MEU deployment

[CalahanD]

Well we officially became the 24th MEU today in a long a$$ ceremony. Can anybody tell me what to expect from a MEU? Any stories of there times on a MEU would be cool...thanks. I know so far most of our time is in Afghanistan but we do get to go to other countries.

Thanks Marines

[Sergeant M]

Alot of time on a boat and deployments more often if you're stationed out here.

[Petz]

so um.... ship is ok if you're a mech.... otherwise I'd hate it.

[dhenderson88]

Hey, one of my friends is going to be with you, he works in Combat Camera.

[CalahanD]

No, I am not a mech, I am an 0331....and what is your friends name?

[irizavrima]

I am with a Regiment so I can't answer this first hand. However, a lot of my friends are currently with the 22nd MEU. They tell me a lot of things about living on a boat. From what I understand, you can be in line for an hour or longer waiting for food sometimes. You will also have special duties. Everybody on the ship is responsible for one thing or another ranging from laundry to watch etc...Other then that it is basically a long training evolution. I can tell you first hand that your better off there then here in Iraq. Iraq is getting pretty ridiculous nowadays...

[Alisium]

No, I am not a mech, I am an 0331....and what is your friends name?

0311,

You do just about the same things on ship you do in garrison. PT, have classes, eat, pt, sleep, train and so on. Mostly eat and sleep and pt.

Boots and shytebirds get duties like mess duty, laundary, garbage and so forth. You'll field day still. Lines can be horrible. Just get all the card colors. (make friends with sailors).

You're probably going to go to Afghanistan, but in peace time you stop off at a libbo port every 20 days or so for about four days. And then there are also training ports, like Australia, Thailand, Signapore and various places in the ME.

Your time overseas is what you make it. Ship can be lots of fun. Lots of time if you have a hobby, like to read, play computer games. Make friends with the sailor. Poke some of the Navy chicks. Food isn't bad.

[8th&I Marine]

My nephew is about to head out also I do believe he is making that float. Good luck Marines Semper Fi!!!!


Cantrell

[Pete0331]

You just picked up with a MEU so you will see SOTG, maybe SOTG Assault Leaders Course, at sea periods, and lots of other training.
Be prepared for a lot of cross training with pogues.
Each unit is given an ammo allotment, battalions try to use their allotment up before they shift to a MEU.
Being on a MEU will give your battalion another allotment of ammo and more unit funds.
Units try to hold off to buy all the cool toys until they get onto a MEU.

It depends on what the big picture is for your MEU.
You many float on the ocean, occasionally stopping for training and libo, or you may go strait to 3rd fleet/CENTCOM.

I don't want to know specifics.
Watch your OPSEC in this thread.

[Alisium]

They'll also be picking the TRAP platoon. Cross your fingers.

[sapper01]

Don't be surprised if you spend your whole tour in Afghanistan. I was with the 24th MEU last year and never seen a ship except on work-ups.

[Supersquishy]

Fire Fighting class.....fun..... then you get to do the drills on the ship evan more fun...not...LOL. I actually liked the ship, it was peaceful looking over the water on the deck, I don't know if grunts are allowed topside or not when not training. Be prepared to do humps up and down the cat walk.

[00101010]

Anything can happen, two years ago with 22 we were supposed to go to Iraq. As we got closer to landing in Kuwait we were hearing that it changed to Afghanistan. We finally hit Kuwait, only to spend 5 weeks there and go to neither. The whole deployment turned out to be a Med Float. We did do some humanitarian work in Bangladesh after a typhoon hit them, then we did anti-pirate things (stayed in the area and looked big and mean), but the rest was port visits.

Your BN will be split up between several ships. We had 3 companies on the big ship (LHD/LHA) and the other two split between two smaller ships. The only time we saw each other the whole deployment was in Kuwait. We all had different libo ports and different missions (we helped out Bangladesh while another company trained in Djibouti).

I am of course only listing the big overall stuff you remember. The 1 - 2 hour wait for chow is normal, they also rotated our gym hours (Navy/Marines) which sucks as you have to leave the gym at the end of Marine hours only to have the Navy not use it. It is cramped and smells horrible. Everyone else on the ship (the big ship) hates the grunts because we had nothing to do, no jobs to work, no where to be most of the time. Humps on the flight deck just walking around and around in circles for hours. Getting shell backed was interesting. Just be careful in those foreign ports if you get to go. We had several guys get in A LOT of trouble for doing the wrong thing in the wrong country.

Oh and the work ups are terrible. Just the schedule of all the coming and going, my family grew very tiered of it, and just wished I would deploy already and get it over with.

Maybe I listed too many negatives here, but it was a great experience looking back.

[Devildogg99]

Take up lines and space on the boat HAHA! Sorry had to give you a bad time coming from the wing side. I haven't seen you guys do much really but clean your rifles and maybe pme. I made the joke because since there isn't much to do you guys are always in a line i.e. chow, px...Lucky for us when we have flight ops we get front of the line because we have to hurry up, eat and make it back up for flights coming in and out...Overall the MEU is awesome!! I love being on the boat. My last one was the 26th MEU 4 years ago

[Accord]

I was on the 24th MEU last year with BLT. The training workup was a long, drawn out, complete waste of time and resources. 3 weeks before our deployment we were told that we were flying to Afghanistan and we never saw the ships ever again. We spent so much time during the workup rotting away on the boats doing Navy working parties instead of doing what Marines do and that's training for war. And what happened? We received the toughest combat deployment since the Fallujah/Ramadi days and were completely unprepared for it because we wasted so much time trying to learn what ship life was like. Our ONLY real training was one or two trips to Fort Pickett where we just did a bunch of ranges and humps which was a waste as well, all other training consisted on working on adjusting to ship life, and that sort of thing. Then we get sent as the first Marines back in Afghanistan in 4 years and our battalion was completely unprepared for it because of our lack of training during the workup. We never did CAX, Mojave Viper, anything. We just rotted on Navy ships. If we didn't have such the good amount of quality NCO's with combat experience that we did, we would have suffered more KIA than 2/7. Most of the MEU workup was training for the high level officers and whatnot while us lowly enlisted were relegated to sitting in berthing areas of the boat not allowed to do anything.

I'm sure MEU's back in the 80's and 90's during peace time were fun, but not these days. "Let no 2ndMARDIV ghost say he died because his leaders failed to train him" yeah right, whatever helps the guys with brass on their collars sleep at night.

Am I bitter? ****ing-A right i'm bitter, I lost friends over there because our leaders had their heads of their asses too worried about MEF level B.S. instead of training us to do what Marines do best.

Be prepared for a lot of bull**** over the next year of your life.