Military News - Military Times

Corps wants its Humvees back

U.S. officials continue to negotiate the release of five Marine Humvees seized by Russian forces in the Georgian port of Poti during their August assault on the U.S. ally.

The Humvees were taken Aug. 19, said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Corey Barker, a spokesman for U.S. European Command, and they contained no advanced tracking technology or cryptology hardware — a contrast with Russian news reports, which said the vehicles contained sophisticated communications gear and had been sent to Moscow for examination.

The Humvees were in Georgia as part of Operation Immediate Response, a multinational training exercise involving Marine and Army units, Barker said. They were awaiting commercial transport back to the U.S. when they were seized.

The team of Marines in Georgia — primarily assigned to Brooklyn, N.Y.-based 6th Communications Battalion and a Lexington, Ky.-based detachment with 4th Marine Logistics Group’s Military Police Company — were sent to a hotel in the capital, Tbilisi, when the Russian assault began.

DISCUSS: The conflict