Operation Allies Welcome

A Marine from Company F, 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment shares a cup of “chai” tea with a Bedouin shepherd at the Bedouin’s encampment in Iraq’s Al Anbar desert Dec. 11, 2008. The patrol visited the shepherd to record census information while on a routine security patrol of the area surrounding Al Asad Air Base. The leathernecks of Company F spent seven months in Iraq, fulfilling the critical role of base security for Al Asad, one of the Coalition Forces’ largest logistics hubs in the Middle East. The Marines returned home to New York in April, and are preparing for a 2010 deployment to Norway for cold weather training.