Local battalion taking over Fallujah from Army unit

[hang a left]

March 13, 2004



RON JOHNSON / Copley News Service
Unemployed men in Fallujah lined up to apply for work as police officers, an unpopular job that pays about $250 a month.

FALLUJAH, Iraq – With the rest of his Camp Pendleton battalion waiting back in Kuwait, Lt. Col. Gregg Olson flew ahead of his Marines to get an advance look at the troubled city they will police for the next seven months.

Olson, 40, commander of the 1,000 members of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment from Camp Pendleton, toured their new base, met with local leaders and received detailed briefings from officers of the Army's departing 82nd Airborne Division.


Lt. Col. Gregg Olson talks about the challenges confronting arriving Marines.


The heart of his new base is a 100-acre, man-made lake stocked with striped bass and lined with stucco bungalows. When Saddam Hussein's son Odai used it as a desert playground, it was known as Dreamland. It had a disco that a U.S. bomb destroyed last year. The soldiers are rebuilding it as a chapel.

Today, Dreamland is called Camp Volturno, and it is the frequent target of mortar shells.

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http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/oneyearlater/20040313-9999-news_1n13marines.html

[Barrett808]

1. This should work out just fine

Fallujah has been the friendliest!

Drinkwine again. What is up with this guy?