Last Marine Battalion Leaving Iraq

We’re about to pass a rather significant milestone:

The last deployment for a U.S. Marine Corps unit in Iraq marks the closing of a military chapter for the war as they prepare to leave the country, troops said.

More than 40,000 members of the U.S. Marines rolled over the Kuwait border into Iraq in March 2003, storming toward Baghdad. A near-civil war and more than six years later, the 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines is the last Marine infantry battalion left in Iraq.

[...]

The 3/24 is deployed throughout Iraq’s western Anbar province, once the hotbed for insurgency. Servicemen conduct routine patrols daily alongside their Iraqi counterparts. Col. Robert Mabry, who trains Iraqi forces in non-lethal combat, said the drawdown for U.S. forces is a sign of a new phase for Iraq. “I think the best thing about this deployment is we’re closing a chapter in Iraq,” he said.

The 3/24 is scheduled to leave Iraq in January. All U.S. forces leave Iraq at the end of 2011.

I wouldn’t count on that last part.

• A Bad Sign In Iraq
• Marines Headed Down Under
• The Anbar Handover
• Marine Commandant Fears Iraq Effects on Corps
• Marines Accused Of Desecrating Taliban Corpses