Iraqi Soldiers perform close quarters marksmanship training at Forward Operating Base Falcon Monday April 3, 2006.

The 274th belongs to Marine Wing Support Group 37, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

"If all we have to do is put up barriers and that makes them want to support their country more, I will do it all day," said Cpl. Travis G. Hill, engineer equipment operator with the squadron. "The more comfortable we help them feel, the more they can take over their own country."

The Marines also set up an entry control point for the military housing units in the area.

President praises Iraqis

In an address to students at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., April 10, U.S. President George W. Bush presented what he termed a clear and flexible strategy to help Iraqis assume self-government and self-defense.

"Since liberation, our forces have captured or killed thousands of al-Qaida terrorists and other enemy fighters; we've freed Fallujah and Tal Afar and other Iraqi cities from the grip of the terrorists and the insurgents,” said Bush. “We've trained Iraqi security forces so they increasingly can take the lead in the fight – and eventually assume responsibility for the security of their country.

Bush said more than 250,000 volunteers have joined Iraqi security forces, despite repeated attacks on military and police recruiting stations.

“These brave Iraqis are increasingly taking the lead in the fight against the terrorists and the insurgents. Today, there are more than 130 Iraqi Army and police combat battalions in the fight – with more than 70 Iraqi battalions taking the lead. Iraqi units have assumed primary responsibility for more than 30,000 square miles of Iraq. We expect that Iraqi units will control more territory than the coalition by the end of 2006."

Construction improvements continue

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced the completion of construction on an underground electrical feeder project in Rusafa in the Baghdad Province April 8. The $850,000 project required the installation and placement of nearly 3 miles of underground feeder cables, which will benefit about 25,000 Iraqis.

In addition, construction was finished April 8 on three electrical distribution substations in the Diyala Province - Al Safeyah, Al Salam ,and Al Mansuriyah. The Al Safeyah project required construction of a substation with a control room, switchgear, two transformers, a guardhouse and a perimeter wall. The Al Salam and Al Mansuriyah projects required the construction of substations with two new transformers and switchgear, a new control building and site improvements. The three projects will improve the electrical distribution system and power supply to about 115,000 residents in the Diyala Province.

Construction was completed April 9 for the electrical transmission project in the Erbil Province. The $10.4 million project required the installation of nearly 23 miles of overhead transmission lines connecting the Shaqlawa substation with the new Khoshnaw substation. The project, which included two underground fiber optic cables for future expansion, benefits more than 45,000 residents.

Six well projects in the Ninewa Province were completed April 10. The wells supply water to the surrounding villages and each benefit more than 1,500 residents in their respective areas.

Renovation on two buildings for the Civil Defense Headquarters in Mansour in the Baghdad Province was finished April 11. The $3 million project made the site operational and usable for headquarters functions. The buildings, which had been burned and looted following the war, are the central control location for fire and civil defense.

Cache-ing in

Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers completed the excavation of a large weapons cache on an Euphrates River island April 7. Troops from the 4th Infantry Division began unearthing the cache April 5.

Working around the clock for three days, they discovered 1,450 anti-aircraft rounds, dozens of anti-tank grenades, several-hundred mortar primers and rocket-propelled grenades, launchers and boosters. The cache also contained 5,000 AK-47 rounds, 160 hand grenades and numerous materials used to make improvised explosive devices including 28 55-gallon drums of TNT, nine 55-gallon sacks of nitrate, bundles of detonation cord.

(Compiled from official Defense Department sources)