BRIEF

Delta Co 2nd LAR in Iraq

On patrol with Delta Company, 2d LAR, or 2d Light Armored Reconaissance Battalion, in Rawah Iraq, part of the Marine Corps Area of Operations in Al Anbar Province.  The patrol, conducted in January of 2007, was on alert for IEDs and other insurgent activity.  Delta Company, nickname Outlaw, also checked in on local Iraqi Police and Army units positioned within the city, part of the ongoing counter-insurgency and security and stabilization operations.

The 2d LAR is part of the 2nd Marine Division and the II Marine Expeditionary Force and is based out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.  Known as the “Destroyers”, the 2d LAR is returning home this month, April 2007, from their third deployment to Iraq.  The unit was previously deployed during OIF1 in early 2003, then again from March to October 2005 and most recently from October 2006 to April 2007.

The units primary weapon system is the LAV-25, an eight wheeled armored personal carrier not to be confused with the Army’s eight-wheeled Stryker vehicle.  There are many LAV-25 variants.  The LAV-AD (Air Defense) version features a GAU-12 Equalizer gatling gun and FIM-92 Surface to Air Missiles.  The GAU-12 gatling gun is of the same family of gatling guns as the GAU-19/A featured in CFR-TV episode 5.  The LAV-25 shown on patrol is of the standard variant fitted with an M242 25mm chain gun and M240C and M240 G/B machine guns.

Rawah, a city of more then 41,000 inhabitants, is strategically situated at a bend on the Euphrates River facilitating monitoring of river traffic.  It is also a crossing point for transportation routes north to Mosul and other Kurdish provinces, as well as the main road from Syria to Baghdad. There has been significant periods of fighting in and around Rawah beginning with combat operations conducted by the 101st in June 2003.