5th Marine Regiment

Generally, the Marine Corps is not a family business. If the Corps meant for you to have a family, the adage goes, it would have issued you one. Well, sometimes even adages fade away, like Monday on the Camp Margarita parade ground at Camp Pendleton. For the first time in Marine history, a son will have the same command his father once held. Col. Richard B. Rothwell assumed command of the 5th Marine Regiment, the most-decorated regiment in Marine history.

Jared Verbeek had always wanted to be a Marine — like his father, who retired as a gunnery sergeant. As a kid, he sometimes wore his father's old uniforms. When he graduated from high school in the Central Valley city of Visalia , southeast of Fresno, he had earned a spot at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was offered a free education and a commission as a Marine officer. But family members said Verbeek was impatient to become a Marine and serve his country during a time of war. After graduating from Mt. Whitney High School, where he was a standout middle-distance runner and long-jumper on the track team, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and went to boot camp in San Diego.

The Defense Department last week also identified the following American military personnel killed in Iraq: Jeffery S. Blanton, 23, of Fayetteville, Ga.; lance corporal, Marine Corps. Blanton was among seven Marines killed Dec. 12 in enemy action in Al Anbar province. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force in Hawaii. Melvin L. Blazer, 38, of Moore, Okla.; staff sergeant, Marine Corps.

Reporting from Camp Pendleton -- The rain and cold were appropriate. "Somber weather for a somber occasion," the battalion commander said. It was a tearful morning of remembrance and mourning Friday as hundreds of Marines and family members paid tribute to 17 Marines from the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment killed in a recently completed deployment to the Sangin region of Afghanistan. To listen to comments by Marines about the fallen was to learn of the shared dangers of the fight in Sangin, long a Taliban stronghold.

In political terms, any rhetoric linking the Afghan conflict and the Vietnam War is usually meant to be poisonous -- like the charge that Afghanistan has become President Obama's Vietnam. But for the Marines in this former Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, a book about the war in Vietnam has become a guide for how to wage a counterinsurgency campaign on a small scale. Though the overall U.S. effort in Southeast Asia ultimately failed, the Marines believe that lessons learned there could help in Afghanistan.

Quiet and polite, with a penchant for keeping his emotions in check and his clothes clean and pressed, Gurpreet Singh seemed a perfect fit as a retail shoe salesman. That was back when most people knew the 17-year-old Sikh American as "G" and he worked part time at a department store near his hometown of Antelope, outside Sacramento. But in 2007, Singh enlisted in the Marines and soon seemed older, more authoritative, those close to him said. Cpl. Gurpreet Singh, an infantryman, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, based at Camp Pendleton . "G was a different guy when he came home on leave after his first tour in Afghanistan," recalled Joaquin Zavala, 22, of Antelope.

On his first day as a student at Stanford University after serving as an enlisted Marine in Iraq, William Treseder rushed to get to the dining hall by 6 a.m. Stanford dining halls, it turned out, open in the morning at the same time that Marine chow halls close: 8 a.m. "That was the beginning of understanding of what a different place this is," said Treseder, now 28 and just a few classes away from graduating with a degree in science, technology...

Lance Cpl. James D. Boelk grew up in a well-traveled military family. But his path to the Marine Corps was not a straight one. Home-schooled throughout his childhood, Boelk lived in Korea, Iceland, Texas and both coasts of the U.S. before attending Golden State Baptist College in Santa Clara, Calif., where he also worked in security for Google. He talked about becoming a youth leader or doing missionary work, but left college without getting his degree. Then the secular world beckoned.

Donald J. Hogan always wanted to be a soldier. As a kid, every year on his birthday, he would ask for a toy gun. Once, his parents remember, he asked for an Apache helicopter. A real one. On Halloween, he often dressed up as a soldier. And once, when he was 10 or 11, he disappeared briefly while visiting a ship on which his cousin was serving. His mother found the boy with a group of Marines. "One of them told my wife, 'He knows more about the weapons systems than we do,' " said his father, Jim Hogan of San Clemente.

Jared Verbeek had always wanted to be a Marine — like his father, who retired as a gunnery sergeant. As a kid, he sometimes wore his father's old uniforms. When he graduated from high school in the Central Valley city of Visalia , southeast of Fresno, he had earned a spot at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was offered a free education and a commission as a Marine officer. But family members said Verbeek was impatient to become a Marine and serve his country during a time of war. After graduating from Mt. Whitney High School, where he was a standout middle-distance runner and long-jumper on the track team, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and went to boot camp in San Diego.

Quiet and polite, with a penchant for keeping his emotions in check and his clothes clean and pressed, Gurpreet Singh seemed a perfect fit as a retail shoe salesman. That was back when most people knew the 17-year-old Sikh American as "G" and he worked part time at a department store near his hometown of Antelope, outside Sacramento. But in 2007, Singh enlisted in the Marines and soon seemed older, more authoritative, those close to him said. Cpl. Gurpreet Singh, an infantryman, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, based at Camp Pendleton . "G was a different guy when he came home on leave after his first tour in Afghanistan," recalled Joaquin Zavala, 22, of Antelope.

The C-17 Globemaster waited on the tarmac, its tail painted with an American flag and a fierce-looking eagle. Minutes earlier, the giant cargo jet had arrived from the U.S. airbase at Ramstein, Germany — carrying the flag-draped casket of a Marine killed in combat in Afghanistan. Seven enlisted Marines were on the flight line to serve as a white-gloved "carry team," ready to lift the casket from the plane and gingerly walk it down a ramp and to a large unmarked white van for the slow journey to the base mortuary.

On his first day as a student at Stanford University after serving as an enlisted Marine in Iraq, William Treseder rushed to get to the dining hall by 6 a.m. Stanford dining halls, it turned out, open in the morning at the same time that Marine chow halls close: 8 a.m. "That was the beginning of understanding of what a different place this is," said Treseder, now 28 and just a few classes away from graduating with a degree in science, technology...

Lance Cpl. James D. Boelk grew up in a well-traveled military family. But his path to the Marine Corps was not a straight one. Home-schooled throughout his childhood, Boelk lived in Korea, Iceland, Texas and both coasts of the U.S. before attending Golden State Baptist College in Santa Clara, Calif., where he also worked in security for Google. He talked about becoming a youth leader or doing missionary work, but left college without getting his degree. Then the secular world beckoned.

Justin Swanson was 16 when he met a Marine recruiter. He was getting by at Buena Park High School -- not the worst student, not the best. He had a big smile, gave big hugs and could charm his way out of trouble. He had a little swagger, a lot of girls. He stood up for kids who were bullied and cut football practice to baby-sit his half siblings. His mother was faintly amused by the contradictory phrases on his report cards: "In danger of failing" right next to "a pleasure to have in class."

In political terms, any rhetoric linking the Afghan conflict and the Vietnam War is usually meant to be poisonous -- like the charge that Afghanistan has become President Obama's Vietnam. But for the Marines in this former Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, a book about the war in Vietnam has become a guide for how to wage a counterinsurgency campaign on a small scale. Though the overall U.S. effort in Southeast Asia ultimately failed, the Marines believe that lessons learned there could help in Afghanistan.

It's not yet 10 a.m., and Lt. Col. William McCollough must confront a pair of problems that threaten to undercut Marine success in this onetime Taliban stronghold. Two members of the community council, the group organized by Marines to instill confidence among villagers in their government, have been killed, probably by Taliban fighters. The Afghan police response has been sluggish. Meanwhile, rumors are sweeping the farming community that there is favoritism and corruption in the U.S.-sponsored program to distribute wheat seed and fertilizer.

Donald J. Hogan always wanted to be a soldier. As a kid, every year on his birthday, he would ask for a toy gun. Once, his parents remember, he asked for an Apache helicopter. A real one. On Halloween, he often dressed up as a soldier. And once, when he was 10 or 11, he disappeared briefly while visiting a ship on which his cousin was serving. His mother found the boy with a group of Marines. "One of them told my wife, 'He knows more about the weapons systems than we do,' " said his father, Jim Hogan of San Clemente.