MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- Marines with Marine Expeditionary Unit Service Support Group 24, 24th MEU, taking part in the MEU’s Certification Exercise were tasked with an Evacuation Control Center mission on March 8.
The mission, part of a complicated Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation, consisted of evacuating refugees and stranded Americans from an American embassy and taking them to a staging area at a Forward Operating Base. There they were processed and taken to a Landing Craft Air Cushion and evacuated to the USS Iwo Jima to be returned home.
The mission was part of the MEU’s final training exercise prior to their upcoming deployment to the European and Central Command theatres of operation later this summer.