actions on that day earned him a Navy Cross, one of two that 2nd Battalion 7th Marines awarded during their deployment in Afghanistan. On August 14, 2008, two separate IED attacks within a few hundred meters and twenty minutes of one another claimed the lives of Lance Corporal Jacob Tovez, Corporal Anthony Mihalo, and Lance Corporal Juan Lopez-Castenaeda. In October 2008 Echo Company pulled out of Sangin, after handing FOB Tangiers and FOB Wishtan back over to the British. 2nd Battalion 7th Marines received a Navy Unit Commendation for their actions in Afghanistan. 2010 In June 2010, 3rd Battalion 7th Marines and 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion entered Sangin to aid British forces and eventually take over. 3/7 flooded the green zone with Marines and 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion Provided Assault Breacher Vehicles upon arrival and controlled areas from Route 611 to the Helmand River in a months time. In September 2010, Liam Fox, the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Defence, announced that northern Helmand would be transferred to the United States Marine Corps (USMC). A third of all British deaths in Afghanistan, (approximately 100), occurred over four years of occupation in Sangin. The British troops, with 40 Commando, Royal Marines among the last to leave the area, withdrew on September 20, 2010, to be replaced by 3/7. 3/7 was replaced by 3rd Battalion 5th Marines in early October 2010 and operated between September 2010 and April 2011. In November 2010, 3/25 kilo company was ordered into Sangin as additional reinforcements were needed and attached to 3/5. Also attached to 3/5 was Echo Company 2/9, who arrived to aid 3/5 due to the number of casualties that unit had sustained. They were there from December 2010 until February 2011. 3/5 cleared and secured Sangin's "Brown Zone" and much of the "Green Zone," while Echo 2/9 was in command of other parts the southern "Green Zone." Echo 2/9 sustained three KIA during their time in Sangin. 2/9 was relieved by Echo Company, 2D Battalion 8th Marines in February 2011 taking over a portion of the Southern Green Zone. Twenty-five members of 3rd battalion 5th Marines were killed in action, including the son of Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly, head of the Marine Corps Reserve, and 174 were wounded, many losing limbs. In 520 firefights the battalion killed or wounded an estimated 470 enemy fighters and cleared the Sangin area of the