CAMP KOREAN VILLAGE, Iraq -- Reserve Marines from
2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5, headquartered in Garden City, N.Y., arrived here in late September to support RCT-5’s security and stability mission in western al-Anbar province.
“We’re here primarily to conduct counter-insurgency operations with joint and Coalition forces in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom,” said Maj. Timothy Murphy, the battalion’s intelligence officer.
Maj. Byron Duke, the battalion executive officer, emphasized that the Marines will also mentor and provide operational overwatch for Iraqi Security Forces as they assume more responsibility for the area’s security.
Korean Village was first utilized as a forward observation base by the Marines in 2004 to monitor the Syrian and Jordanian borders with Iraq, both less than a hundred miles from the base.
According to Maj. Christopher Donnelly, the RCT-5 historian, American troops gave Korean Village its moniker because the camp was the site of an area inhabited by Korean laborers who built the main supply route leading from Baghdad to western al-Anbar Province during the reign of Saddam Hussein.
The name stuck, and Coalition forces still use the base as a launching pad for operations to intercept criminal elements crossing over the border and heading east toward Baghdad and other population centers.
The battalion will share the area of operations with 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, RCT-5, an active-duty Marine unit based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
The reserve battalion’s current deployment is their second overseas in support of the Global War on Terror. Their expected tour of duty here is seven months.