14th Marine Regiment.

The 14th Marine Regiment, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is the largest regiment in the Marine Corps. It has five battalions, each with a headquarters and three firing batteries with one of the batteries transitioning to HIMARS. The regiment has a total of 21 units at 19 sites in 13 states throughout the continental United States.

The regiment has been training for its role as the force artillery for III MEF. In August 2003, the 14th Marines participated in Ulchi Focus Lens in Korea. The purpose of the exercise was to validate TTPs that will enable the Marine air ground task force (MAGTF) commander to support deep battle shaping operations, reinforce the close battle, provide a ground-based counterfire capability and control all non-ground combat element (GCE) artillery.

The 14th Marines also supported the Global War on Terrorism in 2003. It provided more than 100 individual augmentees to various active duty units deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa.

In January 2004, the regimental staff resumed training with III MEF as its force artillery mission. The operations and MAGTF liaison sections were part of several operational planning teams (OPTs) with their counterparts at III MEF during the first half of 2004. These teams refined procedures for command and control of force artillery assets, coordination of counterfire, development of a MAGTF counterfire plan and implementation of liaison teams for attached and coalition artillery units.

In May, the 14th Marines sent forces to OIF: a radar platoon, two provisional truck platoons and two provisional military police companies. The 14th Marines later deployed Battery M 4/14 Marines to provide counterfires in Iraq while Battery P 5/14 became a provisional security force in Iraq.

In all, the regiment activated more than 700 Marines and Sailors to serve in OIF in 2004, the vast majority of whom are conducting non-artillery (provisional) missions.

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In August, the regiment again supported III MEF as its force artillery in Ulchi Focus Lens and also formulated its plan to train for nontraditional OIF missions in 2005.

As always, the 14th Marines are committed to being a relevant, ready and capable force and will train to live up to its motto: At the Ready!