CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The Afghanistan Campaign Medal, normally awarded to personnel serving for a period of 30 consecutive days within the borders of Afghanistan, will soon be awarded to Marines of the 1st Intelligence Battalion for serving within the borders of their air-conditioned Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility on Camp Pendleton.

"Over in Afghanistan, they're working around the clock to produce accurate, quality intelligence reporting," asserts Private First Class Caleb Pogston, an 0231 Intelligence Analyst. "Unfortunately, the volume of products they need to produce over in the 'Stan far surpasses the amount they can complete, so they rely on us to take up the slack and fulfill their reporting requirements."

Reach-back support is a relatively new concept in the U.S. military. In the intelligence community, it allows forward-deployed units to utilize their garrison counterparts to augment their intelligence gathering and reporting, resulting in a higher product output than just what the forward unit would yield.