Tuesday, May 12, 2015

280 U.S. Marines will be sent to Central America

 


marines flag

(TNS) — About 280 U.S. Marines will be sent to Central America any day now.


The operation has no code name, but it’s the fruit of about a year’s planning by the U.S. Southern Command to insert a newly formed expeditionary outfit into the U.S. run part of Soto Cano air base in Honduras for about 200 days, the longest, largest known Marine deployment on Central American turf in years. About 90 of the Marines will go to Guatemala, El Salvador and Belize.


Details so far are scarce about what the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-South will do exactly. It sounds like it will train friendly forces and be in a position to pivot to high-profile disaster relief efforts. Spokesmen say the Marines will not do double-duty in the drug war.


On April 30, the deputy Southern Command commander, Army Lt. Gen. Kenneth Tovo, testified before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that the special unit’s ground element will be doing regional training — maritime and river operations, marksmanship and small-unit training. It has an air wing and logistics unit that will be “working with our partners to repair schools and other facilities.”(?? What about  being on American soil to PROTECT OUR COUNTRY FROM ISIS threats, ET AL?)


A spokesman for Southcom’s Marine subsidiary in Miami, Capt. Armando Daviu, likened it to the Marines’ role in the multinational effort in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.


Most of the Marines were drawn from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and assigned to the special task force in March, according to Army Col. Lisa Garcia, speaking for Southcom. The unit will be dismantled once the Marines are returned to U.S. soil — after hurricane season. (??)


Garcia would not disclose the mission’s start date, but said the Marines would be in Central America in advance of hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through November.


Carol Rosenberg
Miami Herald



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http://personalliberty.com/small-u-s-marine-contingent-headed-to-central-america/ 

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