English: "Word can't describe it; this is great - it really is," said Cpl. Clinton R. Smith, a welder with Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, after embracing his 3-year-old daughter, Maddison, for the first time in more than six months. Smith, along with 88 other Marines and sailors, returned to the Combat Center Wednesday from their deployment to Ninawa province in the northwest corner of Iraq, near the Syrian border. While deployed, the battalion performed security and counter insurgency operations, smuggler interdictions, as well as mentoring and working alongside Iraqi Security Forces, according to Maj. William Speigle, the battalion's executive officer. "They all did a phenomenal job," he said. "They lived in a completely expeditionary environment the entire time - most Marines spent nearly everyday operating outside the wire during combat operations, living day to day out of their vehicles and sleeping in the dirt." 3rd LAR also had the unique task of being the last light armored reconnaissance battalion planned to deploy to Iraq and were responsible for "closing out the LAR footprint" in the country, Speigle explained. "We were accountable for an excess of $114 million worth of equipment. We turned in every bit of LAV equipment other units had used throughout OIF," he said. "This battalion was part of the initial invasion in 2003 and we were the last battalion to deploy to Iraq; everyone did exceptional and upheld the legacy."