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Conway: 22nd MEU tapped for earthquake relief

The Marine Corps will send the North Carolina-based 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit to earthquake-ravaged Haiti as part of an extensive U.S. relief plan for the island nation, the service’s top officer said Thursday.

Commandant Gen. James Conway, speaking at a Surface Navy Association symposium outside Washington, confirmed that the unit will deploy from Camp Lejeune, N.C., to the Caribbean nation aboard several amphibious ships that were ordered to prepare for deployment Wednesday. The aircraft carrier Carl Vinson is expected to arrive sometime Thursday, becoming the first major Navy ship to arrive in the devastated country.

“I don’t know yet the scope of the tragedy, but it’s very severe,” Conway said. “The 22nd MEU is going over, which recently returned from theater and is not yet disbanded. It’ll be going along with three to four {amphibious] ships. The timeline is to be determined, but there is a sense of urgency throughout the [U.S.] government that says sooner is better than later because we’re still in the rescue mode.”

Conway said he met Thursday morning with the Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and was asked to send to Haiti whatever the Corps could.

Capt. Clark Carpenter, a 22nd MEU spokesman, said Thursday that the unit will deploy as part of a full Marine air-ground task force that will number more than 2,000 Marines and sailors, but will have a different main aviation element than it did during its recent sea deployment, which ended Dec. 5.

On that mission, the MEU deployed with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 (Reinforced), becoming the first MEU to take MV-22 Ospreys on a MEU deployment. The MEU instead will deploy to Haiti with eight CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 461, based out of Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., giving it more heavy-lift capabilities to move supplies. An additional four UH-1N Hueys from New River-based Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 467 also will deploy, giving the MEU a reinforced squadron.

Marine officials said the MEU will deploy to Haiti aboard the amphibious assault ship Bataan and the dock landing ships Fort McHenry and Carter Hall. It will include battalion landing team 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, and Combat Logistics Battalion 22, which recently returned from its MEU deployment.

At the SNA symposium, Conway said there were no plans to send over Ospreys at this point, but that the Corps would be ready and willing to do so if asked to do so. Given its speed and range, it would be a beneficial aircraft to have as part of the mission.

During its deployment, the 22nd MEU was composed of battalion landing team 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines; Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 (Reinforced); and Combat Logistics Battalion 22, all based out of North Carolina. The unit deployed as part of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group, and is commanded by Col. Gareth F. Brandl.

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Haiti on Tuesday, leveling much of the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and killing as many as 100,000 people, according to some estimates.

Tuesday’s quake devastated the impoverished island nation, leveling thousands of structures and leaving an untold number trapped in the ruins. Death tolls are expected to be in the thousands, and International Red Cross spokesman Paul Conneally said 3 million people, one-third of Haiti’s population, may need emergency aid.

The United Nations has 9,000 peacekeepers in Haiti, but most are searching for survivors in their headquarters, which collapsed on an unknown number of people.

A Marine presence in Haiti would not be a first. In 2008, amid a series of four tropical storms that devastated the country, Marines helped deliver humanitarian aid. In 2004, Marines removed then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide from his home and escorted him to a U.S. plane on which he left Haiti after a military coup.

Marines also deployed to Haiti to protect U.S. interests there from 1915 to 1934 and returned in 1994 as part of Operation Uphold Democracy, an effort to restore the elected government in the wake of a military coup.

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Staff writers Lance Bacon and James K. Sanborn contributed to this report.

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• Carl Vinson, 6 other ships headed to Haiti