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bsmart

Saw in the local paper yesterday that our Marine reserve unit is going back to Iraq. The interesting thing was something they didn't explain. This unit used to be Co B, 4th LAV Battalion ( I think I got the designation right) They are now Dam Support Unit 4 (the number may be wrong but the rest is correct). Anybody know what gives? My thought is that when they returned from a previous deployment they left their vehicles behind and the Marines decided that they were never going to get them back and changed the designation of the unit to remove the Armor or LAV tag. But what is a 'Dam Support Unit'?

I will admit that one thought is the reporter got it wrong. That it is just 'Support Unit 4' and the reporter asked a memeber of the unit what unit it was and a frustrated Gunny who didn't like losing his wheels said 'Damn Support Unit 4' (In which case we're lucky he didn't say 'F*%&$ Support Unit 4'

Tanklord

Our local marine Reserve unit was a TOW platoon with TOWs mounted on HumVees. Now they have been changed to an infantry company in an "Anti-terrorist" Battalion. The get a lot of MOUT training.

Neil_Baumgardner

Yeah, that is wierd. Here's what the article said:
"The reserve unit was previously Bravo Company, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, and was redesignated Dam Support Unit 3. The Marines returned from summer training Sept. 14 to spend time with their families before their expected seven-month deployment."

Sounds like its part of the new riverine operations focus:

"The Marines spent the summer at Camp Lejeune's Special Missions Training Center to become a small-craft company. Training included boat operations, infantry tactics and small-unit land operations.

"The Marines learned to operate small unit riverine crafts, or SURCs, which they will man in Iraq. They will patrol and secure Iraqi waterways, including the Haditha Dam on the Euphrates River."

www.fredericknewspost....ryID=52609

However, the 4th LAR Battalion website still claims 'em.

www.mfr.usmc.mil/4thma...Units.html

Neil

Neil_Baumgardner

Here's more on the Dam Support Units:

inbrief.threatswatch.o...euphrates/

Neil

Hellfish6

The LAR company is probably part of a larger unit or a composite unit. I'm sure that when they return from Iraq they're gonna be B/4th LAR again.

Maple_Leaf_Eh · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 517

A lifetime ago in the same part of the world, during Gulf War II ('90-'91), the US Coast Guard had harbor defense units in Bahrain. Boston Whalers boats with twin Big'un outboards and MGs a'plenty. I remember M60s and .50s. Old guys in the crews too in their forties and fifties, from little towns along the Great Lakes.

The USMC R has either taken a page out of the Navy's brown water navy book or taken over what seemed like a logical Coast Guard mission.

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