MEU operations

A Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) approaches the well deck of the amphibious assault ship Wasp on Saturday as part of rehearsals for an amphibious landing during Bold Alligator 2012. (Mike Morones / Staff)

Operation Bold Alligator 2012 underway

By Dan Lamothe on February 5, 2012 Battle Rattle, Blue-Green operations, Embedded journalism, Life at sea, Life at Sea, MEU operations, Training

ABOARD THE AMPHIBIOUS ASSAULT SHIP WASP — Greetings from the Atlantic Ocean, where we’re covering the largest amphibious exercise on the East Coast since the beginning of the Iraq war. Bold Alligator 2012 involves at least 14,000 personnel from the U.S., France, Great Britain and other countries, and at least 25 ships. The majority of them are American, but Canada and France have both chipped in with their own hardware, as well. Conceptually, the forces at sea are currently in the early stages of planning an attack on enemy forces from the fictional country of Garnet, a common enemy in…

Are Marines of 24th MEU in for a longer deployment?

By Gina Cavallaro on December 2, 2011 Camp Lejeune, MEU operations

When the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit comes home to Camp Lejeune, N.C., in February, it will have been gone more than 10 months, a longer-than-usual deployment for a MEU, but not so rare anymore. Deployments have gotten longer. And now, as the 24th MEU conducts its own pre-deployment work-up and prepares to replace the 22nd MEU at sea, it’s still kind of a toss up as to whether its own deployment will exceed the traditional seven-month pump. As of now, the deployment is scheduled to be seven months, according to MEU spokesman Capt. Robert Shuford. Some 2,100 Marines with the…

At sea, a place of their own

By Gidget Fuentes on November 11, 2011 Blue-Green operations, Food, Life at Sea, Marine Raiders, MEU operations

Marines heading out to sea in any of the Navy’s fleet of amphibious ships get quickly and acutely familiar with a few spaces inside those large gray warfighting hulls: their berthing space, the ship’s gym and the enlisted mess decks. There’s usually nothing spectacular about those spaces, which are often crowded and offer little in the way of physical privacy or familiar comforts of home. But aboard Makin Island, the Navy’s newest big-deck amphibious assault ship and homeported in San Diego, what would have been some storage area off the main mess decks has been remade into a cozier space…

Give me liberty – but where?

By Gidget Fuentes on September 2, 2011 Life at sea, MEU operations, Off-duty, The Pacific

Will it be Hong Kong? Or Australia? For some 4,000 Marines and sailors aboard three amphibious ships on the homestretch of an overseas deployment, liberty this holiday weekend means they will get to spend their days, nights and dollars in Hong Kong and Australia. The crew of amphibious transport dock Green Bay is making its maiden operational deployment, and embarked Marines with 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit get to stretch their legs in Darwin, Australia. Darwin sits in the continent’s north-central coast. It’s a tropical city on the Timor Sea and the capital of the Northern Territory, a sparse region most known for…

Get some…air (with a dash of sea salt)

By Gidget Fuentes on August 16, 2011 Anti-piracy, Life at sea, MEU operations, Training

There’s nothing like that spray of salty air, open seas and several hundred horsepower to make one think: And they pay me to do this?? Just a thought looking at some images released this month as the California-based 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Navy’s Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group boarded a pair of ships and got underway for their first at-sea integration exercises ahead of a scheduled overseas deployment later this year. The boat crews supporting the training mission against mock pirates on a vessel near San Clemente Island operated off the transport dock ship New Orleans, which will deploy…

3/4 Marines replace BLT 3/8 in Afghanistan

By Dan Lamothe on April 23, 2011 Afghanistan, Infantry, MEU operations, Sangin

Happy Saturday, everyone. Battle Rattle is typically pretty quiet on the weekend, but a news release just came through this morning that I didn’t want to leave until Monday. Many readers have been wondering where 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, out of Twentynine Palms, Calif., would fit into the picture in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Now we know: They’ll be replacing Battalion Landing Team 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines, according to announcement released by BLT 3/8’s parent command, the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. Marines with 3/4 assumed command of several outposts held by BLT 3/8 in the last…

Why is this Marine smiling? He survived a sniper shot to the head

By Dan Lamothe on April 5, 2011 Afghanistan, Infantry, MEU operations, Sangin

If anyone had any doubt that the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit has been in the thick of it in Afghanistan, let the photo above clarify. That’s Sgt. Paul Boothroyd III, an intelligence operator with 2nd Radio Battalion, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. He is shown here on March 4, after sustaining and surviving a sniper round to the head. He was operating at the time south of Sangin, the most volatile district in Helmand province, while attached to the MEU. The bullet — reportedly fired from a 7.62 x 54mm Dragunov sniper rifle — pierced his helmet and came to rest…

Picking up the pieces in Japan

By Gidget Fuentes on April 5, 2011 Battle Rattle, Japan, MEU operations, Pacific issues

Marines with Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, join the massive clean-up of remote Oshima island in Japan, April 4.//31st MEU photoIt’s a field day – on a much bigger scale. With dozers, dump trucks and supplies in hand, hundreds of Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit descended on a small remote island near the epicenter of the March 11 earthquake that devastated northeastern Japan. On April 1, they began Operation Field Day, with the mission of helping clear mounds of debris on the island of Oshima, population 3,000. The Marines found some 600 residents holed up…

Could drawdown in Afghanistan begin with Marines in Helmand?

By Dan Lamothe on March 31, 2011 Afghanistan, Infantry, Leadership, MEU operations

Last week during an interview with Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, the outgoing Marine commander of Regional Command-Southwest, I asked for his thoughts on something hanging over everyone’s head in Afghanistan: The planned drawdown of U.S. forces. It was the kind of question I asked because it’s what people in my job are supposed to do, even though there’s an understanding he couldn’t answer it directly. Here were his thoughts: That decision will be made at a level much above mine. The way I see it, there will be a thinning out, a gradual reduction of coalition forces within a given area…

MEU in Afghanistan will be 'back home on time,' general says

By Dan Lamothe on March 24, 2011 Afghanistan, Infantry, MEU operations, Sangin

Maj. Gen. Richard Mills, commander of Marine forces in Afghanistan, took 30 minutes out of his busy schedule yesterday morning to discuss the state of his area of operations and the progress Marines have made there. Much of it will appear in a story in the print edition of Marine Corps Times next week, but I wanted to post one piece of news now: Marines who split off the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge in January to deploy to Afghanistan won’t likely be there much longer. In an exclusive phone interview, Mills said BLT 3/8 is “going to keep on their…

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