RCAC 3-7 returned from Eastern Afghanistan in April, after a nine month deployment. During this deployment RCAC 3-7 advised the elements of the 201st Corps of the Afghanistan National Army.

RCAC 3-7 is a combined unit that deployed with 154 Marines and sailors, said Lt. Col. Jeff Tlapa, Chief of Staff for RCAC 3-7. During the deployment 5 Marines fell on the field of battle, and were honored with the utmost respect, added Tlapa.

Every military subordinate command in III Marine Expeditionary Force had Marines or sailors embedded in RCAC. Nearly every military occupational specialty in the Marine Air Ground Task Force was represented during the nine month deployment, he added.

During the deployment the unit served in 11 provinces such as Kabul, Kapisa, and Nangarhar, according to Tlapa. Each province having different cultures, languages and even terrain. One of the noticeable differences about being deployed where we went was that “we wore green camies instead of tan’” he added, unlike Marines who deploy to the south of the country.

“Being on advisory duty, you can’t be a specialist. You have to be a generalist, you have to know a little bit about everything,” stated Tlapa. “A radio operator had to know about machine gunnery, call for fire, culture awareness and how to enter a shura,--how sit down and discuss things.”

“We were cross trained in all these skills during our pre-deployment training for three months,” said Tlapa. Hard skills and soft skills were taught before the deployment. The hard skills are the ones that Marines know, shooting, communications, life saving, casualty care, driving humvees, and firing weapons. The soft skills are specific to being an advisor. There’s Afghan culture, Dari language, how to negotiate, how to use an interpreter and working with local national contractors. Everybody from lance corporals to the commanding officer got some form of that kind of training.

Each embedded training team had 21 service members, which was then subdivided into teams of three to five. This required every Marine and sailor to know each MOS enough to do another Marine’s job, said Tlapa. If a Marine went on rest and relaxation, another Marine had to step up and perform the missing service member’s duties until his return, he added.

“Every person on the RCAC worked with an Afghan, and usually they outranked the Marines by two or three grades,” said Tlapa. “It wasn’t uncommon for a sergeant to work with a lieutenant or captain in advising them on leading their company or platoon.”

“The level of responsibility the Marines and sailors had out there is incredible,” said Tlapa describing his Marines’ actions during their deployment.

“It’s a completely different rank system out there, the man to the left and right of me was either a first sergeant or a major,” said Cpl Christopher E. Yousey, a gunner, driver and embedded trainer with the RCAC. It’s a lot different than deploying with a larger unit. The bonds that are made are very strong within the smaller teams, he added.

“When the Marine on the left and right is all there is to protect you, you learn to trust each other,” said Yousey.

“We parked, the gunny and the staff sergeant dismounted to set up the mortar tube and I was in the .50 cal, in the turret and we’re sitting there for about five minutes while they were setting up the tube, and all of a sudden on top of the hill we hear a mortar system going off in the distance. We all look at each other like deer in the headlights and the staff sergeant and gunny dove for the ground, breaking the staff sergeant’s camera from diving, and I dove in the turret and the mortar round landed about 20 meters away.” Then we got harassing fire and small arms from the hillside as well,” Yousey stated while describing the rush of his first firefight.

“It’s a stressful environment, but very addictive as well,” said Yousey.

The ANA soldiers would hear the sound of gun fire and take off running towards it with no fear, added Yousey. That was common ground for the Marines and Afghan soldiers.

“We follow our esprit de corps, we’re not going to back down, we’re not going to retreat,” said, Cpl Yousey, talking about how Marines and soldiers with the 201st Corps of the ANA share a similar drive for battle.

“There are a lot of Afghan soldiers that want to see the ANA succeed, and they are going to stick it out and assure that the corruption ends,” said Master Sgt. David M. Stackpoole, the G-4 senior enlisted advisor for RCAC 3-7.

One of the big things that support the ANA’s fight against the Taliban was the change over of weapons that RCAC 3-7 made during the deployment, said Yousey.

“During our time there we changed over the North Atlantic Treaty Organization weapons instead of them carrying Warsaw Pact weapons. They went from the AK-47 to an M-16 and they went from a light utility truck to a humvee,” he added.

Changing over the ANA to NATO weapons was the smart choice to deny the enemy more ammunition and weapons they can use, said Stackpoole. You can’t shoot a 7.62  round through an M-16 and vice versa.

“The things that made us and the Marines before us successful, is that we listened and we adapted to the Afghanistan way of life, and we respected their days of religion and holidays,” said Stackpoole.

“With as different of personalities as we had, it was just a great group. We couldn’t have hand picked a better group of people,” said Stackpoole. “We would fight and laugh together, then go outside roll around in the mud, but the next day we had a job to do. I could be driving with the guy I was arguing with the night before, but all we had out there was each other,” he added.

RCAC was a unique animal, everybody knew their job and performed, said Stackpoole.

“You rely on the Marine on your left and right to do their job, and they rely on you to do the same. You have to know everything, you have to know how to operate that radio, you have to know how to call in close air support, you have to know arty,” said Stackpoole.

“When the going got tough, we were still all Marines,” stated Yousey.