United States Marines - USMC-060629-M-2585P-009

Lance Cpl. Albert D. Garcia Jr., a 21-year-old from Corpus Christi, Texas, patrols the streets of Habbaniyah, Iraq, June 13, 2006. Nearly two weeks back at their base in this wide, rural desert region of Al Anbar, Marines from the Twenty-nine Palms, Calif.-based Company D, 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, spent two months on the move in and around Fallujah � a city of approximately 200,000 which was the site of major combat operations between Coalition Forces and insurgents in November 2004. For 60-plus days, the Marines spent their time in and out of their eight wheeled Light Armored Vehicles maintaining security, rooting out insurgents, looking for improvised explosive devices and conducting humanitarian missions in Kharma, a town on Fallujah�s outskirts, and in Habbaniyah, a large town lying between Fallujah and Ramadi. After two weeks of working alongside Iraqi soldiers in Al Qaim, a city near the Iraqi-Syrian border, the Marines were sent to Kharma, where they kept a heavily-trafficked section of the road between Fallujah and Baghdad clear of insurgent activity. They also assisted ground Marines � infantrymen � with operations in Fallujah�s neighboring town of Habbaniyah. After their operations in the Sunni Triangle were completed, they went to Haditha to help provided security for a raid resulting in the capture of a high ranking terrorist in the insurgency. The battalion will return to Twenty-nine Palms, Calif., in about three months.