The first U.S. Marine Corps unit in the Dakotas
It sits there on the Bypass at 4th. Street; a large building with lawns, a high fence around it and a structure west of the main building with military vehicles. Rarely does the community get inside. It is called The Armed Forces Reserve Center. Most of the community has a vague idea that it is home to a National Guard Unit but few know that the United States Marines are there. Deliberately delayed as they would not enter a new facility that they were to share with legendary I Company of Guadalcanal fame in World War II now known as Bravo Company of the 188th Engineer Battalion, North Dakota Army National Guard while the combat engineers were deployed overseas the deck (smaller than a company; bigger than a platoon) arrived in Wahpeton in 2007. They are a component of the Fourth Marine Division and a Military Police detachment with their Company headquarters in Minneapolis, MN. Members of the Rotary Club of Wahpeton were privileged to hear of the unit from Gunnery Sargent Tarek Aissaoui during their regular noon meeting at Prante’s on Tuesday, June 10th.
Gunnery Sargent Tarek Aissaoui
In a way, with no oceans nearby it is counterintuitive to have a Marine unit other than a recruitment unit in Wahpeton or even in Minneapolis. Based on a policy of having a detachment nearby for casualty calls and funeral honors this is the first Marine unit in the Dakotas. Aside from war considerations a large number of Marines from World War II, Korea and Vietnam as well as other conflicts live in the Dakotas. The Marine Corps has a presence at every one of their funerals. The detachment is also responsible for training of reservist Military Police. Unlike other military the Marine Corps does this with active duty Marines, six of whom with an active duty Navy corpsman (the Marines rely on the Navy for many support services including medical) are based in Wahpeton. In case you think these are weekend warriors a step above the Boy Scouts forget it: while the unit has never been deployed as a complete unit about eighty percent of their Marines have been deployed to active duty augmenting active duty Marine Military Police Units stationed in combat theatres and around the world.
Sargent Aissaoui also spoke proudly of the Marine Corps reservists program of “Toys For Tots” that is a nationwide program including in Wahpeton allowing underprivileged children to have Christmas presents. He spoke of how the active duty Marines use their free time to assist in community activities such as the Boy Scouts, soccer coaches at Parks & Rec and, in his case, basketball coaching at the Circle of Nations school.
Admitting that when deployed from Virginia he had to look on a map to see where North Dakota was he now is thinking that they will remain here after he retires from the Marine Corps next year as he and his family so like the community. He joined the Marines at age nineteen, a decision that he describes as one of the best of his life. He strongly believes that a four year term of national service (preferably with the Marines) for every high school graduate would allow them to focus and make career decisions before college and not waste time floundering around not knowing what to do and eventually dropping out of college. His wife is a Marine with five and a half years with the Corps. She was a radio operator during the battle of Fallujah, Iraqi. It was where they met. He was deployed to Iraqi four times and Afghanistan once. He is enrolled at NDSCS with the intention of completing his Bachelor degree and eventually being a teacher.
During the question and answer period he spoke of how he watched Iraqi transform to a modern nation with elections over the period of is four deployments and his belief that they aided Iraqi transform to a modern nation.