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1ST MARINE EXPEDITIONARY
ITS MISSION: The 1st Marines, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., are best known for winning World War II's Battle of Guadalcanal. The force can call on its more than 100 F-18 and AV-8B warplanes and 50 AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships to soften up the Iraqis before ground troops advance. The first U.S. soldier to die in Gulf War II was a 1st Marine, who was shot while approaching an oil station in southern Iraq.
THE COMMANDER: Colonel Lieut. General James T. Conway, 55, served in Desert Storm, ran the Marine Corps University at Quantico, Va., and recently held one of the military's top terrorism-fighting jobs. He commands more than 85,000 troops and told his soldiers, "This isn't a fair fight. We didn't intend it to be." The U.S. mission, he said, is to depose Saddam, "not to lay waste to this place."