thedrifter
07-30-07, 02:06 PM
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
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