thedrifter
07-31-06, 06:43 AM
Mission impressed 24th MEU
July 30,2006
DANIEL MCNAMARA
DAILY NEWS STAFF
The civilians piled on under the buzz of the rotors, spinning at supersonic speeds like a motorized bull whip cracking above their heads.
Ahead of them lay a hundred-mile expanse of the Mediterranean. Behind them, a nation on the brink of all-out war as Israeli forces clashed with Lebanese militants.
For the Marines on board, the mission – though just one of many for them during their careers – is likely to be one the they will remember forever.
“It was a very powerful and very gratifying moment for them,” said Capt. David Nevers, a spokesman for Camp Lejeune’s 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which provided security and transportation for the recent exodus of American citizens from Lebanon.
For their enemies, the calling card of an MEU is usually a precise and devastating display of firepower delivered with unwelcome and unexpected swiftness.
But the 24th MEU’s recent participation in the mass departure underscored the unit’s more diplomatic applications in a mission that manifested itself not in the form of tracer rounds and rocket fire, but as men carrying strollers and babies wearing flight helmets.
On July 12, Hezbollah guerillas captured two Israeli soldiers, prompting an Israeli offensive into neighboring Lebanon to retrieve their troops and retaliate for the attack.
The conflict quickly escalated, and three days later the MEU got the call to aid the American Embassy in the prompt escorting of U.S. citizens to a safer location.
“As we’re training in Jordan, the events are unfolding in the Gaza Strip and soon enough the Israelis expanded operations into Lebanon,” Nevers said from aboard the USS Nashville, part of the Iwo Jima Strike Group.
But true to form, the rapid response force executed a 2,200-man about face, pulling stakes, packing trucks and hustling back to the Mediterranean.
In the first three days of the operation, roughly 200 American citizens were airlifted by Marine helicopters from Lebanon to Cyprus, 100 miles across the Mediterranean Sea.
The process was hastened by the arrival of sea craft — both military and private, contracted vessels — several days later. By Friday, troops had helped almost 14,000 Americans leave Lebanon, according to a Marine Corps press release.
Leery of the term “evacuation,” Nevers noted the departure was not mandatory. No one was hauled away from Lebanon against their will.
“It’s those that want to leave,” Nevers said. “We’re facilitating their departure.”
While the departure had wound down by Wednesday, Nevers said the MEU was still on hand to provide aid.
“We are standing by either to continue with the present mission or assume a different mission,” he said.
On June 8, the 2,200 Marines and sailors of the MEU began a six-month deployment with a teary farewell from Onslow Beach.
After spending some time in the Mediterranean, the MEU made its way down the Suez Canal to rendezvous with the Jordanian military for an operation called Infinite Moonlight, Nevers said.
The events in Lebanon brought an end to that exercise, and the Nashville, the USS Iwo Jima and USS Whidbey Island were soon heading back up the canal to bring their passengers to a country that holds horrific reminders for Marines — and those of the 24th MEU in particular.
There, in Beirut on Oct. 23, 1983, a suicide bomber blew up his truck in the Marine barracks, killing 241 American servicemen — many of whom were from the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit, which became the 24th MEU in 1988.
The surviving Marines were relocated off shore, and by the following year, they had pulled out of Lebanon altogether.
Twenty three years later, Nevers marveled at happenstance.
“The historical coincidence here is remarkable,” Nevers said.
The coincidences don’t end there. Nevers said the MEU operations chief, Master Gunnery Sgt. Albert Whitney, was a buck sergeant with Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, which was the main victim of the Beirut bombing.
The MEU is made up of 1/8, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 365, MEU Service Support Group 24 and a command element.
Despite the twist of fate, Nevers said Marines were simply there to do their jobs.
“Many of us, of course, were aware of the significance, the historical coincidence and while we have all thought about the significance of the MEU’s and the battalion’s return to Beirut, we haven’t dwelled on it.”
Nevers instead saw the event as a chance for the MEU to write a new chapter in its history, one involving not death and destruction, but hope and homecoming.
“There are few more comforting reassuring images when trouble has arisen than the sight of the Unite States Marines. It’s enormously gratifying for us to help some very anxious American citizens who were filled with uncertainty about their fate and who were eager to leave Lebanon and to get to safety,” Nevers said.
“We had the opportunity to do what we do best.”
Contact staff writer Daniel McNamara at 353-1171, ext. 237 or dmcnamara@freedomenc.com.
Ellie
July 30,2006
DANIEL MCNAMARA
DAILY NEWS STAFF
The civilians piled on under the buzz of the rotors, spinning at supersonic speeds like a motorized bull whip cracking above their heads.
Ahead of them lay a hundred-mile expanse of the Mediterranean. Behind them, a nation on the brink of all-out war as Israeli forces clashed with Lebanese militants.
For the Marines on board, the mission – though just one of many for them during their careers – is likely to be one the they will remember forever.
“It was a very powerful and very gratifying moment for them,” said Capt. David Nevers, a spokesman for Camp Lejeune’s 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which provided security and transportation for the recent exodus of American citizens from Lebanon.
For their enemies, the calling card of an MEU is usually a precise and devastating display of firepower delivered with unwelcome and unexpected swiftness.
But the 24th MEU’s recent participation in the mass departure underscored the unit’s more diplomatic applications in a mission that manifested itself not in the form of tracer rounds and rocket fire, but as men carrying strollers and babies wearing flight helmets.
On July 12, Hezbollah guerillas captured two Israeli soldiers, prompting an Israeli offensive into neighboring Lebanon to retrieve their troops and retaliate for the attack.
The conflict quickly escalated, and three days later the MEU got the call to aid the American Embassy in the prompt escorting of U.S. citizens to a safer location.
“As we’re training in Jordan, the events are unfolding in the Gaza Strip and soon enough the Israelis expanded operations into Lebanon,” Nevers said from aboard the USS Nashville, part of the Iwo Jima Strike Group.
But true to form, the rapid response force executed a 2,200-man about face, pulling stakes, packing trucks and hustling back to the Mediterranean.
In the first three days of the operation, roughly 200 American citizens were airlifted by Marine helicopters from Lebanon to Cyprus, 100 miles across the Mediterranean Sea.
The process was hastened by the arrival of sea craft — both military and private, contracted vessels — several days later. By Friday, troops had helped almost 14,000 Americans leave Lebanon, according to a Marine Corps press release.
Leery of the term “evacuation,” Nevers noted the departure was not mandatory. No one was hauled away from Lebanon against their will.
“It’s those that want to leave,” Nevers said. “We’re facilitating their departure.”
While the departure had wound down by Wednesday, Nevers said the MEU was still on hand to provide aid.
“We are standing by either to continue with the present mission or assume a different mission,” he said.
On June 8, the 2,200 Marines and sailors of the MEU began a six-month deployment with a teary farewell from Onslow Beach.
After spending some time in the Mediterranean, the MEU made its way down the Suez Canal to rendezvous with the Jordanian military for an operation called Infinite Moonlight, Nevers said.
The events in Lebanon brought an end to that exercise, and the Nashville, the USS Iwo Jima and USS Whidbey Island were soon heading back up the canal to bring their passengers to a country that holds horrific reminders for Marines — and those of the 24th MEU in particular.
There, in Beirut on Oct. 23, 1983, a suicide bomber blew up his truck in the Marine barracks, killing 241 American servicemen — many of whom were from the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit, which became the 24th MEU in 1988.
The surviving Marines were relocated off shore, and by the following year, they had pulled out of Lebanon altogether.
Twenty three years later, Nevers marveled at happenstance.
“The historical coincidence here is remarkable,” Nevers said.
The coincidences don’t end there. Nevers said the MEU operations chief, Master Gunnery Sgt. Albert Whitney, was a buck sergeant with Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, which was the main victim of the Beirut bombing.
The MEU is made up of 1/8, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 365, MEU Service Support Group 24 and a command element.
Despite the twist of fate, Nevers said Marines were simply there to do their jobs.
“Many of us, of course, were aware of the significance, the historical coincidence and while we have all thought about the significance of the MEU’s and the battalion’s return to Beirut, we haven’t dwelled on it.”
Nevers instead saw the event as a chance for the MEU to write a new chapter in its history, one involving not death and destruction, but hope and homecoming.
“There are few more comforting reassuring images when trouble has arisen than the sight of the Unite States Marines. It’s enormously gratifying for us to help some very anxious American citizens who were filled with uncertainty about their fate and who were eager to leave Lebanon and to get to safety,” Nevers said.
“We had the opportunity to do what we do best.”
Contact staff writer Daniel McNamara at 353-1171, ext. 237 or dmcnamara@freedomenc.com.
Ellie