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The Bataan Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) is now deployed after picking up Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) on Thursday, a defense official confirmed to USNI News. Made up of amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD-5), amphibious transport dock USS New York (LPD-21) and dock landing ship USS Oak Hill (LSD-51), the Bataan ARG took aboard the Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., ahead of the expected deployment six-month deployment. Ordinarily, ARG/MEU deployments are announced by the Navy and Marines. However, in this instance there was no public notification of the departure. A U.S. 2nd Fleet spokesperson told USNI...

Go read the url http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/article/20130718/CAREERS03/307180027/Commander-22nd-Marine-Expeditionary-Unit-relieved-command

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Two U.S. Marines were killed and two severely injured in the crash of a hybrid aircraft in Morocco on Wednesday, officials said. The Marines were taking part in joint U.S.-Moroccan military excercises located in the south of the country based in Agadir, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Rodney Ford in Rabat, who gave the toll. Capt. Kevin Schultz, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon in Washington, confirmed that the aircraft involved was an MV-22 Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane. The aircraft was participating in a U.S.-Moroccan military exercise...

Rome, Sweet Rome: Could a Single Marine Unit Destroy the Roman Empire? It was a hypothetical question that became a long online discussion and now a movie in development: Could a small group of heavily armed modern-day Marines take down the Roman Empire at its height? We talked about the debate with James Erwin, the man who scored a movie writing contract based on his online response, and ran the ideas by Roman history expert Adrian Goldsworthy. James Erwin was browsing reddit.com on his lunch break when a thread piqued his interest. A user called The_Quiet_Earth had posed the question:...

This is a very special reading of "The Night Before Christmas" by the Marines and sailors of the 26th MEU.

ng with allied forces on foreign terrain introduces new obstacles and allows for the development of new war-fighting tactics, or the honing of existing doctrine specific to a region. Joint training also enables the sharing of tactics between U.S. service members and ally counterparts. Strength through unity is at the heart of this concept. Military forces of allied nations training side-by-side enhances military interoperability and strengthens the allied fighting forces as a whole. Through planning and close coordination between commanders and senior military officials from both the Republic of Korea (R.O.K.) Marine Corps and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU),...

KABUL (AFP) — More than 2,000 US marines recently deployed in Afghanistan to support a NATO-led military campaign against Islamic rebels have began operations in the country's restive south, the unit said Thursday. The 2,300-strong US Marine Expeditionary Unit was part of Washington's recent contribution to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) efforts to quell a resurgent Taliban insurgency. "The last of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit's Marines and Sailors are arriving and the unit is beginning operations after weeks of flowing personnel and equipment here," the unit said in a statement. "The Marines have begun their operations in...

A glimpse at the 26th MEU as elements arrive at Onslow Beach and mainside on Camp Lejeune Saturday, 30 June 2007.

CENTRAL COMMAND THEATER OF OPERATION (July 11, 2006) -- Marines serving with Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), trained with the X-63 “Dragon-Eye” unmanned aerial vehicle June 11, as part of a training exercise in the Central Command theater of operation. The bungee-cord-launched “Dragon-Eye” provides organic aerial reconnaissance and surveillance at the small-unit level, giving Marine units the opportunity to observe real-time enemy movements beyond their traditional capacity. Whisper-quiet and weighing less than five pounds, the “Dragon-Eye” is able to navigate pre-assigned waypoints via a global positioning system while transmitting data...

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- Elements of the USS Nassau (LHA 4) Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) including the dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50), amphibious transport dock USS Austin (LPD 40) and the guided-missile cruiser USS Cape St. George (CG 71), carrying more than 2,700 Sailors, returned to Naval Station Norfolk and Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek May 4, following a six-month deployment is support of the global war on terrorism. Nassau ESG ships, which deployed Nov. 7, conducted maritime security operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR) and supported theater security cooperation in the U.S....

ABOARD USS NASSAU (April 24, 2006) -- As the Marines and sailors of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) prepare for the long journey home crossing the Atlantic, one Marine was able to get his homecoming a little early. Cpl. Phillip Ramirez, of Jacksonville, Fla., a squad leader with Weapon’s Co., Battalion Landing Team, 1st Bn., 2nd Marines, got the chance to meet his father during an underway replenishment at sea (unrep). Ramirez’s father, Leonardo, is the chief cook for USNS Patuxent, the Fleet Replenishment Oiler assigned to refuel the Nassau. “I was told a half hour ago...

NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. (March 10, 2006) -- The battle for hearts and minds isn’t won where the metal meets the man. It’s not won with superior technology, 5,000-pound, laser-guided bombs or from inside a command post. It’s won in the warmth of the home, surrounded by smoky wisps of apple-scented tobacco, sitting face to face with the leader of 35,000 local citizens. The training necessary to win the Iraqi citizen’s approval – training that is increasingly needed – is near impossible to duplicate without being “in theater.” But, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Units, during its Training in an Urban...

USS ESSEX, At Sea (NNS) -- Adm. William J. Fallon, commander, U.S. Pacific Command, visited USS Essex (LHD 2) March 2, to thank the crew and embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) for their hard work during the Leyte humanitarian assistance, disaster relief efforts while the ship was underway off the Philippine coast. Essex, commanded by Capt. Martin J. Keaney, along with USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) and elements of the 31st MEU, were diverted from the previously planned Exercise Balikatan 06 to help in the relief and recovery efforts after a devastating landslide covered a village in the southern...

NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. (Feb 27, 2006) -- With a deployment looming for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the main focus is on their Training in an Urban Environment Exercise, currently underway in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Even so, the Marines found time to tend to America’s future first. The Marines hosted a group of Boy Scouts from local troops 196 and 45 on Feb. 28, guests of the MEU’s host, Lt. Col. Joseph Whitaker, commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 42, Det. B, whose hangar the MEU is using to house its combat operations center. Whitaker began...

AL ASAD AIR BASE, IRAQ (Feb. 18, 2006) -- In a modest encampment carved from ancient battlefields millennia old, the Marines and sailors of Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 2nd Marines, assembled for a roll call three infantrymen of Charlie Company. would never answer. Cpl. Orville Gerena, Lance Cpl. David S. Parr and Pfc. Jacob D. Spann were tragically killed Feb. 6, in Hit, Iraq, when their Humvee was attacked by an improvised explosive device while returning from patrol. Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn, 2nd Marines, the ground combat element of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), assembled...

AL ASAD AIRFIELD, Iraq (Feb. 9, 2006) -- By the time Lance Cpl. Blake Rowe was born in 1983, the aircraft on which he today so carefully labors had already been flying for nearly two decades, and shows no sign of touching the ground. Like the Colt .45 pistol (introduced in 1911) and the M-2 .50-caliber machine gun (around since 1919), the venerable CH-46E Sea Knight medium lift assault helicopter has become one of those tools of war whose dependability and utility has ensured its lifespan exceeds the careers of those who use it. Used primarily in the assault support...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HIT, Iraq (Jan. 25, 2006) -- Rolling through treacherous terrain, convoys or combat logistics patrols of the Marine Expeditionary Unit Service Support Group 22 are constantly on the move delivering supplies and transporting Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Marines throughout the Al Anbar province of Iraq. Aboard the convoys leaving Forward Operating Base Hit, every Marine and sailor knows their role. Some are prepared to counter small arms fire from insurgents and all are vigilant of the improvised explosive device threat. “On convoys, everyone has a job to do,” said Capt. Troy M. Pugh, the Baltimore native and...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HIT, Iraq, Jan. 23, 2006 – Eight days of back-breaking searches through villages and fields along the western Euphrates River Valley have yielded thousands of pieces of ordnance as Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Marines continue Operation Koa Canyon in Iraq's Anbar province. Aimed at isolating insurgents and their weapons, the combined Iraqi and U.S. force began the latest sweep Jan. 15 and have uncovered a staggering amount of weaponry. The soldiers and Marines are making their way inch by inch through caves, fields, wadis and islands in an attempt to disrupt the insurgents. So far, the combined...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HIT, Iraq (Jan. 13, 2006) -- Perched high atop one of the buildings that is currently home to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), a small satellite transmitter dish is the first step in a process used to keep the American public informed of the unit’s role in Operation Iraqi Freedom. As part of a network dubbed the Digital Video Imagery Distribution System, or DVIDS, the satellite transmitter enables the MEU to send video footage, photographs, and stories to media outlets in the United States without tying up tactical communications networks. A small group of...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HIT, Iraq (Jan. 8, 2006) -- As part of their tour of Marine forces in Iraq, a small delegation from Washington, D.C. recently visited the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) at Forward Operating Base Hit, Iraq. Among the group was General Robert Magnus, the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, Lt. Gen. Jan C. Huly, the Deputy Commandant for Plans, Policies and Operations, and Col. Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (USMC, Ret.), the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Reserve Affairs). After an update on the MEU’s ongoing and planned counterinsurgency efforts with the 2nd Marine Division...