thedrifter
06-10-04, 08:39 AM
Issue Date: June 14, 2004
The Lore of the Corps
Lebanon evacuation effort went off without a hitch
By Keith A. Milks
Special to the Times
As the 32nd Marine Amphibious Unit crossed the Atlantic in early June 1982, the thoughts of the unit’s Marines and sailors were geared toward an amphibious landing exercise in Portugal, scheduled to begin June 21.
On June 6, however, just as the five ships of Amphibious Squadron 4 docked at Naval Station Rota, Spain, the world watched in shock as Israeli forces poured across the Lebanese border in an invasion that came to be known as Operation Peace for the Galilee.
While the MAU, commanded by Col. James M. Mead, continued to prepare for the amphib exercise and its upcoming turnover with the 34th MAU, the unit watched the developing situation in southern Lebanon closely. At first, it seemed the Israel Defense Force sought only to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon to stop terrorist groups, primarily the Palestine Liberation Organization, from bombarding Jewish settlements in northern Israel. Instead, the Israelis drove farther north, cutting a swath through PLO and Syrian forces and advancing steadily toward Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
Very quickly, the 32nd MAU’s mission changed. The MAU left Rota June 7 and steamed east toward the Lebanese coast, the amphib exercise all but forgotten.
Along the way, Mead and his staff began planning for the possible evacuation of noncombatants — American citizens and third-country nationals — from Lebanon, the mission they considered most likely to come down the pike.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, the central government watched impotently as the IDF surrounded Beirut and laid siege to the city, trapping PLO and Syrian forces inside.
Arriving at its station 100 miles off the Lebanese coast, the 32nd MAU completed its turnover with the 34th MAU and assumed responsibility as the Landing Force, U.S. Sixth Fleet.
The 32nd consisted of 1,746 Marines and 78 sailors in its command element, Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 and MAU Service Support Group 32. Designated Task Force 62, the ships of Amphibious Squadron 4 carried the MAU and consisted of the amphibious assault ship Guam, amphibious transport dock Nashville, dock landing ship Hermitage, and tank landing ships Manitowoc and Saginaw.
Nine days after arriving off the Lebanese coast, the 32nd MAU received the order to pluck noncombatants from the Beirut area — even as fighting raged around the city and threatened their safety. Because the city’s international airport was unusable and the Israeli cordon around Beirut so tight, the decision was made to conduct a maritime evacuation via the port of Juniyah, five miles north of the city.
At 8 a.m. on June 24, within hours of receiving the execute order, a landing craft carried Marines of BLT 2/8 ashore, where they secured the port while Marines and sailors of MSSG-32 set up an evacuation control center.
Despite earlier coordination, confusion in the timeline forced the Marines to wait for the evacuees, who began arriving around 10 a.m. The MSSG-32 detachment quickly went to work, facilitating the flow of evacuees by providing administrative screening and medical examinations of each noncombatant.
By the end of the day, 580 American citizens and third-country nationals, mainly the families of diplomatic staff and nonessential personnel, were processed and ferried by LCU to the Nashville and Hermitage. While these ships sailed to Cyprus to drop off the evacuees, the remaining ships of Amphibious Squadron 4 loitered off the Lebanese coast, continuing to support diplomatic efforts and standing by for any additional missions.
More would follow. And the evacuation on June 24, 1982, would be only the opening move in the Corps’ 22-month Lebanon mission, which eventually claimed the lives of nearly 300 American service members — most of them in a single attack on their barracks on Oct. 23, 1983.
The writer is a gunnery sergeant currently deployed to Afghanistan with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2940893.php
Ellie
The Lore of the Corps
Lebanon evacuation effort went off without a hitch
By Keith A. Milks
Special to the Times
As the 32nd Marine Amphibious Unit crossed the Atlantic in early June 1982, the thoughts of the unit’s Marines and sailors were geared toward an amphibious landing exercise in Portugal, scheduled to begin June 21.
On June 6, however, just as the five ships of Amphibious Squadron 4 docked at Naval Station Rota, Spain, the world watched in shock as Israeli forces poured across the Lebanese border in an invasion that came to be known as Operation Peace for the Galilee.
While the MAU, commanded by Col. James M. Mead, continued to prepare for the amphib exercise and its upcoming turnover with the 34th MAU, the unit watched the developing situation in southern Lebanon closely. At first, it seemed the Israel Defense Force sought only to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon to stop terrorist groups, primarily the Palestine Liberation Organization, from bombarding Jewish settlements in northern Israel. Instead, the Israelis drove farther north, cutting a swath through PLO and Syrian forces and advancing steadily toward Lebanon’s capital, Beirut.
Very quickly, the 32nd MAU’s mission changed. The MAU left Rota June 7 and steamed east toward the Lebanese coast, the amphib exercise all but forgotten.
Along the way, Mead and his staff began planning for the possible evacuation of noncombatants — American citizens and third-country nationals — from Lebanon, the mission they considered most likely to come down the pike.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, the central government watched impotently as the IDF surrounded Beirut and laid siege to the city, trapping PLO and Syrian forces inside.
Arriving at its station 100 miles off the Lebanese coast, the 32nd MAU completed its turnover with the 34th MAU and assumed responsibility as the Landing Force, U.S. Sixth Fleet.
The 32nd consisted of 1,746 Marines and 78 sailors in its command element, Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 and MAU Service Support Group 32. Designated Task Force 62, the ships of Amphibious Squadron 4 carried the MAU and consisted of the amphibious assault ship Guam, amphibious transport dock Nashville, dock landing ship Hermitage, and tank landing ships Manitowoc and Saginaw.
Nine days after arriving off the Lebanese coast, the 32nd MAU received the order to pluck noncombatants from the Beirut area — even as fighting raged around the city and threatened their safety. Because the city’s international airport was unusable and the Israeli cordon around Beirut so tight, the decision was made to conduct a maritime evacuation via the port of Juniyah, five miles north of the city.
At 8 a.m. on June 24, within hours of receiving the execute order, a landing craft carried Marines of BLT 2/8 ashore, where they secured the port while Marines and sailors of MSSG-32 set up an evacuation control center.
Despite earlier coordination, confusion in the timeline forced the Marines to wait for the evacuees, who began arriving around 10 a.m. The MSSG-32 detachment quickly went to work, facilitating the flow of evacuees by providing administrative screening and medical examinations of each noncombatant.
By the end of the day, 580 American citizens and third-country nationals, mainly the families of diplomatic staff and nonessential personnel, were processed and ferried by LCU to the Nashville and Hermitage. While these ships sailed to Cyprus to drop off the evacuees, the remaining ships of Amphibious Squadron 4 loitered off the Lebanese coast, continuing to support diplomatic efforts and standing by for any additional missions.
More would follow. And the evacuation on June 24, 1982, would be only the opening move in the Corps’ 22-month Lebanon mission, which eventually claimed the lives of nearly 300 American service members — most of them in a single attack on their barracks on Oct. 23, 1983.
The writer is a gunnery sergeant currently deployed to Afghanistan with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2940893.php
Ellie