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Marines in Lima Company called back to Iraq
Sunday, April 06, 2008
COLUMBUS — Ten members of the Marine Corps Reserve's Lima Company, which suffered especially heavy casualties during a seven-month 2005 tour of duty in Iraq, have been called up for mobilization in May.
Their anticipated deployment to Iraq in September, after four months of training, would represent a return to that country for nine of the 10, said Major Kirk Greiner, Lima Company's public affairs officer. Greiner declined to name the reservists involved.
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The 180-member, Columbus-based unit, part of the Marine's 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment, draws reservists from throughout the state, including the Dayton area.
The company received word before Thanksgiving that some of its members faced possible mobilization this year. Not all of the 10 who have been called up may actually mobilize, Greiner said.
The Lima Company became the focus of a 2006 A&E documentary after losing an unprecedented 16 men in a two-week period, including nine reservists in a single roadside bomb blast. Three lance corporals from the unit had Miami Valley ties — Michael Cifuentes, 25, of Oxford; Timothy Michael Bell Jr., 22, of West Chester; and Brett Wightman, 23, of Sabina.
None in the company has been deployed since the unit's return home in October 2005.
Contact the reporter at (937) 225-7309 or csimmons@DaytonDailyNews.com.
