let's take a moment

Okay, let me break this down for those who may be curious as to what I'm doing right now. Well, actually, right now I'm sitting at a computer in the base library and updating my blog, but I'm talking big picture stuff here...

I'm a member of 1/5. For those not familiar with the jargon, that would be the 1st Battalion of the 5th Marine regiment, 1st Marine Division. This battalion has a long and storied history, dating back to its creation during the Great War. In every war since then, the 5th Marines have been involved. It was the 5th and 6th Marines who charged across Belleau Wood in France during WWI and earned the Marines the title of "Devil Dog." It was the 1st Marine Division, including the 5th Marines, who landed on Guadalcanal during WWII to launch the first offensive operation of the war in the Pacific. The 5th Marines also participated in the battles of Pelilieu and Okinawa. During the war in Korea, it was the 1st Division who fought their way through a surrounding Chinese Communist army and made their way from the Chosen Resevoir back to South Korea. During this same war, the 5th Marines, commanded by the legendary Chesty Puller landed at Inchon and drove across the peninsula. During Vietnam, the division was deployed again and they called on the 5th Marines during some of the fiercest fighting. Specifically, 1/5 was given the task of taking Hue City and follow on battles. In the early 90's the division led the Marine thrust in Operation Desert Storm. (Just for the record, I was in high school at the time. The air campaign started on my 18th birthday.) When Operation Iraqi Freedom began in 2003, it was the 1st Division driving right up the middle in an all out race to Baghdad. In all, the 1st Marine Division has been involved in every war since WWI and the 5th Marines have been right there the whole time. Why do I tell you all of this? I don't honestly know. I sat down to explain the MEU and our current deployment. I didn't mean to go into all that history. Let's move on...

We are currently deployed as the ground combat element (GCE) for the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). The 31st is the only forward deployed MEU in the Corps. All the others originate from either San Diego or Norfolk. When we embark on the ships of the MEU sometime next month, I will be on board the USS Essex, LHD-2. The interesting thing about this is that when I was in high school I built models of just about anything. I only built a couple of ships, though. One of the ships I built was the USS Tarawa, LHD-4 and sister ship of the Essex. That's just another little sidebar I guess, but I thought it was interesting. Anyway, we have joined up with our attachments (LAR, AAV, and I/3/11) to form a Battalion Landing Team. When we are finished with our deployment, our attachments will detach and in all likelyhood I will never see them again. Ours is a short relationship, but sometimes those are the most memorable. While these teams are attached to my battalion, I become their career counselor. It's very interesting hearing Marines from other units moan and complain about their job. As soon as I suggest they make a move to the infantry, they always seem to find something about their job that they enjoy and couldn't possibly give up. I suppose it's just in our nature as Marines to complain about something.

Anyway, you can check out the links above if you want to learn more about my current duty status. As far as I know, since this info is freely available on the WWW, I'm not breaking any security rules by posting this. No one's told me any of this was classified. If it was, I guess it wouldn't be on the internet, right? Because you know you can trust everything you see online.

Lastly, I just noticed on my blogger dashboard page that this is my 99th entry. I'm going to have to throw a party this weekend for my 100th. Think I should do one of those "meme" lists?