Photo Information

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Cpl. Jared Joy, a team leader with 3rd Squad, 4th Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, provides security atop a stairwell, while his teammates search for insurgents inside a residence here May 3. The Capitan, N.M. native's worked alongside Iraqi Security Forces to apprehend an insurgent supporter known for laying improvised explosive devices here and recruiting others to do the same.

Photo by Cpl. Mike Escobar

New Mexico Marine, team root out anti-Iraqi insurgents

3 May 2005 | Cpl. Mike Escobar 2nd Marine Division

On the afternoon of May 3, Cpl. Jared Joy, his teammates and Iraqi Security Forces conducted their first daytime raid operation here.

The 22-year-old Capitan, N.M., native and team leader with 3rd Squad, 4th Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, helped detain a known insurgent supporter and capture insurgency documents near an abandoned residence they searched.

"My guys were the breaching team, the guys who actually went in and broke the doors,” the 2001 Capitan High School graduate explained.  “After that, we just went through and cleared the house to make sure there were no hostiles inside.  Then, we came back around to search for munitions, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), documents, basically anything that we could use for intel.”

Joy and his fellow Marines found nothing unusual during their sweep through the target building.  However, fellow Marines providing security for the search recognized an Iraqi man as the target individual across the street. 

“This was a guy known for emplacing IEDs and recruiting others to do the same,” explained Capt. Robert M. Hancock, Joy’s commanding officer. 

ISF personnel and Marines detained him along with two other suspicious individuals.

Additionally, the troops searched nearby vehicles and discovered documents that Hancock said “may lead to future counter-insurgency operations.”

This operation marks Company B’s fourth successful cordon-search mission since their arrival here in March.

“Most of what we’ve been doing here has been security and presence patrols,” Joy added.  “We’ve also been standing a lot of posts around our base and ECP-2 (Entry Control Point 2, a station where Iraqi and U.S. forces search all personnel and vehicles entering the city to keep weapons and negative propaganda out of Fallujah).”

Joy also said the Iraqi soldiers’ support has been critical in their daily missions’ successes.

“They’re always real professional, and we can interact with the locals a lot better when they’re with us,” he said.  “They’ve pick up English a lot faster than we pick up Arabic.”

“Today, they helped talk to the populace and explain to them why we were doing this operation,” Hancock added.

The local soldiers also help the Marines gather intelligence on sites they visit.

“Obviously, the individual Iraqi soldier knows his country better than we, as Americans, do. So they help point out stuff we might not think was out of place,” Hancock said.

Currently, Joy’s company is working with the troops to make them an even more effective fighting force.

“One of their company commanders was out there with us today,” Hancock stated.  “We’re training the ISF so they can coordinate these operations on their own down the road.”

For now, Joy and his fellow Marines continue working alongside the Iraqi soldiers to rid Fallujah of insurgent activity and provide a stable security community from which the citizens here can prosper.