New Place…New Mission

Volume 1, Issue 1
Greetings to all the
31 MAR 2010 families of Security
Company. It truly is a
privilege for me to be
working along-side your
Marines. As we left the
parade ground on our
departure, the sadness of
saying goodbye to our
families was quickly
replaced with the anxiety
of the task at hand. After
two days of nonstop
travel we were glad to
finally arrive at our
destination.
I would like to thank the
Marines who came here as
our advance party. I know
they missed out on two
extra weeks to be with their
families, but they did an
awesome job helping set us
up for success. When we
arrived they quickly
showed us our new
bedding spaces and helped
introduce us to our new
home for the next seven
months.
A few days after arriving
and being introduced to
the unit we are replacing,
our Regimental
Commander assumed all
responsibilities of our
mission. This means that
your Marines have taken
on the monumental
responsibilities of
providing security to
elements of CLR-15
(FWD).
We spent our first few
days conducting some
necessary training to

S
orient us to our new area
of operations. That was

E C followed by our team

leaders getting introduced
to operations outside the

C O
wire, and finally we took
responsibility for 100% of

U
the mission.

M
I cannot say enough how

R
well trained and well
prepared your Marines
have been. They have
I M quickly picked up right
where the last unit left off

T and are constantly looking

A
for ways to improve

Y
performance.
Rest Assured…

N
Of your Marines.
I look forward to
I am constantly in awe of
The same can be said remaining in touch with
C
the advancement that has
about the quality-of-life you all. You can expect

D
been made in our
services and creature this newsletter every
equipment from the gear

O
comforts that are month, and I will try to
that Marines wear to the
available to your Marines send pictures weekly or
vehicles we drive. I hope
while here on base. The

E
bi-weekly if possible.
you, our families, will rest
M
food is wonderful, there Thank you all for your
assured that your Marines
is a free laundry service, service to our great
wear and drive the best
and Marines can stay in nation. Semper Fi.
P
equipment in the world.

R
touch via the internet or
The gear we have now is Capt. Carper
the phone system.
eons better than the gear I

A used as a platoon
commander in Operation
Iraqi Freedom in 2003. It
Your Marines
Have A/C

N is a comfort to know that

the safety and protection
In their
Quarters

Y
of your Marines is a
priority for all leaders in And running
our chain of command;
and great measures have Water in the
been taken to ensure Showers.
survivability
 We Left and we Landed
Greetings,
Volume 1, Issue 1
I just want to
31 MAR 2010 take the time to
personally thank all of
you for showing up to see
your Marine off. Your
presence on that Parade
deck as we prepared to
push forward to carry out
our God given duties
really was warming and
welcoming and we look
forward to seeing you all
there when we return.
When we finally got on
the bus, looking through
the windows at you our
families gave each and
S everyone of us a TRUE
1st
picture of why we do
E what we do. The ride
up to March was long, yet
C
very exciting. We were
expecting exactly what
we got, “Hurry Up and
U measurable. All one has
Wait.” We had to wait
S
for several hours until our
R
flight actually departed,
however as previously
mentioned, there was
I E
more than enough snacks,
IPODS, MP3’s, and
T
various other electronics
R
the Marines brought
Y
keeping them busy. As
far as reading material,
there was plenty of
G
magazines, bibles and
various other religious
C items there.
E
O
M Congrats/Promotions
P
A Congratulations to the
N
promotion of Charles J.
A
Center for moving up to
the ranks of Corporal of
Marines. This is a very
N T
significant advancement,
one where although he
Y will receive a little extra
pay, the extra
responsibility which
comes along with it is
immeasurable.
Once in the air, eating
was continuous, I believe
most of the Marines had
to undo their seat belts
due to over eating. Prior
to landing in country, the
opportunity to pray was
given. I prayed over the
PA system for everyone
on the plane and our
advance party who were
already on the ground,
asking God to take us
there and bring us back
safe. I have the trust and
confidence in God to do
exactly that. The Marine
Corps Motto of Semper
Fi, means always faithful
to God first, Corps and
Country. As long as we
keep God first he will
always be faithful to us.
This is a fact which is
very tangible and
to do is look at the past
230 plus years that God
has taken us into battle
and brought us back
victorious. Thus as a
company First Sergeant I
have come to understand
the reality of keeping him
first, and lifting everyone
of my Marines up to him
in prayer. So, according
to Semper Fi, we have
God who historically,
currently and in the future
will always be faithful to
us.
Congratulations are also
due to the following
Marines who came over
early and prepared the
way for the main body to
come in. These Marines
did an outstanding job
and received a Letter Of
Appreciation. Cpl
Hudnall, Cpl Hammonds,
Sgt Godinez, SSgt Cortes
and of course the unsung
leader GySgt Fields.
So please relax your minds,
do not worry, and please do
not spend all the extra cash.
As I conclude, I want you
to know, your Marines have
all the food, junk food and
various eating choices they
could possibly need. If you
are sending care packages,
items such as, writing
material, disinfectant wipes,
sun screen and chap stick are
all good items to send.
Thanks in advance for being
there back home and keeping
things together, this alone
gives your Marines the ability
to keep their minds focused
on what must be done while
here. Your direct
encouragement via letters to
them will assist in ways that
words can not express. May
God Bless each and every
family member supporting
us.
God Bless,
GySgt Alvin T. Dupree
Security Company 1stSgt
Lastly, I want to say
congratulations to all of
you our family who are
doing the extremely and
often over looked hard
work of keeping the
house holds together
while we are deployed.
We thank you all and
recognize the fact that
your work load has
increased, thus in a way
you are dealing with a
home front deployment.
 Volume 1, Issue 1
En Route
31 MAR 2010
Once we got to the Air It seemed like they were
As we embarked
Force Base we were feeding us every hour on
on yet another mission,
greeted with cookies and the hour which there is
the Marines of 1st Platoon
PB&J sandwiches, which absolutely nothing wrong
tried to be strong in the
I am told is a delicacy in with. We lost about 14
face of our families. It’s
the Marine Corps. While hours during all the many
hard leaving the ones you
waiting to depart, the stops along the way and
love time and time again
board games, books, the ride by the time it was
and we thank the families
computers, IPods and I over was about two-three
of 1st Plt. for being as
don’t think I’ve ever seen days later, but if you ask
strong for us as we are for
more handheld video your Marines it seemed
them. As we loaded up
games in my life. All of like one really long blurry
on the buses we were all a
this was good enough to day. All in all it was a
little choked up.
keep our minds off of good and decent ride
Crying is contagious, all missing our families for over.
it takes is one person and the time being.
it’s pandemonium from
S
On the plane, we were
there. Some of us were a
jammed in there like
little more choked up than

E
sardines. Which wasn’t

1st
others, but it’s ok Once
bad until the boots came
we were out of sight of
off and as you all know

C
the families on the parade
some Marines don’t have
deck, we began to settle
the best smelling feet.
down and to focus on the
U
Which sometime made it
task at hand .
hard to eat. I think we all
gained a couple of pounds
R P getting in country.

I
T L Home away from home

Y A
Once we landed at Camp
Leatherneck we moved
into our lodging where we
will be staying for the
out and that sometimes the support that you have
just going to the PX can and will be giving them
seem like a PT event. over this deployment. I
Your Marines are more look forward to serving

T
next several months.
C Although it is a far cry
from XBOX 360s and flat
anxious than ever to start
conducting missions and
putting forth what we
with them and bringing
them home safely at the
end of the deployment.

O O
screen TVs; it does have have been training for Semper Fidelis.
all a Marine needs to be over the past year. I have
comfortable which is air all the faith and 1st Lt Bradley A. Motz

M conditioning. Thank confidence in your

O
God! Approaching Marines and want to

P summer it is going to be
extremely hot in the
thank you for all

A N
desert and the Marines
will have a nice cool
place to relax after
N missions. The past week
here has been mostly

Y
training and getting
familiar where everything
is located on base. They
learned pretty quick that
the base was pretty spread
 Platoon Pictures
Volume 1, Issue 1

31 MAR 2010

S
E 1st
C
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 Take-Off
The last time you saw
Volume 1, Issue 1 your 2nd Platoon
Marines, we were waving
31 MAR 2010 through a bus window. To
you it may have looked
like a group of hardened
Marines shrugging off
their emotions and
focused on the mission
ahead. In reality, you
weren’t the only ones
who got choked up. For
some, the goodbye didn’t
really take hold until the
families were out of sight.
No one was crying their
eyes out, but it was not an
easy goodbye for us
either, whatever it may
have looked like. Of
S
course, nothing can go
smoothly, our bus driver
E swiped a vehicle in the
2nd
parking lot and about 1/4
C
mile later we just pulled
into the bus pool and
switched busses: a little
U anticlimactic. But we got
to March AFB and were
R treated to an absolutely
I P Below: Sunset from a vehicle on
T L
Y
A
C T
O
M O Getting Settled
P O
Once we unpacked our
bags and got our bearings,
A
training kicked in almost
N
immediately as your
N
Marines practiced and
improved on skills and
adjusted to the new
Y
environment. Our down
time is spent pretty much
like you’d see in the
movies: pick-up football
games, lifting weights,
playing cards,
fantastic buffet of peanut
butter and jelly
sandwiches, juice, and
coffee. They had a few tv
screens in the hanger
there and we learned the
real meaning of repetitive
news programming. If I
have to hear another story
speculating about Tiger
Woods’ return I’m going
to go insane. No, really.
After a bit of waiting, we
loaded up onto the plane
and headed out. We made
a bathroom stop in Maine
and took a smoke break in
Germany before arriving
at Manas in Kyrgyzstan
just in time to be told we
were late. What was
supposed to be a 3 day
layover was, all of a
sudden, 5 hours. So we
loaded up on a c-17 cargo
plane, strapped into the
seats, and headed
Clockwise from top left: Sgt Nelson, Cpl Goldammer, LCpl
Vargas, and another waiting at March AFB
writing home and finding
shade. As with
anything, there are
growing pains. We are
part of a unit 3 times
larger than the one we are
replacing and
construction can only
build so fast. So far, it’s
been an exercise in
patience considering we
are all chomping at the bit
South.
The flight took us
over endless snow-covered,
mean-looking mountains
into a very brown, very
dry, very dusty and pretty
warm Camp Leatherneck.
Contrary to
popular belief, we were not
given tents with cots but
metal buildings with A/C,
bunk beds and really bad
mattresses. Pretty good
deal compared to most
others around here.
Camp
Leatherneck is really
spread out and the only
form of transport is your
two feet. It’s pretty easy to
walk 3-6 miles a day just
going where you need to
go. But not to worry, in
many ways this base is
safer than Camp Pendleton.
To start doing missions
and make you proud.
Thank you all for
supporting us and being
true examples of who we
do this for.
1st LT McRee