13th MEU, BHR return home this weekend

[unhappycamper]

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.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/11/navy_bhr_meu_return_071115w/