The Kunar province has undergone many changes in the 7 months India Company has been on the ground here. In Nagalam, 1stLt Bellman and GySgt Vannelli have turned a small Special Forces advanced camp into a full-blown Forward Operating Base capable of accommodating a reinforced rifle platoon and a company of Afghan Security Force soldiers. They have built several buildings from the ground up improving the operational capability and the quality of life on board the camp. If you can remember early on, phone calls and emails from the Marines of 2d platoon were non-existent. Camp Blessing now has full commercial and military Internet capability, phones, washers and dryers, an outstanding gym facility, chow hall and many other improvements. Quite honestly, living at Camp Blessing has become a rather pleasant experience compared to what it used to be like back in November and December. The Marines of 1st and 2d Platoons who have been residents there should be commended for their hard work aboard the camp. They accomplished all of this without slowing down their operational tempo "outside the wire." The Pech District, where Camp Blessing is located, was once compared to the "Wild West," but because of the Marines dedication to the mission, the security in the region has greatly increased. The schools are full, new mosques, medical clinics and district administration buildings are in place and the area is one step closer to freedom.

Throughout the province the Marines and Sailors have touched thousands of Afghan citizens lives. We have provided humanitarian assistance in the form of food, blankets, tools, medical supplies, and many other assistance items. All of the Marines have worked closely with the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army training and conducting joint operations. Their efforts have improved the individual and unit skills of the two forces, making them much more effective and ensuring the security of the people in the province well into the future. Their experiences here will be remembered for years to come, they have truly made history. The Marines will have some great stories to tell of their exploits in Afghanistan so in a few short weeks, sit back and enjoy.

A former insurgent commander swore allegiance to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan April 14 in Asadabad, agreeing to turn in his weapons and cease hostilities against Afghan and Coalition forces. As Coalition forces have been hunting near the Afghan-Pakistani border for insurgent leaders, Najmuddin turned himself in to Company I, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, abandoning his run as one of the more elusive insurgent leaders.

The Marines were informed by a message received the morning of April 10 explaining where the commander was located and his intent. The company leadership quickly moved to the designated location and, crossing over a bridge into the compound, finally came face-to-face with the man they were able to recognize only from an outdated photograph. He has been allowed to participate in the Allegiance Program, a program currently offered to Taliban and Hezb-E Islami Gulbuddin fighters who wish to stop fighting and start participating in the rebuilding of Afghanistan.

"We've been working on this guy for a long time," said 1st Lt. Justin Bellman, India Co. Executive Officer. "It was just a matter of time before either we captured him, killed him or he turned himself in. He made the right decision and we're going to hope that he becomes a positive force in his community."

A ceremony which was attended by nearly 300 civic and religious leaders from across the Kunar province was the first step in the process of repatriation for Najmuddin who explained his reasons for turning himself over to the Marines through an interpreter. "I am tired of running," said the former insurgent. "I realized that my community was suffering because of [our] attacks on the Coalition and I did not want that any more."

His participation in the Allegiance Program comes on the heels of extensive operations around the areas Najmuddin was known to frequent in the Pech Valley. Aggressively pursuing the detention of insurgent leadership in the area afforded Marines the success that had eluded other units.

"This individual orchestrated several attacks against Coalition forces before we got here and began to conduct attacks against us in Nagalam from the moment we arrived. It did not take us long to let him know that we were not going to sit back and take that," said Lt. Col. Norm Cooling, commander of 3rd Bn., 3rd Marines. "Instead we took the fight to his backyard, to the difficult, cold and mountainous terrain of the Korangal Valley." The Marines of India Company, once tasked with eliminating the threat Najmuddin posed to stability in the area, applied constant pressure on him for two and a half months.

"In that time, he didn't have time to conduct attacks against our installations," said Cooling. "He was too busy trying to survive and he finally got tired of it." While he said the constant presence of well-trained Marines was the ultimate reason he turned himself in, it was also the humanitarian outreach and rehabilitation projects in his area that Marines participated in that convinced the former insurgent leader to come forth.

Bellman, who spoke with Najmuddin, said he expressed happiness with many of the good things he saw the Marines doing in the Pech Valley and that he knew his area was improving because of the Afghan and Coalition forces.

The governor of Kunar, Asadollah Wafa, said the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan hopes the program will put an end to local insurgencies and further drive a wedge between Afghans and the foreign-national terrorists who have been operating in Afghanistan. By accepting former insurgent "middlemen" like Najmuddin, he hopes that the money and support that keeps the insurgency alive in eastern Afghanistan will dry up.

The Allegiance Program is an effort to bring many formerly prominent Afghans back into the fold of the new government, Wafa said. As long as an individual has committed no crimes against humanity, he may get a second chance at citizenship.