Camp Lejeune

26th MEU set to deploy

By Gidget Fuentes on March 5, 2013 26th MEU, Blue-Green operations, budget, Camp Lejeune, Deployments, Marines, MEU operations

[Updated: High winds and strong seas churned by that winter storm the National Weather Service dubbed Saturn has pushed the deployment start by several days, the Navy announced. The three ships of the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group will depart the Norfolk, Va., area on Monday, March 11, according to U.S. Fleet Forces Command. That will give a few extra days at home for the sailors and Marines before they take their final equipment aboard and begin the scheduled deployment with, hopefully, smoother seas and calmer stomachs.] The federal budget crisis has put a halt to some ship deployments, but the 2,200…

Iconic “Hell House” photo commemorated in statue for Lejeune Hope and Care Center

By Hope Hodge Seck on February 27, 2013 Battle Rattle, Camp Lejeune, History and heritage, Marines

It may be one of the most gripping Marine images to emerge from Operation Iraqi Freedom: a 2004 photo snapped by freelance combat photographer Lucian Read depicting wounded Marine 1st Sgt. Bradley Kasal, his uniform soaked in blood, being carried out of Fallujah’s famous “House of Hell” by two lance corporals. Here’s a chilling account of what took place in the Hell House, from Shootout! D-Day Fallujah, on the History Channel: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3zZmOR0jYc[/youtube] Kasal would receive the Navy Cross for bravery that day under fire and despite severe wounds to both legs. Now, the photo that captured Kasal’s heroism and the grit…

Almost home: 24th MEU packed and ready to get feet dry

By Gidget Fuentes on December 14, 2012 24th MEU, Blue-Green operations, Camp Lejeune, Deployments, Marines

The first of 2,300 Marines and sailors will be streaming home starting Sunday as the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit closes out an overseas shipboard deployment that’s stretched eight-and-a-half months. On Sunday, crews aboard dock landing ship Gunston Hall and transport dock New York, which is wrapping up its maiden deployment, will offload Marines and their vehicles and equipment at the port in Morehead City, not far from the 24th MEU’s home in Jacksonville at Camp Lejeune, N.C., officials announced today. The Marines will load buses and head over to the base later in the afternoon to reunite with their family and friends. On…

Marine Corps Times deployment map as of Oct. 31

By Gina Harkins on October 31, 2012 Afghanistan, Africa, Battle Rattle, Camp Lejeune, I MEF, Japan, Life at sea, Marines, MEU operations, Pacific issues, The Pacific

Marines are definitely getting back to their expeditionary roots. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit just returned to Camp Lejeune, N.C., following a seven month deployment. But as Marine Corps Times’ Gidget Fuentes reported, when the 24th MEU was still in the Persian Gulf, there were more Marines on Navy ships than in the combat zone in Afghanistan in late-October. That’s a pretty interesting shift. Check out the map below to see what Marines are doing around the world. [HTML1]

Behind the Cover: The Drawdown Plan

By James Sanborn on April 9, 2012 Afghanistan, Battle Rattle, Behind the Cover, budget, Camp Lejeune, Drawdown, Manpower, Marines

By now it’s no news that the military is facing serious cuts. The Marine Corps alone will drop 20,000 over the next five years. But just how leaders will make those cuts has been a mystery — until now. To get the lowdown on how the Marine Corps will drawdown by 2016, and what the plan means for you, check out this week’s edition of Marine Corps Times. For our cover story, we traveled to Camp Lejeune, N.C., to sit in on a briefing by the drawdown’s architects who are now on an eight-week tour of the fleet. In it,…

24th MEU preps to deploy overseas

By Gidget Fuentes on March 23, 2012 Blue-Green operations, Camp Lejeune, Marines, MEU operations

This weekend, more than 4,000 Marines and sailors on the East Coast are grabbing some last-minute liberty before they leave home for a scheduled deployment overseas. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and its 2,300 Marines will depart Camp Lejeune, N.C. on Monday and head to Norfolk, Va. There, they will board amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima, dock landing ship Gunston Hall and dock transport ship New York, which will be making its maiden operational deployment. Col. Frank Donovan, a veteran infantry and reconnaissance officer, commands the 24th MEU, which includes Battalion Landing Team 1/2 (1st Battalion, 2nd Marines), Combat Logistics Battalion…

At Sywanyk’s, you get Marine Corps lore with every pour

By Gina Cavallaro on March 13, 2012 Battle Rattle, Camp Lejeune, History and heritage, Marines

[brightcove video=”1492242292001″ /] A swing through Jacksonville, N.C., just wouldn’t be complete without a visit to Sywanyk’s. It’s a bar in a building that is so filled with Marine Corps memorabilia that it almost defies description. In fact, retired Sgt. Maj. Ihor Sywanyk, owner of the one-of-a-kind bar/museum can only describe it this way: “You just come on right in, I won’t charge you and I might even buy you a drink… you will be impressed and amazed and if you don’t like it, don’t come back… but they always come back,” he told me on my third visit. Sywanyk…

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…

Beirut 1983: Marine barracks bombed

By Gina Cavallaro on October 21, 2011 Camp Lejeune, History and heritage

This Sunday, Marines will gather at the Beirut Memorial in Jacksonville, N.C., near Camp Lejeune to mark the day 28 years ago when 220 of their brothers were killed in a terrorist attack in Beirut, Lebanon. Also killed in the Oct. 23, 1983, attack were 18 sailors and three soldiers. It was a bright Sunday morning at 6:22 when a man drove a five-ton truck laden with more than 12,000 pounds of TNT straight into the base of the building and…

Severe weather at Camp Lejeune

By Chris Kelly on April 18, 2011 Camp Lejeune

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