Hurt Marine is a reminder war isn't over

[thedrifter]

Article ran : 04/22/2003
Hurt Marine is a reminder war isn't over
By STAFF REPORTS

While some area Marines returned home over the weekend, others were reminded Monday that the war in Iraq isn?t over.



A Camp Lejeune Marine was wounded in the arm early Monday morning during a firefight in Northern Iraq, military officials said. The Marine, who was not identified pending notification of next of kin, is with the reinforced 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, assigned to the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit.



A spokesman for the 26th MEU said the Marine was struck in the arm by a bullet during a firefight along the perimeter of Mosul International Airport. He is listed in stable condition.



Elements of the 2,300-member 26th MEU also include a reinforced version of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 264, with AV-8B Harrier ?jump jets? from Cherry Point Air Station?s Marine Attack Squadron 223 that departed eastern North Carolina in early March aboard the amphibious assault ships USS Iwo Jima, Carter Hall and Nashville. Half the unit arrived in Northern Iraq earlier this month.



Earlier, however, more than two dozen Marines, some from New River Air Station, returned from the Persian Gulf over the weekend. The Marines are assigned to Marine Air Control Group 28, according to the Cherry Point Air Station Public Affairs Office..



?They landed at Charleston Air Force Base and were bused back to Cherry Point,? said Capt. Bruce Frame of Cherry Point?s Public Affairs Office.



MACG-28 coordinates all aspects of air command and control, as well as air defense within the Marine Aircraft Wing. Marines assigned to the group provide the command and staff functions for the MACG commander when they are deployed as part of the Aviation Combat Element of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force, and deploy with each East Coast Marine Expeditionary Unit.



Frame said the Marines are attached to units at Cherry Point, New River and Beaufort, S.C. Some are reservists from Marine Air Control Group 24, Dam Neck, Va., who were activated in September, 2002.



Sempers,

Roger