HAPPY 230TH TO ALL MARINES OUT THERE!!
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I know this LOOKS like we had been drinking, but not a drop of alcohol was available. Believe me, I know: we looked.
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Gy Greene, Top, and Gy Roche.
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More cheap cigars...
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And then came the cheap cigars...
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Yep, yesterday was the USMC 230th birthday. As the ranking Marine "unit", we threw the "Ball". No dates, the only guests being the terps and four Iraqis. We actually had a pretty damn good time, all 40 of us. This is the CO cutting the cake with my Ka-Bar fighting knife, with cake escorts Top and Ellis of Ramadi. Happy Birthday, Marines.
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IA bedspring and air conditioner on the roof serving as the base for the Iraqi flag. One picture pretty much saying it all.
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Gy Greene and his borrowed front-end loader buried to the axle in mud. We had to get the M88 tank retriever (see earlier picture) back out to snatch it out of the mud. This is a proud, proud man! If you are going to get stuck, go big!
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Gy Greene and MSgt Radke "supervising" the placement of the Iraqi containers. Note the HANDS IN POCKETS. They have obviously been here too long and are going native.
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Ahhhh, Ramadi! Can you feel (and smell) the excitement!?!
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Me running into the stadium after a patrol; Master Guns Traylor is covering me (as well as an M1A1 main battle tank on the street).
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More pictures from our op a couple of weeks ago. MSgt Radke asking a local kid how he can say there are no bad guys when there was remarkable evidence to the contrary.
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