1st Battalion, 23d Marines

The battalion was mobilized for the first time since World War II in January 1991 in support of Operation Desert Shield.

Operation Iraqi Freedom (June 2004) The battalion was again mobilized in June 2004 to conduct three months of pre-deployment training at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, in preparation for their upcoming deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

They augmented the 7th Marine Regiment, helping to secure the area spanning the Hit-Haditha corridor, west of Ramadi, out to the Syrian border of the Al Anbar Province.

Alpha Company supported Regimental Combat Team 8 in the upper Sangin Valley and then transitioned to its own battle space in and around Camp Delaram II in the northwest part of Helmand province.

Alpha Company also led a mission that confiscated more than 150 tons of poppy seed, marking the largest drug seizure by NATO forces in Afghanistan.

These companies ran the Combat Operations Center at the Camp Leatherneck, Bastion and Shorabak complex and partnered with other coalition forces to make vast improvements to the security of the area.

Marines take cover behind a M4 Sherman tank while cleaning out the northern north end of the island of Saipan. July 8, 1944
Marines burrow in the volcanic sand on the beach of Iwo Jima, as their comrades unload supplies and equipment from landing vessels despite the heavy rain of artillery fire from enemy positions in the background.
Marine marches past local Iraqi civilians during a security patrol around Ramadi, Iraq , 2004