The battalion, operating as part of Regimental Combat Team Five, was the first unit to cross the Iraqi-Kuwaiti Border on March 20, 2003.

The American 517th Regimental Combat Team would land beside Le Luc, and the 509th and 551st Battalions near Carnoules.

It was for his command of the 36th Division that Dahlquist received his greatest criticism for his over-utilization of the Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

From the afternoon of 24 March until 1 April, the Battalion was attached to Regimental Combat Team 5.

Also on Saturday, a roadside bomb detonated by insurgents near the village of Ferris killed another marine from Regimental Combat Team 8.

Alpha Company, 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, was deployed to Iraq in 2008 to support Regimental Combat Team 5.

Two of the missing marines were assigned to the First Marine Logistics Group and the third was assigned to Regimental Combat Team 7, the military authorities said.

But the Japanese-Americans felt they had something to prove, and several thousand of them did, leaving American internment camps to become volunteers, most notably in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

One of the marines was assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, and the other three were with the First Brigade, First Armored Division.

A marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team Five died Friday from wounds sustained in fighting in Anbar Province, the military said.