Life at Sea

26th MEU leaders prepared for mission in Syria

By Gina Harkins on December 6, 2013 26th MEU, Battle Rattle, Life at Sea, Marines, MEU operations

Top leaders of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit said they were preparing to put boots on the ground in Syria during their eight-month deployment, which wrapped up last month. Col. Matthew St. Clair, the MEU commander, and Navy Capt. Jim Cody, who led the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group, spoke to a group of reporters at the Potomac Institute in Virginia on Thursday. When President Obama discussed a military strike in September against the Bashar al-Assad regime following an apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians, St. Clair said Marines were preparing for a situation that would require them to make landfall, according to U.S. News…

Marine Corps Times map as of Oct. 5

By Gina Harkins on October 5, 2012 Afghanistan, Africa, Deployments, Events, I MEF, III MEF, Infantry, Japan, Life at sea, Life at Sea, Marines, MEU operations, Status of forces map, Training

The Marine Corps Times interactive map showing what Marines are doing around the world has been updated with new information provided by public affairs for the week ending Oct. 5. [HTML1]

Bold Alligator a lesson for Marines in cramped quarters

By Dan Lamothe on February 8, 2012 Blue-Green operations, Embedded journalism, Life at Sea, MEU operations

When it comes to a large-scale amphibious operation like Bold Alligator, it isn’t just the movement to shore that can provide learning lessons. The thousands of personnel who deployed off the coast of North Carolina for the exercise also got a first-hand lesson in life at sea. That may not be new to most of the sailors and some of the Marines on board, but for thousands more, it certainly was. Point in case: the photograph above shows how tight the passageways aboard the amphibious assault ship Wasp are. It takes a mindful eye to avoid collisions, spills and other…

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…

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…

Browsing: Life at Sea