Sunday, June 08, 2014

Today in Marine Corps History. O'Grady is rescued by the 24th MEU (SOC).


Today in Marine Corps history, the Marines of 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) Special Operations Capable rescued a downed USAF pilot in Bosnia.

Read about it here and here....a short tidbit from Wikipedia...
Just after midnight on June 8,[8] he spoke into the radio. An F-16 pilot from the 555th responded and, after confirming his identity, the rescue was set in motion. At 4:40, Admiral Leighton Smith, commander of NATO Southern Forces, called US Marine Colonel Martin Berndt aboard the USS Kearsarge with orders to "execute."[5]
Two CH-53 Sea Stallions with 51 Marines from the 3rd Battalion 8th Marines within the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, lifted off the USS Kearsarge to rescue the pilot. The two helicopters were accompanied by two Marine AH-1W SuperCobra helicopter gunships and a pair of Marine AV-8B Harrier jump jets. These six aircraft had support from identical sets of replacement helicopters and jump jets as well as two Navy EA-6BProwler electronic warfare planes, two Air Force EF-111A Raven electronic warfare planes, two Marine F/A-18D Hornets, a pair of anti-tank Air Force A-10 Warthogs and a NATO AWACS radar plane.[4]
At 6:35 a.m., the helicopters approached the area where O'Grady's signal beacon had been traced. The pilots saw bright yellow smoke coming from trees near a rocky pasture where O'Grady had set off a flare. The first Stallion, commanded by Major William Tarbutton, touched down and 20 Marines jumped off the aircraft and set up a defensive perimeter.[5] As the second Sea Stallion landed, a figure with a pistol who turned out to be the missing pilot appeared running towards the Marines and immediately went to the Sea Stallion.[9] As the side door opened, he was pulled in before the second 20 Marines poised to leave by the rear ramp could even move. They were called back to their seats, and those who had formed the defensive perimeter reboarded the other helicopter. After a quick head count, the Stallions took off. They had been on the ground no more than seven minutes.[4]
These were not Recon, Force Recon, MARSOC, or a fanciful Maritime Raid Force.

These were Infantry Marines that had the training and the confidence of their commanders to perform the mission.

Quite honestly the mission was the textbook on how it is done, even today.  Years later we would hear how a simple TRAP mission suddenly is the province of RECON/Maritime Raid Force.

Utter bullshit.  You're seeing mission creep.  SOCOM is stealing missions to justify its existence.  The Marine Corps MUST reinvigorate its MEU concept to push for a return to the robust capabilities it once had.

8 comments :

  1. And remember kids, always turn on your electronic warfare gear so as to be less surprised when a SAM comes up out of the cloud cover.

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    1. The Brothers oldest son was a Crew Chief aboard a Phrog during the invasion and the occupation of Iraq.
      The guy sitting on the ramp with the MG? that's his job to Observe, report and take out any missiles and throw flares and chaff.
      Ever hear of a STARM or HARM missile?
      They home on electronic warfare gear.

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  2. A dissertation on this matter: http://www.johntreed.com/noleavebehind.html

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  3. Hell, The TRAP Plt was the 81 mm mortar Plt, trained for just that mission.

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  4. What the above blurb doesn't tell you is that a TRAP team is normally commanded by a 1stLt. For some reason, the MEU CO, XO, and SgtMaj were along for the ride on this one.

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  5. Who did the pick up of that F-15E crew in Libya?

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    1. the USMC but instead of the mortar platoon as is traditional they used recon with a rifle company as backup. V-22's were the insertion platform for the recon platoon and the rifle company flew in on Ch-53s. harriers provided cover......its not what recon is optimized to do. they don't have the organic firepower of rifle company and quite honestly the more they get away from their core mission the more i question the need for them.

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    2. Sure but a mortar platoon (which traditionally does TRAP) isn't part of a rifle company (battalion weapons), so does a mortar platoon have more than a recon platoon when in TRAP mode? I'm assuming they leave their mortars home meaning they've all only got M-16/4s (unless I'm missing something).

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