscaping.

“It was a real mess when we first got here,” said Cpl. Jacob Mikesell, 22, a mortarman from Papillion, Neb. “There was grass growing up to our chests, the buildings had mounds of dust covering everything and trash was thrown all over the place.”

A view of the front gate at Patrol Base Sullivan, Nawa District, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Sept. 11. 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment is deployed with Regimental Combat Team 3, whose mission is to conduct counter insurgency operations in partnership with the Afghan national security forces in southern Afghanistan. Photo by Lance Cpl. John McCall

The compound consists of two, three-story buildings, which Marines and Afghan national army soldiers inhabit.

The two main buildings are made out of mostly marble and concrete, wooden window frames and doors with designs carved into them. Colored tiles cover the outside. The compound is surrounded by gigantic walls, giving it the look of a castle from outside. Marines can’t help but call their home a mansion.

“After we moved in, locals told us that most of the Taliban in the area had run away,” said Sgt. Nicholas Hine, a squad leader with Weapons Co., 1/5. “But we know there are still some here who are trying to coerce the population to go against us.”

Marines conduct foot patrols and vehicle mounted patrols daily to keep the surrounding area safe.

Other Weapons Company forward operating positions rely on being supplied with food and water from the mansion. During local village visits, Marines promise to provide security and help them the best that they can with their issues and concerns.

“We collect a lot of census information and atmospherics too. We try to get to know people by talking to them, learning where they live and understand what problems they have,” said Hine, a 24-year-old from Mohnton, Pa.

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Story by Lance Cpl. John McCall

Marines with Company C, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, have been using formerly Taliban-owned real estate as a base of operations for nearly two months now.

During their time here, the troops have seen many changes and learned a few lessons since their arrival July 2.

“When we first got here it was like a ghost town. We would go out on patrol and not see a single person,” said Lance Cpl. Colin Newman, 20, a rifleman from Somerset, Wis. “Now, a lot of the locals that moved out are starting to come back. We’re seeing much more activity around here.”

Company C’s 3rd Platoon is currently living in what was once a Taliban safe house. During the battalion’s opening operation in Helmand province, Marines discovered the compound.

“There were sleeping bags lined up outside, and there was food recently cooked when we got there,” said Sgt. Kevin Woods, 22, a squad leader from Early, Texas. “A few compounds away, we found a cache consisting of more than 20 pressure plates, jugs of HME (homemade explosive), anti-tank mines and anti-personnel mines.”

Unfortunately, before uncovering the cache, one of the platoon’s vehicles ran over an improvised explosive device, injuring two of their comrades.

“I don’t remember much of what happened after the explosion. I just remember having a bad feeling about that compound,” said Lance Cpl. Samuel Meyer, 20, a machine gunner from Pasadena, Calif. “The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital.”

Meyer was the turret gunner in the vehicle during that patrol. After the IED detonated, he was ejected from inside and landed in a nearby canal. 21-year-old Lance Cpl. James Buttery, a rifleman from Las Vegas, was driving when all this happened.

“We were about to pass the compound and everything just went black,” Buttery said. “I woke up in the driver’s seat and saw the side doors had been blown open. Meyer was out of the turret and my face was covered in blood.”

Buttery had smashed his face against the steering wheel during the explosion. Luckily, both Marines escaped with only minor injuries.

“I feel grateful to be alive. It could have been a lot worse,” Meyer said.

After all the dust had settled, Marines searched the nearby compound, uncovering the enemy hideout.

Living in that compound today, Marines with 3rd Platoon conduct operations throughout the area surrounding it and work together with the local populace to keep incidents like the one July 2 from happening again.

“We do a lot of security patrols in this area. We go around to compounds and let people know that we are in the area and to come talk to us if they have any information about enemy activity,” Newman said.

The Marines of 3rd Platoon have found a place to call home for the time being and will continue to get to know their neighbors for the remainder of their seven-month deployment.

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Story by Lance Cpl. John McCall