We are on board the USS Peleliu, somewhere in the north Arabian Sea. For the safety of the military personnel on board, NEWSWEEK has agreed not to provide the ship’s exact location nor to use the last names of soldiers who want to protect the families they left behind. During a practice drill, the 29-year-old captain is on the alert, paying close attention to everything around him. Shooting stars streak across the sky and stray birds flutter above ship’s deck. Capt. Phil can see his platoon members from the corner of his eye as they maneuver to fire at eight head-and-shoulder-size targets stretched out in front of them. At 50 yards, he shoots, then shuffles off to the next target. One after another, the 5.56mm rounds rip into the paper marks-his headshots are 95 percent accurate. In his mind, he says, he can visualize himself and the Taliban enemy–and he speaks of destroying them with a cold, absolute certainty.
As war rages more than 700 miles away, the 2,200 Marines aboard the Peleliu and its two accompanying ships are itching for a mission. Helicopters frequently buzz above the ship, practicing everything from ground attacks to night flights. Doctors aboard the vessel have set up a 48-bed hospital for incoming wounded; grunts spend their days pumping iron and practicing hand-to-hand combat. “The hardest thing here is that we have to be patient,” says 1st Force Reconnaissance Company Gunnery Sergeant Blake, 32. “I’ve been patient for f–king 12 years. I sat on a boat in the gulf war. I sat on a boat in Somalia. It’s kinda hard to be patient now.”
Senior officers aboard the ship are cagey about what operations, if any, Marines are involved in on shore. To be sure, the troops, all members of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, have trained for years for a variety of high-stakes missions. They can do anything from seizing an airfield in Afghanistan to evacuating U.S. civilians. But already leathernecks have seen some limited work. Marine F-18 fighters have attacked Taliban positions from the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt. And when an Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed last month in Pakistan, killing two crewmen, a Marine CH-53 Super Stallion went to pick up the downed search-and-rescue chopper. During the chopper recovery mission, Marines took so much fire that they had to abandon the effort and return several days later to finish the job.
In the barren battlefields of Afghanistan, Capt. Phil and the 1st Force Reconnaissance would be potent warriors. Traveling in small units, they are charged with identifying an enemy and ordering an air strike at their location. They can go for days at a time without assistance, often communicating only through hand signals. Inside the cavernous storage areas of the Peleliu, the group spends hours running up and down ramps with 100-pound rucksacks on their backs. They practice martial arts they’ve jokingly dubbed “Semper Fu.” They study the gamut of military tactics: how to parachute from an airplane at 25,000 feet; how to order precision bombing strikes; demolition.
Emotionally, too, the Marines are pumped up for action. Most aboard saw the news of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks while on call in Darwin, Australia. Every day they get news from family and loved ones of the mounting number of anthrax cases that have left many of their families living in fear. “The last time I had to kill someone I prayed to God that I would never do it again,” says Marine Capt. Jeff Mares, 34, who has spent 18 years in the Marines. “After the World Trade Center attack, I took that all back. I want to stay out here as long as it takes.”
To be sure, the soldiers know an operation in Afghanistan won’t be easy. Many of the weapons aboard the 20-story-high Peleliu would be useless in the Afghan wasteland. The air-cushioned amphibious landing craft stowed in the ship’s well deck are inapplicable to a country that is landlocked. The Cobra attack helicopters nestled in the vessel’s hangar cannot make it to the Afghan terrain without several refuelings. Once there, they wouldn’t be capable of heights above 10,000 feet, below the peaks of the country’s soaring mountains. “Obviously we have to take into consideration where we can and where we cannot make a contribution based on our capabilities,” says Col. Thomas Waldhauser, commanding officer of the 15th MEU.
Nor do they have any illusions that the fight against their enemy will be short. “It’s like if you have had an apartment that was roach infested, you start tearing down the walls, they’re all over the place,” says Mares. “And if there’s one left, there’s more.” Earlier this week, Mares and a large contingent of Marines, their rifles in hand, boarded four transport helicopters. Nobody aboard the Peleliu would give their destination except that they were contributing to Operation Enduring Freedom. Perhaps, Mares and others aboard the Peleliu finally had their mission.
