Have a beer on me.
The flowers are for your wife.
Posted on 01/06/2003 1:46:08 PM PST by bkwells
César G. Soriano USA TODAY
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- For more than a century, the call to ''send in the Marines'' has been followed by an assault by U.S. forces trained to land on hostile beaches.
But in recent years, the Marines haven't stormed many beaches. Last year, Marines were ferried to landlocked Afghanistan (news - web sites) by helicopter. During the Gulf War (news - web sites) of 1991, Marines aboard ship were used only as a diversion to tie down Iraqi troops in defensive positions on the coast, while other Marines were part of the main land attack launched from Saudi Arabia.
On Monday, the 2,200 members of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) deployed to the Persian Gulf, but few of them expect to be storming the beach from landing craft. Marines say they haven't abandoned amphibious warfare -- although its definition has been broadened to include helicopter-borne assault or landing on undefended beaches and moving by vehicle to attack the enemy.
''In this day and age, there are easier ways to get Marines on the beach,'' says Staff Sgt. Clinton Summers, 31, a Huey helicopter crew chief.
''It's definitely a tactic of the past,'' says Capt. Jay Delarosa, a public affairs officer. ''An amphibious landing is too risky.''
But amphibious warfare is not irrelevant, Marine officers say, because Navy ships allow Marines to come ashore with more firepower than light-infantry or airborne units. They don't need to establish bases in the Persian Gulf because they can launch attacks from ships and get artillery, aircraft and tanks on the ground quickly.
Marines will be only a part of whatever force is eventually fielded if there is a U.S.-led attack on Iraq.
''Any Desert Storm scenario will require larger units that have more combat capabilities than we have,'' says Col. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of the 15th MEU. ''But from an amphibious perspective, we've demonstrated that we're very flexible. We can do many things and make contributions in the war on terrorism.''
Marine expeditionary units are designed to perform many tasks normally carried out by the Army. These include seizing airfields, evacuating civilians and recovering downed aircraft.
Each MEU is equipped with attack helicopters, tanks, artillery and landing craft. The Navy supplies the transportation, in this case the Tarawa Amphibious Ready Group. The group includes the 820-foot-long USS Tarawa amphibious assault ship and the smaller USS Duluth and USS Rushmore.
The 15th MEU, which is part of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, is on its second deployment in a year. In November 2001, 15th MEU Marines set up Camp Rhino, the first U.S. base in Afghanistan, 400 miles inland from the Arabian Sea. An MEU normally operates no farther than 200 miles from shore. Over the next 40 days, the Marines fought their way north and captured the international airport in Kandahar before returning to their ship.
That operation proved that shipborne Marines can reach far inland, their officers say. Afghanistan ''wasn't an amphibious landing in the classic sense of the term, but the fact of the matter is, amphibious forces based in the Arabian Sea were, at the time, the only conventional forces who were able to get to the fight,'' Waldhauser says.
To the wail of Bob Seger's Roll Me Away, the Tarawa Amphibious Ready Group set sail Monday toward the Persian Gulf from San Diego on a long-planned, six-month deployment. Once in the gulf, the ships will meet up with the USS Constellation aircraft carrier battle group. The 24th MEU already is in the Middle East with the USS Nassau Amphibious Ready Group, which is based in Norfolk, Va. The 26th MEU and the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group will deploy from Norfolk in February.
Though most of the Marines on the Tarawa are new to the 15th MEU, much of the command staff are veterans of Afghanistan. The 15th MEU has spent the past five months training intensely for the gulf, with emphasis on night urban combat and chemical and biological warfare. Much of that training was conducted at the Military Operations in Urban Terrain course, a mock city at Camp Pendleton. Marines also trained at Twentynine Palms in the Southern California desert, which resembles conditions in Iraq.
The 26-year-old USS Tarawa is named for a World War II beach landing that claimed the lives of 1,020 Marines. The 1943 assault of Tarawa, an atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, was considered a key test of the Marines' amphibious-warfare doctrine. But it did not go well. Planners underestimated the tides, and the first waves of landing craft were beached on a reef. Marines had to wade several hundred yards through surf under enemy fire before reaching the beach.
About 1,000 camera-toting Marines, sailors and their families spent Friday afternoon on the Tarawa, touring the ship and enjoying lunch. About 30 couples reaffirmed their wedding vows before a chaplain. Children played hide-and-seek through the cramped quarters of the ship. Others cried during what could be the final family outing for many months.
Have a beer on me.
The flowers are for your wife.
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