thedrifter
09-30-07, 05:19 PM
For deployed brothers, a family reunion
By Gidget Fuentes - gfuentes@militarytimes.com
Posted : October 08, 2007
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Leon Mundy, an agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, was sent to Iraq to dig up the truth. What he found was his brother.
Leon met up with his younger brother, Staff. Sgt. John Mundy, with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, when both men showed up at Camp Taqaddum.
“The last few days have been great. For us, it’s just surreal just being out here,” John Mundy, 29, said by satellite phone in early September from Taqaddum.
Mundy and his Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based MEU were wrapping up their combat tour in Iraq in September as the regional contingency force. The 2,200-member unit deployed to the Persian Gulf region last spring with the Navy’s Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group.
As John Mundy, a gunnery sergeant-select, readied to leave the combat zone — his third tour in Iraq — his brother, a former Marine and NCIS agent, arrived from Kuwait for his own Iraq tour.
The Mundy brothers, who are both married and fathers, hail from a military family from Davenport, Iowa. It had been a while since they had seen each other, and they spent more than a few hours catching up on their lives and family news. After John Mundy first deployed to Iraq, Leon got into a rotation of his own in December 2004, when he volunteered to join other NCIS agents overseas.
In 2005, NCIS organized the Contingency Response Field Office based in Brunswick, Ga., which is the deploying arm of NCIS with expertise in criminal investigations, counterintelligence, counterterrorism and protective operations.
Since 2003, the Mundy brothers have bypassed each other between Iraq and the U.S.
“Every time, we kind of jump over each other. It’s like a game of checkers,” John Mundy said. “We’re always here at different times from each other.”
For Leon Mundy, 35, who’s doing a three-year assignment with CRFO, the transition to the tactical combat environment to do his investigative work was exciting and somewhat familiar. He spent four years in the Corps as a motor vehicle operator in the early 1990s.
The training, preparation and gear that Leon Mundy and his team received to prepare for a combat footing in Anbar province’s rough clime weren’t too different from what Marines get. There was lots of weapons training, tactical land navigation and vehicle convoy operations at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
The teams deploy to Iraq to do investigations, not combat. “We do have our own separate missions. Each agent has an expertise in something,” Leon Mundy said.
His brother understands the danger teams face in Iraq.
“There’s certain incidents that are going to happen that you’re going to need them,” John Mundy said. “Our command has been supportive of the agents. I know what they’re here for.”
Ellie
By Gidget Fuentes - gfuentes@militarytimes.com
Posted : October 08, 2007
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Leon Mundy, an agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, was sent to Iraq to dig up the truth. What he found was his brother.
Leon met up with his younger brother, Staff. Sgt. John Mundy, with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, when both men showed up at Camp Taqaddum.
“The last few days have been great. For us, it’s just surreal just being out here,” John Mundy, 29, said by satellite phone in early September from Taqaddum.
Mundy and his Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based MEU were wrapping up their combat tour in Iraq in September as the regional contingency force. The 2,200-member unit deployed to the Persian Gulf region last spring with the Navy’s Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group.
As John Mundy, a gunnery sergeant-select, readied to leave the combat zone — his third tour in Iraq — his brother, a former Marine and NCIS agent, arrived from Kuwait for his own Iraq tour.
The Mundy brothers, who are both married and fathers, hail from a military family from Davenport, Iowa. It had been a while since they had seen each other, and they spent more than a few hours catching up on their lives and family news. After John Mundy first deployed to Iraq, Leon got into a rotation of his own in December 2004, when he volunteered to join other NCIS agents overseas.
In 2005, NCIS organized the Contingency Response Field Office based in Brunswick, Ga., which is the deploying arm of NCIS with expertise in criminal investigations, counterintelligence, counterterrorism and protective operations.
Since 2003, the Mundy brothers have bypassed each other between Iraq and the U.S.
“Every time, we kind of jump over each other. It’s like a game of checkers,” John Mundy said. “We’re always here at different times from each other.”
For Leon Mundy, 35, who’s doing a three-year assignment with CRFO, the transition to the tactical combat environment to do his investigative work was exciting and somewhat familiar. He spent four years in the Corps as a motor vehicle operator in the early 1990s.
The training, preparation and gear that Leon Mundy and his team received to prepare for a combat footing in Anbar province’s rough clime weren’t too different from what Marines get. There was lots of weapons training, tactical land navigation and vehicle convoy operations at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.
The teams deploy to Iraq to do investigations, not combat. “We do have our own separate missions. Each agent has an expertise in something,” Leon Mundy said.
His brother understands the danger teams face in Iraq.
“There’s certain incidents that are going to happen that you’re going to need them,” John Mundy said. “Our command has been supportive of the agents. I know what they’re here for.”
Ellie