Lejeune Marines to return,help hurricane relief efforts

[USMCRET6391]

Associated Press

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — About 2,200 North Carolina-based Marines are scheduled to come home Saturday aboard ships that were the target of a rocket attack in Jordan last month.

The Marines of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit have spent five months in Africa and the Middle East. Two Navy ships from the unit — a combination of infantry, support and aircraft — were fired on by militants in Aqaba, Jordan, on Aug. 19 while Marines participated in exercises with the Jordanian military.

One rocket sailed over the bow of the amphibious assault ship Ashland while the vessel was docked the port of Aqaba, and slammed into a Jordanian army warehouse, killing a Jordanian soldier. No American personnel were injured.

The warehouse also is used by the U.S. military to store goods bound for Iraq.

Another rocket fell near an airport in neighboring Israel, officials said, and a third landed near a public hospital about a mile away.

Experts suggested that attack bore some al-Qaida hallmarks.

The unit returns as members of the 22nd MEU, also based at Lejeune, train off the North Carolina coast through Oct. 7 for a deployment in November.

The third MEU based at Lejeune, the 24th, remains in the Gulf Coast region in case it’s needed after Hurricane Rita comes ashore this week. It has been in the New Orleans area.

“We’ve moved major units either onboard ships or outlying areas that survived the storm last time in preparation for being ready to come back in and take care of situations in New Orleans,” said Lt. Col. Daniel D. Kelly, executive officer for the task force.

“The hurricane isn’t tracking to hit here, but the storm surge could cause additional damage and we may need to come back down here and start operations all over again.”

The Marines had been involved in searching for survivors and helping them evacuate St. Bernard Parish using the unit’s Amtrac amphibious vehicles.

[SpongeJuan]

Here in beaufort there were some Marines from Lejeune with SAWs and M16s in the chowhall wearing deserts and boonies. They said they had just arrived in a plane from Iraq. I think they were super grunts, but i'm not sure about that.