Tarawa, 11th MEU to return to San Diego

[unhappycamper]

Tarawa coming home
Three ESG ships already back in port.


Tarawa, 11th MEU to return to San Diego
Staff report
Posted : Thursday May 29, 2008 20:24:09 EDT

Thousands of Marines and sailors with the Tarawa Expeditionary Strike Group will return home to San Diego on June 3 following a seven-month deployment, Navy officials said Thursday.

Returning forces include the amphibious assault ship Tarawa, the dock landing ship Cleveland and the dock landing ship Germantown, and are led by Navy Commodore John Miley, commander of Amphibious Squadron 1.

More than 2,000 Marines with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, led by Col. John Bullard, are also expected to return.

Three other vessels with the ESG have returned to their respective home ports within the last month, Navy officials said in a statement. The destroyer Hopper and the cruiser Port Royal returned to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on May 2 and the frigate Ingraham returned to Everett, Wash., on May 9.

The strike group deployed to the Persian Gulf, where it served as the theater reserve force and conducted training, combat air missions in Iraq and contingency operations in Afghanistan, officials said. The Port Royal, Hopper and Ingraham also patrolled the Arabian Gulf around Iraq’s two oil platforms and international waters off the coast of Iran.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/05/marine_tarawa_052908w/