Replacement Marine unit to go right into ship-based training

[unhappycamper]

Replacement Marine unit to go right into ship-based training
By Cindy Fisher, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, January 16, 2009

KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit welcomed more than 600 Marines of the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, to Okinawa on Wednesday evening.

The battalion is replacing 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, also based at Pendleton, as the combat element of the MEU — a change that takes place about every six months, Staff Sgt. Marc Ayalin, an MEU spokesman, said Wednesday.

In all, more than 1,000 5th Marine Regiment troops are expected to arrive by week’s end to form the MEU’s battalion landing team.

While here, the Marines will get a training package that’s a little different from their predecessors’, as they will jump right into ship-based training, Ayalin said.

Usually, incoming infantry troops run through a series of land-based MEU integration exercises designed to familiarize them with how the MEU works, he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60029