Marines in Kuwait expect to move on

LIVING SUPPORT AREA 7, Kuwaiti desert — Marine Corps tank commander Sgt. Jason Melville knows his new outpost is only a way station. He expects to move to a new neighborhood.

“Most of us think we’ll be heading up north soon. You don’t send all of these Marines with all of this equipment here for nothing,” said Melville, of the 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division.

As the buildup of U.S. troops in Kuwait reaches critical mass, Marine armor, artillery and infantry units from Twentynine Palms, Calif., are scratching out a temporary home at a remote outpost some 30 miles south of the Iraqi border — making it the northern-most American camp in Kuwait.

While most of Melville’s buddies agree with his prediction, last weekend the units were more concerned with the logistics of setting up camp and checking their equipment.

All of the Marines’ armor and artillery — the tanks, several batteries of 155 mm howitzers, dozens of amphibious assault vehicles — is being unloaded from prepositioned cargo ships and trucked to the desert.

The gear is almost identical to the equipment they train with back home.

Joining the ranks

Over the past week, several elements of the 45,000-strong 1st Marine Expeditionary Force have flown in from Southern California posts and are joining up with the equipment, military officials said.

Living Support Area 7, or LSA 7 as this camp is known, sprouts up like a tent city in the middle of the vast, barren desert north of Kuwait City. Grim-faced Marines man large-caliber machine guns and Humvees at guard posts and defensive trenches.

They have a lot of space to watch: There is nothing but flat sand and the shimmering horizon for 360 degrees around the camp. “We’re used to training and living in the desert,” said Lance Cpl. Timothy DeLorenzo, from 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines.

“But even in Twentynine Palms there’s at least some brush and some mountains on the horizon. There isn’t a damn thing out here,” said the Gaithersburg, Md., native, gesturing from his dug-in, sandbagged post near the camp’s perimeter.

DeLorenzo has been at LSA 7 for one week, and he has already seen major changes. When he arrived, only a few small tents dotted the area. Just days later, heavy equipment began to arrive, tents multiplied and Marines started filling them.

The troops now live in huge, white tents manufactured in Pakistan. Showers are being installed and plans are being made for little details like laundry facilities.

Toward the center of the camp, infantry units practiced small unit tactics by advancing on an imaginary enemy position behind a bulldozed sand berm. Observers called out new targets and yelled out names of simulated casualties.

The Marines advanced on the berm, periodically taking cover face-first in the desert sand.

“Bang-bang! Pop-pop!” shouted out the Marines, simulating fire from their weapons.

“McKnight — sniper right! Take him out!” shouted the platoon leader. “Take a team of three back and secure the casualty!”

Later in the week, all the Marines would get a chance to try out their weapons for real — including the artillery and armor — during live-fire drills.

Taking the heat

Though temperatures in the desert hover in the low 70s, the Marines are already being prepared for the heat to come.

“Right now, the biggest thing is to make sure they drink enough water,” said Hospitalman David Gloria, the 20-year-old corpsman for 4th Platoon, Company I, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines.

“We’re used to the desert, so it’s not a shock to the system. But you always have to be reminded of things like that. If you do it from the beginning, it doesn’t become a problem later when it heats up.”

On the other side of camp, artillery crews practiced setting up their M-198 howitzers. Huge 7-ton trucks dragged the guns into place and observers shouted coordinates to the eight-man gun crews, who dug the 16,000-pound artillery pieces into the desert floor.

“From the time the first truck stops to the time the last lanyard is pulled, it should take the full battery of six guns 12 minutes,” said Gunnery Sgt. Stan Iszewski, who celebrated his 38th birthday on Saturday by directing a Reconnaissance, Selection, Occupation, Position drill for a battery of gunners from the 3rd Battalion.

“This is a good chance to re-energize the Marines. It’s a good chance to knock the rust off and hone their skills,” said Iszewski, of Buffalo, N.Y.

The gunners said the mood around camp was similar to home.

“It’s the same feeling, different desert,” said Sgt. Samuel Tolbert, working on a 155 mm gun.

“I’m sure the feeling will change when we get ready to do what we came here for,” said the 24-year-old from Las Vegas. “You’re waiting, your family back home is waiting. I hope we do our business here and get home.”

For now, the Marines’ first orders of business seem to be picking names for their equipment and for their new home — something more catchy than “LSA 7.”

“As soon as we find some spray paint, we’re going to pick a name for our tank and slap it right on the barrel of the gun,” said Cpl. Steven Brown, the 22-year-old gunner on Melville’s tank.

“We’ll come up with something good, but we don’t have any spray paint yet. So we have to wait.”

Marines’ key word

“Wait” is the key word for these Marines and the thousands of other U.S. troops digging in throughout the Persian Gulf region.

As the camp begins to take on life, Melville perches atop his Abrams tank and glances across the desert toward the Iraqi border. It could be a matter of weeks before Marines start rolling, he guesses.

“I think it’s something we have to do. I plan on having kids in the next few years, and I don’t want them growing up in a world where they have to worry about some madman in Baghdad with nuclear weapons,” he said.

“Our parents had to worry about fallout shelters. Our kids shouldn’t.”