Continuing the Series

Making Haditha safe from car-bombs
How U.S. Marines license vehicles in Iraqi-style DMV operation

By Matt Sanchez

It's Tuesday morning, and the 5th battalion 10th Marines out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., are up early and won't be returning to their 'racks until very late.

By 0700 (7 a.m.), Iraqis have begun to form lines in the waiting area just in front of the Civil Military Operational Center, or CMOC, set smack dab in the center of downtown Haditha, directly across the street from the mayor's office.

The Marines had pinned tarps from the rooftop to the gates, so the growing line would have a bit of comfort. As the temperatures rise, a Marine hands out bottled water. Between the dirt-filled Hesco barriers and the C-wire (concertina wire, a modernized and much more effective version of barbed wire), the outside waiting space offers few places to sit. Iraqi women are led to the front of the line so they won't have to wait among the men.

Continue reading more by embedded reporter Sanchez.