Posted on Fri, Jun. 13, 2003
5,000 Lejeune-based Marines expected to return from Iraq
Associated Press
CAMP LEJEUNE - Approximately 5,000 of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade will return to North Carolina by the end of the month after absorbing significant casualties during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The entire 7,000-member brigade based at Camp Lejeune was scheduled to return, but up to 1,900 Marines and sailors aboard the USS Kearsarge will be diverted to Liberia, where American civilians could be evacuated from a civil war in the country.
The 2nd MEB suffered the brunt of Marine ground combat casualties in the advance on Baghdad in March.
Twenty-seven of the unit's Marines were listed as killed in action from combat and accidents during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observe...al/6077774.htm
Sempers,
Roger