Courtesy of Mark aka The Fontman


26 MEU - why training is critical in the WOT

Here's an update to friends and especially family members of the 26th MEU from Col. Tom Qualls, Commanding Officer:

The big ship pulled into port today. It's good to be back in Bahrain again. Believe it or not, we have Marines in 8 different countries as of today! This week we deployed another major training effort ashore into a foreign country.

Training is critical in the War on Terrorism in enhancing other nations' ability to fight terrorism and to deal with contingencies on their own, without US assistance. This latest ashore event is focused on that segment. Our entry into other nations give us the opportunity to show goodwill and to demonstrate that our nation, our Marines/Sailors, and our people are trustworthy and cordial as well as fully capable to assist them raising their response capability.

Next week we will launch another operational thrust, this the largest of our many. First, before we do that, we have more detailed planning to accomplish while in port; and, we need to gather up at least 2 other planning teams that were away for the past week.

So there will be work to be done in port, but we will have a small amount of down time too. The need for balance will once again be very real---balance between down time and the need for professional attention to the combat preparations that are ahead of us.

Hey, we are at the mid-point in the deployment! Keep the cards, emails, and care packages coming...and remember your Marines are going to need your continued support all the way to the finish line....which is still expected to be on time. Speaking of mail: Yes, mail has been delayed---but that's to be expected; the good news is that 18,000 pounds of mail is expected to be on-loaded today. That should be exciting!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Summer! See ya' in the Fall!

Semper Fidelis,
Colonel Tom Qualls

Ellie