A Book on US Marine’s Pacifying an Afghan District in 2006

choi

Richard Shultz, Small Wars and Marine Corps; During six months of fighting in Sangin, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment suffered the most casualties of any battalion in Afghanistan. Wall Street Journal, Sept 22, 2014
online.wsj.com/articles/book-review-one-million-steps-by-bing-west-1411334035
(book review on Bing West, One Million Steps; A marine platoon at war. Random House, 2014)

Note:
(a) "In 2006, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force had sought to take control of Helmand, including its deadliest district, Sangin, located in the province's remote northeast."
(i) Helmand Province
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmand_Province
(The Helmand River flows through the mainly desert region of the province; sectio 8 Districts: Sangin)
(ii) Helmand River
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmand_River
(The name comes from Avestan Haētumant, literally "dammed, having a dam")

choi

(b) “This harrowing battle—and the efficacy of counterinsurgency warfare—is the subject of Mr West's important, gripping book. To tell the story, the 72-year-old author tracks the fighting of the 3/5 battalion—that is, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. The 51 grunts in the battalion's 3rd Platoon, where Mr West was embedded, undertook some of the most brutal fighting of the war. The Taliban quickly attacked the Marines in Sangin. After three days of patrolling, 10% of the 3rd Platoon was gone, its lieutenant seriously wounded by an improvised explosive device, or IED. The rest of the 3/5 was also hit hard, with 10 Marines killed in the initial fighting and 35 seriously wounded. The Taliban had won round one.”
(i) The official site of (moving up the hierarchy)
3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.
www.1stmardiv.marines.mil/Units/5THMARINEREGT/3rdBattalion.aspx
(A) 1st Marine Division (United States)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Marine_Division_(United_States)
(table: Size  25,000; section 2 Organization: four regiments, including "5th Marine Regiment")
(B) 5th Marine Regiment (United States)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5th_Marine_Regiment_(United_States)
(table: Size  4,800; section 1 Current Units: four infantry battalions, including "3rd Battalion 5th Marines (3/5) [size  1,200]")
(ii) platoon
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platoon
(“A platoon is often led by a lieutenant, and is the smallest military unit typically led by a commissioned officer;”  A unit of several platoons is often called a company; section 2.12.2 United States Marine Corps: rifle platoon (which “consist of three rifle squads of 13 men each”) and weapon platoon (with mortars and SMAWs (Shoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapons))
(iii) grunt
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grunt
(may refer to "An infantryman, in military slang")
(iv) infantry
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infantry
(section 1 History and etymology: from the Latin word infantem (“babe in arms”))

Quote: Foreign and domestic militaries typically have a slang term for their infantrymen. In the US military, the slang term among both Marine and Army infantrymen for themselves is ‘grunt.’ In the British Army, they are the ‘squaddies.’

(v) Wiktionary says the Latin noun “infantem” is singular, not plural.
(vi) “babe in arms”?
(A) babe in arms (n):
"Lit. a very young baby that is carried by an adult. <I have known that since I was a babe in arms!> <A young mother with a babe in arms stood in line with the rest of the students>"
idioms.thefreedictionary.com/babe+in+arms
(B) Cambridge Dictionaries Online (dictionary.cambridge.org) for the term says “MAINLY UK.”
(C) Oxforddictionaries.com: "A baby that is too young to walk."


(c) “But the Marines, as they have done throughout their storied history, learned and adapted. They figured out how to spot and neutralize deadly IEDs, the Taliban weapon of choice. They put Marine snipers to good use: By March 2011, snipers accounted for 51 of the platoon's 271 kills. The Marines also frequently called in F-18s for air support, obliterating Taliban fighting positions. By the end of sixth months of fighting, described in detail by Mr West, 3/5 had suffered the highest number of casualties of any battalion, with its 3rd Platoon losing 27 of 51 Marines. Still, 3/5 put the Taliban on the defensive. The Marines finally took Sangin in late 2012—though not before four more battalions had rotated through the district."
(d) “When I asked Adm James Stavridis, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander [a position Eisenhower held 1951-1952] from June 2009 to May 2013, about Mr West's claims, he explained: ‘Both Generals McChrystal and Petraeus were consistently focused on taking the fight to the Taliban—and did so successfully. While they used counterinsurgency as part of their overall approach, their hard kill skills and leadership were never in doubt.’"

James G Stavridis
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_G._Stavridis
(1955- ; a career in US Navy; presently Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University; earned a PhD and Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from [that school] in 1984)