I’ve been asked by a gentle reader to write something more cheery about my adventures in Costa Rica that do not involve killing snakes or slaying señoritas. Hope you will find this uplifting. What was that again about mad dogs and Englishmen in the midday sun?

I’m dizzy again and on the verge of heat stroke wondering how quickly I’ll react to the next snake attack. We’re standing around the back of my truck taking a water break and trying to get some shade from the unrelenting tropical sun when the youngest of the crew, Pablo, (15 years old and the only one still single) bolts into the rows of young pepper plants that are just learning to attach themselves to and climb up their live posts. Black pepper plants are vines, and in order to get any significant production out of them you’ve got to get them off of…

Operation JUST CAUSE: PANAMA

– Over a fifteen month span, LAI would send several detachments to Panama. – December 1989 was the first combat action for LAI.
– 20 December 1989, Cpl Garreth Isaak would be the Battalion’s first KIA. He would be awarded the Silver Star (posthumously) for his actions.

DESERT SHIELD / DESERT STORM

– December 1990-April 1992.
– Jan-Feb 1991 2d LAI conducted 4 major combat missions.
– 2d LAI was the first coalition force to enter Kuwait in force with the intention of staying.

The above from USMC webpage:

https://www.2ndmardiv.marines.mil/Units/2nd-Light-Armored-Recon-BN/History/

Nearly 10% of all Operation DESERT STORM’s casualties were suffered by one unit, Camp Pendleton’s 1st LAI Battalion. All of the units KIAs were caused by friendly fire.

In fact, most of those KIAs were grunts who had recently been transferred to the battalion to act as scouts for the advancing Light Armored Vehicles (LAVs).