In the last week, the Marines conducted a number of operations to include a raid on a particular mosque. The amount of planning that goes into a raid such as this is extensive. You would be amazed at how much we study the proper approach, not just tactically but culturally. Every effort is made not to overly offend those Iraqis who are not targets of the action itself. The second and third order of effects of missions are considered by the most talented and experienced operators and commanders. If I had to categorize the operation, I would say that without sacrificing speed and security, Marines are very vigilant about displaying the proper amount of "respect" in and around the target. I mention this because we absolutely 100% know that mosques are used to plan insurgent attacks, used as terrorists meeting places, used to store weapons, used to hide hostages, and used to spread hate and lies. Of course not all mosques are nefarious, but a significant percentage in the area where our Marines operate seem to be. Even with this in mind, as mentioned above, every effort is made during planning and execution not to trespass on the cultural importance of mosques. Once the mission is complete, additional efforts are made to explain to the locals what we did and why we did it.

During raid on this particular mosque, a large amount of enemy propaganda along with weapons and a detonator for an improvised explosive device was found among the suspected insurgents. The detonator belonged to an explosive charge that was placed in the ground approximately 250 meters from the mosque on the road leading up to it. The propaganda can be best categorized as hateful (believe it or not there were even hand bills about the Marine eating spiders).

Instead of describing more about this target, I wanted to share some observations about how the Marine Sergeants make these kind of operations go. On this particular mission, try and imagine the Sergeant's thinking as he has just spent hours/days in preparation for the operation, stressing to his Marines the sensitive nature of what they are going to do and all the do's and don'ts on objective. Once he finally gets his Marines on the objective, he is non-stop positioning and repositioning the men, keeping civilians at arms length, watching the detainees and coordinating his tasks under the search, knowing that one small mistake could get someone killed or will at least be fodder for the insurgents continued message of fear and hate.

It is about 110 degrees outside, he has had about 3 hours sleep the night prior and he is wearing about 75 pounds of body armor, weapons and ammunition. By the way, he is listening to at least one radio constantly and is controlling around 10-15 guys while coordinating with his adjacent squad leaders and platoon commander.

As all of this is going on, he watches weapons and propaganda being taken from the mosque and maintains his and his Marines' humanity toward the detainees and local civilians. He stays on the objective as long as it takes in the hot sun, treats the Iraqis fairly and firmly while he constantly moves among his Marines and checks their position and ensuring that they are watching their sector. He waits for an RPG to come whistling in or an automatic weapons to open up on his Marines at any time. He is also thinking with every tick of the clock, some guy may be out there right now digging in an IED on his exfil route or laying in an ambush so even as he leaves the target, his Marines remain at significant risk. They are not "safe" until they get back to their patrol base. Even there, mortars can be expected around their position daily.

The mission lasts for hours. He gets all of his Marines back safely where he is responsible for checking to make sure everyone is healthy, all gear and weapons are accounted for and everyone is cleaning their weapons while the squad is debriefed. Once the debrief is complete and the weapons and equipment is cleaned he might get a chance to sit down in the shade for an hour or so until he goes over to the platoon command post and gets his order for that night's patrol. From that point on, it is back to work. You rarely will catch this guy saying anything negative (when he does so, he is careful to do it to his peers or maybe the Staff Sergeant or Lieutenant but not in front of his Marines). He is 23-27 years old and has been a Marine for about 5-10 years.

I am not writing you about any one guy in particular. This description fits many Sergeants here. I just happened to get a letter from "R" [changed to maintain privacy] the other day. Because he was one of these Sergeants 13 years ago, he asked me to find a "26 year old Sergeant and shake his hand for [him]." I happened to see a couple guys that fit this very description on the objective the other day and thought I would write you about them. They are truly hard young men who have more responsibility than most people understand. They work 7 days a week - no weekends, no privacy, no peace and quiet. Even when they are sleeping, they are tasked with react duties or reinforcing the perimeter if their position is attacked. Rarely do they get a chance to sleep uninterrupted and never do they get to travel from one point or another on a map without being in charge of men who are in danger. In fact, they are in charge of their men and responsible for their mission all day, all the time without a break. Most of these guys have had at least two combat deployments in the last three years and most will stay in the Corps because they are profoundly proud of what they do.

You can spot a good Sergeant a mile away. And the very good ones have a way of owning the ground that they are on to the point where you are conscious that unless you are in their direct chain of command, you are trespassing when you are near their Marines.

In this war, the Sergeants are making decisions every day that have strategic implications and they are making them under the worst conditions imaginable. The thing about these guys, is that if you tried to give them a break or reduce their responsibility, they would quickly tell you that they would rather have more responsibility and are quite sure that given the opportunity and one more machine gun, they could do more.

I want to close by sharing with you that the coalition put a real hurt on the terrorists and criminals this week. I know it is horrifying to see the hostages killed on television but without being able to go into detail, the coalition has compromised and successfully attacked a number of senior terrorists this past week. While this is going on, the men are training new Iraqi soldiers and police officers and continuing to reach out to the people. The young Marines that are doing the work over here are committed young men who believe that they were doing the right thing. There were losses that are tragic. Losing Marines is a profoundly personal thing to their buddies and fellow Marines. However, I have yet to see the young men's will waiver. They just continue to go out there every day and do their job. Like I said before, it is humbling be around them.

Love,