13th MEU Comes Home

[Vulture6]

Welcome home Marines!


13th MEU, BHR return home this weekend

By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Nov 15, 2007 15:11:43 EST

SAN DIEGO — More than 5,000 Marines and sailors are to return home this weekend after a seven-month deployment to the Persian Gulf and a ground combat tour in Iraq, officials said.

Members of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., will be streaming home Saturday aboard helicopters and landing craft on three amphibious ships with the San Diego-based Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group.

The 13th MEU, commanded by Col. Carl E. “Sam” Mundy III, was ordered into Iraq as part of the troop surge and operated in Anbar province. During counterinsurgency operations, the MEU’s ground force — Battalion Landing Team 3/1, which includes 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines — found more than 50 tons of homemade explosives along with weapons and improvised explosive devices before handing off operational control of the area to Iraqi army forces.

Along with 3/1, the 13th MEU includes Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 163 (Reinforced) from Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego, Combat Logistics Battalion 13 from Camp Pendleton and Alpha Company of 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion at Camp Pendleton.

The Bonhomme Richard strike group, led by Amphibious Squadron 7, includes the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, the dock landing ship Rushmore and the amphibious transport dock Denver.

Other Navy units returning home Saturday as part of the expeditionary strike group are 28 members of Detachment 3 of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23, Navy officials said.

The unit flies the MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter, which aided in combat search and rescue, naval special warfare, anti-ship warfare and logistical support missions during the deployment. The squadron is based at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado, Calif.

Also returning home Saturday are members of Beachmaster Unit 1’s Beach Party-Team Bravo, which deployed as part of the strike group and conducted maritime surveillance operations in the Gulf region along with operating landing craft and the ship-to-shore movement of the 13th MEU.

Three other ships that deployed with the strike group returned home on schedule. The Pearl Harbor-based destroyer Chung-Hoon and cruiser Chosin arrived home Sept. 28, and the San Diego-based destroyer Milius arrived home on Oct. 8.