NORFOLK, Va. – More than 4,000 sailors and Marines returned home Tuesday as the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group wrapped up its seven-month deployment to the Middle East, having helped set up a key base in the intensifying war on ISISto the Middle East.
"I think our sailors and Marines know they had a great role in contributing to coalition forces doing what needs to be done in Iraq," said Capt. Larry Getz, who assumed command of Kearsarge in November as part of a fleet-up. "We hope and pray for those that are in the fight right now, that we can get this job done as quickly as possible and bring everybody back home."
The ARG is comprised of amphibious assault ship Kearsarge and amphibious transport dock Arlington, both based here, and the dock landing ship Oak Hill out of Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story. The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is based out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, offloaded its Marines Saturday, with the exception of those who remained at the a firebase in Iraq.
Though tasked to provide maritime and theater security as well as crisis response in the 5th and 6th Fleets, the blue-green team was most noted for its contributions to Operation Inherent Resolve, the fight in Iraq against the Islamic State group, more commonly known as ISIS or ISIL. Key to that effort was the March establishment of Kara Soar Counter Fire Complex near Makhmour in northern Iraq, and roughly 15 miles from enemy territory. Fewer than 200 Marines set up the outpost, which has at least four M777A2 howitzer artillery guns. It marked the first time since U.S. forces returned to Iraq in 2014 that Americans have set up a quasi-permanent presence on the ground outside the perimeter of a major Iraqi military installation.
Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin was killed, and eight Marines injured, when ISIS fightersIslamic State group militants launched a rocket attack on the coalition base on March 19. The 27-year-old field artilleryman was assigned to the 26th MEU's Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines. The Marines fended off at least one other attack just two days after Cardin's death when a squad-sized team of ISIS fighters infiltrated the area. Two enemy fighters were killed in that operation and "the rest ran away in fear," Army Col. Steve Warren, a Defense Department spokesman in Baghdad, said after the event.
Tuesday's homecoming was a bit bittersweet because the artillery Marines remained at the firebase — considered a key staging area for the Iraqi army as it battles to retake Mosul from ISIS — until could Army artillery could provide relief. When that will happen has not been announced.
"We trained together, and we are a big family — that is the relationship that we built," said Capt. A. P. Bennett, the ARG commodore. "It certainly is difficult to leave sailors or Marines behind, but that's what was needed by Central Command."
This was the first deployment for the Arlington, which was commissioned in April 2013. The eighth ship in the San Antonio class, Arlington is named in honor of the 184 victims who died when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, as well as the first responders from Arlington County. More than three dozen of those first responders made the journey here to welcome the ship home.
In addition to artillery support, ARG aircraft conducted 130 combat sorties and 60 strike missions. The San Diego-based Boxer Amphibious Ready Group has taken point in the Navy's 5th Fleet.
