Takedown! 15th MEU steps out for diverse missions
April 20th, 2012 | Anti-piracy Blue-Green operations Maritime Raid Force MEU operations | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Members of 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit's maritime raid force aboard the destroyer Dewey during training April 9 at San Diego Naval Base, Calif. (Lance Cpl. Timothy Childers/USMC)
It’s a big ocean out there. The Marine Corps’ push to return to its maritime roots and get more leathernecks out to sea on Navy ships means a brighter spotlight on some of those missions that haven’t routinely been done by units more attuned to the sandbox of combat. While the public might be more aware of operations to track and capture gun-toting hijackers and pirates or terrorists at sea, such visit-board-search-seize training (above photo) aren’t the only high-speed training Marines are getting to do.
Just this month, after some training in San Diego, Calif., members of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit headed north to Ventura County to practice taking down gas and oil platforms off the coast of Carpinteria. The strategic and economic value of such energy-producing gas and oil platforms found around the world – from the Persian Gulf to the coast of Africa, South China Sea and off Australia’s northern shores – make them lucrative targets and places to hide for militants, terrorist groups and enemy forces. So protecting them becomes critical, and MEUs are among military units that are training for these missions.
Such GOPLAT missions, as they are called, are among the variety of specialty operations that MEUs do, and by nature these raids assume an element of close-quarters combat. Much like VBSS missions, the maritime raid force can reach their targets by sea or by air, and much like the ships they assault, they encounter challenging confines in the shifting environment aboard the moored platforms at sea. These missions can become quite complex, and they rarely get much public attention or spotlight as stealth and covertness are usually key to success. Marines joined in GOPLAT missions back in the late 1980s during Operation Earnest Will, the mission that had warships escorting commercial vessels through the Persian Gulf to protect them against Iranian attacks. Some of these operations are noted in the book, No Higher Honor, written by Armed Forces Journal editor Bradley Peniston, and here by Marine Corps historian David Crist. Those operations, with names like Nimble Archer and Praying Mantis, the latter which involved Recon Marines and CH-46 and AH-1 helicopters, drew little attention, much like some GOPLAT operations after the invasion of Iraq.
Elements of the MRF are drawn from Battalion Landing Team 3/5, which includes the combat-tested “Darkhorse” men of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. The 15th MEU, commanded by Col. Scott D. Campbell, includes the “Purple Foxes” of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 364 (Reinforced) and Combat Logistics Battalion 15. The MEU is slated to deploy later this year aboard amphibious assault ship Peleliu (pictured above), transport dock Green Bay and dock landing ship Rushmore.
Get some…air (with a dash of sea salt)
August 16th, 2011 | Anti-piracy Life at sea MEU operations Training | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
There’s nothing like that spray of salty air, open seas and several hundred horsepower to make one think: And they pay me to do this??
Just a thought looking at some images released this month as the California-based 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Navy’s Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group boarded a pair of ships and got underway for their first at-sea integration exercises ahead of a scheduled overseas deployment later this year. The boat crews supporting the training mission against mock pirates on a vessel near San Clemente Island operated off the transport dock ship New Orleans, which will deploy with dock landing ship Pearl Harbor and big-deck amphibious assault ship Makin Island (preparing for its maiden operational deployment). The exercise is the first of a trio of blue-green training geared to getting the MEU’s 2,200 Marines their sea legs and the shipboard sailors used to working, operating and living alongside their greenside partners.
While last year’s takedown of gun-toting pirate hijackers by the 15th MEU’s raid force cast a bright public spotlight on counter-piracy missions, such maritime interdiction operations are far from new missions for leathernecks, or sailors (and SEALs) for that matter. But they remain a curiosity for many who aren’t part of the maritime force that includes the sailors operating the boats (special warfare combatant craft crewmen) along with supporting air and sniper coverage.
An AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter takes off from the deck of amphibious assault ship Makin Island Aug. 14 to support anti-piracy training off Southern California with the 11th MEU. (Photo by Gunnery Sgt. Scott Dunn/Marine Corps)
Marines and sailors aided refugees for 38 days
February 23rd, 2011 | Anti-piracy MEU operations | Posted by Dan Lamothe
This jam-packed skiff capsized in September, leaving at least 13 of its passengers dead in the Gulf of Aden. (Associated Press photo)
Sometimes, the tail end of a story gets forgotten. Such is the case with sailors and Marines who recently returned from a deployment with the Peleliu Amphibious Ready Group and 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, out of San Diego, Calif.
You may remember the sad story of a skiff with about 85 Somalian and Ethiopian passengers capsizing in the Gulf of Aden in September, drowing at least 13 men and women. It’s a sad, but common theme: poor refugees running from economic hardship in African countries are known to brave the pirate-infested gulf to get to Yemen, risking their lives in the process.
About 62 survivors were rescued by sailors with the destroyer Winston Churchill and eventually transferred to the dock landing ship Pearl Harbor, officials said. The move gave the U.S. military time to sort out where they refugees could go — a concern in a hostile part of the world.
It is there that the story ended publicly — until now.
In an interview at the Pentagon, two of the top military officers involved told me Friday that the Marines and sailors on Pearl Harbor cared for the refugees for 38 days — far longer than anticipated when the U.S. came to their aid. It took more than a month to identify a country that would take them in, said Navy Capt. Dale Fuller, commanding officer of the Navy’s Amphibious Squadron 3, which oversaw the Peleliu, Pearl Harbor and other ships carrying the 15th MEU.
“We had full expectation that we would be sending the Pearl Harbor to the nearest port any day,” Fuller said. “But then it was a week later, and then two weeks later and then three weeks later. It was like, ‘OK guys, they’ve been on board for quite some time. Can we get a country designated so we can transfer these folks to shore? Thirty-eight days later, we eventually transferred these folks, these rescued persons, to Kenya in Mombasa.”
That left sailors and Marines caring for scared refugees for more than a month. They didn’t just feed them and cloth them, though. Shower facilities were set up on the flight deck. A clothing drive was conducted to give them something fresh to wear. Soccer balls were broken out, and laundry was done. Two female refugees were pregnant when rescued, and one lost her baby, Fuller said.
The mission is well within the ARG/MEU’s capability, but the duration of it was challenging, said Col. Roy Osborn, the 15th MEU commander.
“This is what you had to do for these people,” he said. “There really was no mission creep to it, it was just the duration. It was not a planned-to duration.”
The refugees were taken to a refugee camp in Kenya after they arrived in Mombasa, the commanders said. They were glad to be on land.
Platoon commander: Pirate ‘sh– his pants’ after Marines captured him
September 9th, 2010 | Anti-piracy MEU operations | Posted by Dan Lamothe
The first wave of Marines from 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s maritime raid force approaches the cargo ship Magellan Star on Thursday in the Gulf of Aden. The ships' crew said pirates boarded the vessel. (Photo by MC1 David McKee/U.S. Navy)
Has a new legend been born?
I’m going out on a limb here: Events that have occurred in the last 24 hours in the Gulf of Aden will give drill instructors and recruiters across the Marine Corps a new story to use as motivation in the future.
It’s hard not to believe that when you boil the details of the rescue of the Magellan Star down to the basics. Ready?
1) The ship, a German-owned shipping vessel, reports Wednesday that their ship had been captured about 85 miles off the coast of Yemen.
2) Heavily armed force reconnaissance Marines with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., board the ship early Thursday, backed by a force that included snipers with Pendleton’s 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, and numerous helicopter gunships.
3) Marines take control of the ship without a shot being fired. After being detained, one of the pirates defecates in his pants, according to a Marine captain on board at the time.
In case you missed in the story linked above, I’m not kidding about No. 3. In a conference call with reporters Thursday afternoon, Capt. Alexander Martin, commander of 2nd Platoon, Force Reconnaissance Company, which boarded the ship first, shared that last detail. His quote in the story:
“As soon as the first stack of [Marines] made our way into the bridge, their hands were up, their weapons were down, they moved to their knees and they were compliant,” Martin said. “At that point, they were pretty scared. One guy actually defecated himself. … He sh– his pants. I don’t know if that can go on the news or not, but that actually happened.”
Yes, Capt. Martin, that can go on the news. In fact, considering it could become part of Corps lore, it seems relevant to include, in my estimation.
Reaction to the poopy-pants pirate story was interesting after I Tweeted a few details about it Thursday night. Consider the following…
From MissHedgeHodge: Can’t wait to see the T-Shirt: Marines make pirates crap their pants.
From noonanjo: sure DIs are already preaching it at Paris Island
Oh, give it some time. Say, until today.