The Beginning

I arrived in Kuwait with the advance party in the first week of February 2004. Our job was to secure and prepare bivouac areas for the companies of 2/4. After three weeks in Kuwait I again left with an advance party bound for Ar-Ramadi, Iraq, the battalion's new home for 7 months. Golf Company was assigned to Combat Outpost, situated on the eastern edge of the industrialized area of the city along with Echo Company. Each four-man party from both companies staked out areas of responsibility within the Outpost. We set out to modify our new home to accommodate more than 400 Marines slated to arrive just two weeks after we arrived ourselves. We did as much work as possible in the allotted time and were able to make pretty good head way before the first company rolled in; however, several of the outbuildings were still not done. We were forced to house the entire company under cover in what we referred to as the 'hangar bay,' a large garage with enough room to park six HMMWVs end to end and two side by side with about another six or seven feet on the side. One by one, the four platoons were moved into their respective 'houses' and we settled down to take over patrols from the Army units that had been responsible for the area.