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March 10, 2006

Jarheads Are Real Pieces of Work

In late 2004, Cpl. Jason Watrous spent several weeks of his military hitch in a city west of Baghdad.

The work was hard. The hours were long. And that was only the start of it.

Watrous left the service in July to work in a mill in upstate New York. By Christmas, though, the square-jawed 24-year-old had re-enlisted in the Marine Corps.

"I like deployments," Watrous said he realized.

He wanted to get back to what he discovered in that teeming city, Fallujah.


...and thank goodness.

Posted by tree hugging sister at March 10, 2006 12:43 AM

Comments

"That's what you join to do. You don't go into the Marine Corps to hand out flowers."

Hehehe.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at March 10, 2006 07:24 AM

Glad to see the Marines are in fine shape, made of such excellent people.

Posted by: The_Real_JeffS at March 10, 2006 09:22 AM

I imagine it's pretty boss if they have a vantage point so you can see any of the operations in town. They used to close the whole MCX and commissary section down at Camp LeJeune to run real-time crowd control and house to house exercises ~ fascinating stuff. THAT was in the mid-90's, too. Pretty prescient on top of everything.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at March 10, 2006 09:37 AM

They are probably taking notes from the Army's combat training at NTC and JRTC. NTC and JRTC have mock villages built in the training areas staffed with civilians on the battlefield so guys can get real MOUT training.

We also had cameras everywhere. At JRTC -- my primary experience -- I spent some time in the command and control center in the primary MOUT city. Very impressive and amazing what you could see going on.

I truly feel that JRTC is the model that all CTCs should follow. NTC just happens to have the environment that everyone needs right now.

Posted by: Cullen at March 10, 2006 09:55 AM