Does anyone know how many marines are stationed in Iraq?

[last1standing]

I coworker mentioned that the reason all the casualties in Iraq are Army is that the marines have been sent someplace in Africa because of something about to start there, but that it's being kept quiet. I don't know if its true or even how to verify it so I thought I'd ask anyone here if they know the truth of this? If it is true does anyone know what's going on?

[Bucky]

1. Until someone knowledgeable weighs in...

I recall reading that of the 140,000 troops there, about 15-20,000 are Marines, 120,000 are Army, and a very few assorted remainder are Air Force. Navy personal aren't there in numbers, being mostly stationed off the coast.

But I'd have to dig around to give your non-ballpark numbers

[tritsofme]

2. All I know is that I have a nephew that is in the Marines

and he has recently been called to active duty and expects to be shipping out anytime between now and the next few months.

All he knows or is able to tell us is that he will be somewhere in Baghdad.

About higher casualties in the Army, my nephew really seems to look down on the Army, and he tells me that they are much more crude than the Marines and they far less trained.

[last1standing]

3. I'm sorry to hear about your nephew.

My coworker, who's an ex-marine, looks down on the army as well. I think it's the rivalry between the branches.

[tritsofme]

5. Well my nephew is quite the strange one,

he's actually looking forward to going back to Iraq, and he plans on reenlisting.

He was over there during major combat, and said his unit never encountered any real resistance. I guess we'll see how he feels when he comes back next time.

[Johnyawl]

4. There are no Marines in Iraq at this moment

That's why all the casualties are Army. The Marines were pulled out after "major combat operations" ended, and sent back to their ships and bases. This was done because the Marines are the US's "rapid deployement" forces, and would be needed if a crises developed somewhere else in the world. They were deployed in Liberia, but I think that involved less than 200 Marines overall.

However, because some of the Army units have been on the ground for so long in Iraq, and we have no more reserves to rotate with them, the Marines are being put back into the rotation. The DoD has announced plans to deploy 20,000 Marines from Camp Pendleton to Iraq, as they rotate some of the Army units home.

So we can look forward to Marine casualties in the near future.