26th MEU readies for return

[unhappycamper]

26th MEU readies for return
Staff report
Posted : Tuesday Feb 17, 2009 16:51:44 EST

The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit could return home to Camp Lejeune, N.C., within the month.

The MEU, which has spent the last several weeks conducting training exercises in Kuwait, recently completed a “wash down” to rid its vehicles and equipment of foreign contaminates such as dirt and bugs, according to a unit news release. It’s considered the last major activity in a MEU’s deployment.

“We’re getting all of the vehicles cleaned up, ready to pass inspection so that we can load them up on ship and return back to the States,” Pfc. Adam Sobolewski, with Battalion Landing Team 2/6, said in the release. Each vehicle took an average of two hours to wash before they were loaded onto the ships of the Norfolk, Va.-based Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group, he said.

The 26th MEU, which includes about 2,200 Marines and sailors, left Lejeune in August for a routine six-month deployment. A small number of those troops have broken off from the MEU to assist with U.S.-led counter-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia. A handful of scout snipers with BLT 2/6 have been used to protect Navy and Coast Guard personnel supporting Combined Task Force 151 while another detachment of 20 Marines was tapped to guard suspected pirates apprehended at sea.

It’s unclear whether those troops will return to Lejeune with the rest of the Iwo Jima ESG.


Article at: http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/02/marine_26meu_021709w/%2e