Reuters reports,

Fourteen Marines were killed in a roadside bomb blast in western Iraq on Wednesday in one of the single deadliest attacks against US forces since the beginning of the war.

The bomb exploded near a Marine amphibious assault vehicle as it was travelling south of Haditha, a town on the Euphrates river about 200km (120 miles) northwest of Baghdad. A civilian translator was also killed. One Marine was wounded.

It is the second major deadly attack against Marines in the area in the past three days. On Monday, six Marines were killed in clashes with insurgents in Haditha and a seventh was killed by a car bomb blast in Hit, southeast of the town.

The western Anbar province of Iraq is the heartland of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency and has been one of the deadliest regions for US forces since they invaded in March 2003. The towns of Falluja and Ramadi are also in Anbar.

That makes 21 Marines killed in action this week (post), and the week is only half over. All 21 KIA are from the same Ohio-based Marine Reserve unit, a terrible loss for them. The 14 killed today were all riding in the same amphibious assault vehicle (AAV), which serves as the Marines’ armored personnel carrier on land and sea.

My son, Stephen, is an amphibious assault vehicle (AAV) crewman in Alpha Company, 2d AAV Battalion, part of the 2d Marine Division. A Co. is presently undergoing predeployment training at March AFB, Calif. They will go to Iraq next month.

Stephen called last night and among other things said that they are doing a lot of training in IEDs and ambush procedures. As one of only four Marines in his platoon trained as combat lifesavers, advanced first aid training adapted from an Army program. As such, Stephen is a crewman of the section leader’s track and is positioned about a third of the way from one end of their convoys. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, however.

Beginning today (I think) his unit will train intensively in small-unit combat in buildings. At week’s end they will fight mock close-quarters combat using paintball equipment. I told him if he got painted I’ll kick his rear in (rhetorically speaking only, of course, since a 19-year-old combat-trained Marine can easily outmatch a 49 y/o retired Army slug).

I am confident that Stephen’s training is the best to be found for their tasks ahead, but the grim news from Iraq this week is chilling for a dad whose son will go there.

I posted a little while ago another Marine story, this one of a New Year’s Day firefight. I guess with my son’s call last night and the news from Iraq this week, the Marines are on my mind. God bless ‘em all.

Update: Marine Maj. David High, a friend who returned from Iraq earlier this year, emails some enlightenment:

March AFB is where the Marines do SASO (Stability & Security operations) training; it is the culminating point of the pre-deployment training. They use the abandoned housing area and have re-created an Iraqi village. A complete interactive scenario is in place (i.e., you ask the right person the right question, the whole cell can be rolled up). Included is the local cafe and hangout, “The Camel Toe”. Marines—you can’t take them anywhere polite.

All of the officers of my unit, 1/23 Marines, are scratching our heads over 3/25’s rough ride. The focus has shifted from Fallujah/Ramadi to the west. I anticipate reinforcements and wholesale scrubbing of the corridor.

That IED must have been enormous—at least 4 155 rds stacked.

I am sure it was a big bomb, but it takes much less IED to smash an AAV than it does an Army Bradley. Four 155mm artillery shells, rigged as a bomb, would do a serious jay-oh-bee on a Bradley. Such an IED would certainly smash an AAV to pieces.

The Marines are supposed to receive a replacement for the AAV, called the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. But the earliest date I’ve found for the EFV arriving in units is in 2007, most units later than that.

The EFV is an armored, fully tracked infantry combat vehicle that will be operated and maintained by a crew of three Marines, and have a troop capacity of 17 Marines with their individual combat equipment. The EFV is a replacement for the current Assault Amphibian Vehicle (AAV) which was originally fielded in 1972 and will be over 35 years old when the EFV begins production. The total EFV requirement is for 1,013 vehicles.

Here is a photo gallery of the EFV.

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