[Vulture6]

Battalion stands up, but where will it go?

By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday May 27, 2008 6:56:00 EDT

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — Only time will tell where the men of the final battalion of 9th Marines to reactivate will deploy next year.

As a reminder to his Marines, Col. Dan Greenwood — commander of the soon-to-be relaunched 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines — plans to display three clocks in the battalion headquarters building here. One will keep Eastern Standard Time, one will track the time in Iraq and one will display the time in Afghanistan.

“Right now, 3/9 is geared to go to Iraq,” Greenwood said. “Should we get called on in 2009 to go to Afghanistan, we’ll be ready.”

That’s basically what he’s been telling the more than 700 Marines pulled from across the Corps to form the battalion, which was activated at a ceremony aboard Camp Lejeune on May 20.

Commandant Gen. James Conway publicly discussed a proposal last year to shift Marines out of Iraq and into Afghanistan. His plan may be gaining momentum: More than 3,000 Marines, including those with the Camp Lejeune-based 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, have been sent to Afghanistan.

During a May 8 press conference, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said moving Marines into Afghanistan is a possibility, contrasting his earlier rejection of Conway’s proposal.

The 3/9 Marines will start predeployment training once they become fully operationally capable in November; 300 to 400 of the battalion’s Marines will go to the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, Calif., in October for training.

About 90 percent of the 746 Marines who will make up the battalion by the end of May have completed at least one combat tour.

“They will not be the same Marines we deploy with in the next 14 months,” Greenwood said. “When we actually deploy next summer, I would say, 50 percent would have combat experience.”

Whatever the case, today’s 3/9 Marines carry on a legacy that dates to World War II. The battalion was organized in 1942 at Camp Elliot, San Diego, as part of the 2nd Marine Division and fought in Bougainville, Northern Solomons; Guam; and Iwo Jima.

At Iwo, the unit was the only battalion-sized force to conduct an unsupported, non-illuminated night attack against the Japanese in the Pacific War.

In 1965, 3/9 was the first battalion-sized ground combat unit to deploy to Vietnam; it stayed four years.

At least 90 former members of 3/9, including two Iwo Jima veterans, are expected to attend the reactivation ceremony, said the battalion’s top enlisted leader, Sgt. Maj. Robert Young.

The battalion, deactivated in 1994, is part of the latest resurgence of 9th Marine Regiment. First Battalion, 9th Marines, stood up in April 2007, followed by 2/9 in July. Those reactivations are part of the Corps’ plan to expand by 22,000 Marines, bringing the end strength to 202,000 by the end of fiscal 2011.

Each battalion falls under existing regimental headquarters: 1/9 in 8th Marines, 2/9 in 6th Marines and 3/9 forming within 2nd Marines.