The last of the 3rd Bn, 4th Marines has left and will be returning to 29 Palms any day. We now own our little chunk of Iraq and we are working hard to make it a better place. Our priorities right now are to learn the city, its people, and to gain a better understanding of the unique problems that we face. Fallujah and its surrounds are a complicated operational environment. At any given time our Marines are the cop on the street, ambassadors of America, combat troops, and general problem solvers for the Iraqi people. They are doing a great job.

We have already established very good working, and in some cases personal, relationships with our partners in the Iraqi Army. The Marines understand how important the development of the Iraqi Army is to the success of our mission. For this reason, the majority of the patrolling and post standing that we do is in conjunction with the Iraqi soldiers. It is very encouraging to see our young Marines picking up key Arabic Phrases and the young Iraqi soldiers expressing themselves in English. In most cases the most productive thing I can do toward building the Marine and Iraqi Army partnership is to put our young men together with the Iraqis and then get out of the way.

The rebuilding of the city continues at an encouraging pace. Everywhere you go there are piles of bricks and sand and hundreds of builders putting Fallujah back together. We have a long way to go before the wounds of terrorism and war are healed over, but our Nation's investment in Iraq is present everywhere you look, to include in the smiles of most of the Fallujahns.

In my mind we have completed the first phase of our tour in Iraq, namely our deployment and settling to our battlespace. We have found our stride and we are getting better and better and finding our enemy and his caches of weapons. We have had some great early successes working with the Iraqi Army, and we are gaining the respect of the Fallujans one patrol and one Marine at a time. I am very proud of all our Marines and Sailors.

We miss all of you and appreciate the support from the folks back home. You remain in our thoughts and prayers.