22nd MEU deploys this week for 6-month tour

[thedrifter]

22nd MEU deploys this week for 6-month tour
By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jul 30, 2007 12:27:10 EDT

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — About 2,200 members of the Camp Lejeune-based 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit will set sail this week for a routine six-month deployment.

The MEU is loading onto the ships of the Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group based in Norfolk, Va., said Capt. Clark Carpenter, 22nd MEU http://www.usmc.mil/22ndmeu/ spokesman. The group includes the amphibious landing dock Ponce, the dock landing ship Gunston Hall, the destroyer Porter and the frigate Carr.

Marines and sailors in the MEU have been training in North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia for the past six months. Their deployment will take them through U.S. European and Central Commands’ areas of responsibility as a theater reserve.

MEUs are capable of executing missions such as humanitarian assistance, non-combatant evacuation operations and combat operations. The Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 13th MEU’s deployment was recently extended a month to execute operations in Iraq’s northern Anbar province.

The 22nd MEU is commanded by Col. Doug Stilwell. It is a Marine Air Ground Task Force made up of a ground combat element, Battalion Landing Team 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines; aviation combat element, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261; logistics combat element, Combat Logistics Battalion 22; and its command element.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

22nd MEU Marines head to ships
By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jul 31, 2007 12:43:03 EDT

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — Four floats down, one to go.

As daylight crept over eastern North Carolina on Tuesday morning, those numbers went through Staff Sgt. Daniel Wilburn’s mind as he watched his newborn son nestling in his wife’s arms.

“I’m just doing one last float,” he said.

The 2,200 members of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit are boarding ships all this week for a routine six-month deployment.

This marks Wilburn’s fifth and final MEU deployment. The 27-year-old said that when he returns, he’s leaving the Corps.

His wife Lisa said tears have come and gone as she’s prepared for his departure, the first deployment since their marriage.

“I think the only thing that concerns me is that my son’s not going to get to bond with his dad,” she said as she cradled 12-day-old Conner.

Like the Wilburns, a handful of families said their goodbyes on base in the pre-dawn hours. Seabags and Kevlar helmets peppered the lawn where Marines waited. A couple of leathernecks propped against their gear for quick naps.

Cpl. Jesus Murillo, 20, was too excited to sleep.

“I volunteered for this, but now I’m looking like, ‘Hmm, I don’t even know where we’re going,’” he said. “I’ve been wanting to go, though. I was always told in boot camp that not going on deployment is like being the fat kid not getting picked for dodgeball.”

His wife Jessica, also 20, plans to head to her hometown of Las Vegas while her husband is deployed.

“I’m a little scared, but I’m also happy for him because I know he wants to do this,” she said. “I’m a little mad, actually, because I know he’s going to be having fun.”

Rumors about where the MEU will go, including Iraq, have been circulating, said Staff Sgt. Ann Sagebiel, 26.

“I don’t hold stock in any of them,” she said. “Any place I’ll go over there, I’ll be happy.”

The Texas native has deployed to Iraq three times and Afghanistan once, all on a volunteer basis.

“I like deploying,” she said, adding that she volunteered for this deployment, her first with a MEU. “I wanted to [deploy with] the MEU because I wanted to do something different.”

About 100 Marines and sailors waited early Tuesday morning for buses to carry them to Radio Island, about 40 miles east of Camp Lejeune.

Once there, utility landing craft shuttled them to the ships of the Norfolk, Va.-based Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group, which includes the amphibious landing dock Ponce, the dock landing ship Gunston Hall, the destroyer Porter and the frigate Carr.

Other members of the MEU are boarding ships docked at the Port of Morehead City.

MEUs are considered an emergency force, capable of executing missions such as humanitarian assistance, non-combatant evacuation operations and combat operations.

The Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 13th MEU’s deployment was recently extended a month to continue operations in Iraq’s northern Anbar province.

The 22nd MEU will go through U.S. European and Central Commands’ areas of responsibility as a theater reserve.

The MEU is commanded by Col. Doug Stilwell. It is a Marine Air Ground Task Force made up of a ground combat element, Battalion Landing Team 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines; aviation combat element, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261; logistics combat element, Combat Logistics Battalion 22; and its command element.

The MEU is also being accompanied by a 120-man Marine Special Operations Company, the second on the East Coast to deploy since the inception of Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command.

Ellie