Fires claim hundreds of acres on Camp Pendleton

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Fires claim hundreds of acres on Camp Pendleton
By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, October 28, 2007


MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – Three fires on this sprawling, 200-square mile Marine base this week consumed hundreds of acres, but the only damage was one burned outbuilding on a firing range and a single, sprained ankle, according to officials.

Whether they were fighting fires, helping families evacuate their quarters, helping San Diego County residents, or evacuating themselves, “10,000 Marines were moving from place to place over the course of the week,” Commandant James T. Conway said Friday during a visit to Pendleton.

“All that was done without serious accident a level of expertise I don’t think anybody expected entirely,” Conway told a members of 5th Marine Regiment who helped set up an evacuation center on the base.

It was a challenging week for the base’s Marines, pushing them to live up to their motto of “adapt and overcome” in ways that felt much like a battlefield, Pendleton base commander Col. J.B. Seaton III, said during a Friday briefing to Conway.

It is a well-known military principal that in combat, “the enemy gets a vote,” Seaton said.

In this instance, “the enemy was wind and flame — and the enemy voted heavily this week,” he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=49839