What was the experience like? How did it impact your Marine Corps career? Which MEU were you on and where did you go? Thanks.

I was a grunt so when we were at sea all we did was eat,sleep, and workout. At first we had classes but went by the wayside real quick. We did some shoots off the elevator but mostly it was boring. Pack alot of books. It was a good experience as in on one float we went to Okinawa, Hong Kong, Singapore, Jordan, Saudi, UAE, Kuwait, Eritrea, Bali, Thailand, and Austraila. The countries will differ depending on if you're on a Westpac or a Medfloat. I personally loved being on ship.

S/F
SSgt H

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What was the experience like?

The pre-deployment workup was great. All training and no B.S. The float was ok.

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How did it impact your Marine Corps career?

It made me realize I had a cool command and this was a one shot deal. I got out 2 weeks after we returned to Camp Geiger.

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Which MEU were you on and where did you go?

22nd MAU/MEU. Sept 87-Mar 88.

Italy/Sicily
France
Spain
Morocco
Palma de Mallorca
Israel
Portugal

I was on the USS Inchon...God rest her soul. ...and life was one BIG party. ...of couse it was a Med Float...

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Originally posted by DCT435:
I was on the USS Inchon...God rest her soul. ...and life was one BIG party. ...of couse it was a Med Float...

I was on the "War Pig" for float also. Jan-Jul 1987. The CO of the ship liked to spend time in the sun, so between 1000-1430 most days, he shut down flight ops so all could spend time on the flight deck. We were with 26th MAU. Our section was attached to Weapons Co. 3/6. The training prior was great, but bring a lot of books, or have some shipped to you. My dad sent me a lot of W.E.B. Griffin novels.

How did it impact my career? When we got back from float and started going to the field again, I wanted to re-enlist, but not go to the field all the time. Hind site being 20-20, I still would have re-enlisted, but not have gone on barracks duty. Definately would have done something in my MOS.

Lets see, we pulled into Rota, we were supposed to be there a couple of days, but there were grumblings in Beirut, so we left the next morning and did 45 days of circles and squares off Lebanon. First stop after that was Naples for 3 weeks. After that we did an exercises in Tunisia, Sardinia and Camp de Canjeurs. There was another 3 weeks in Naples, we stopped for a couple of days in Marseilles, and we had liberty in Benidorm, Spain. Before we hit Rota on our way home, we stopped in Lisbon for a couple of days. Some of that may not be in order, it's been 21 years. I wouldnt trade it for the world, great memories.

I do not know if it applies to me but I was part of 26 and 24 meu_rein...... i was support but I tell you i had a great time........... it all depens on your MOS....... remember this... if you can get attach to wing as a ground guy, they got you lovely... That is my 0.2 on it.....


out!

I was aboard the USS Trenton and part of the 24th MEU, October 1989 to April 1990. We hit all the usual spots in the Med: Rota, Naples (twice), Toulon, plus Majorca, Tunisia and Israel, where I had probably some of the best training of my career to date.

All in all, I had a blast on float. We formed a rugby team on the ship and got to "get away" from the rest of the military personnel, which always seems to make for a better experience in a foreign port. We played military teams from Spain and France, plus an ad hoc team made up of some Royal Marines in Naples who kicked the shi% out of us on December 31st, 1989, then took us to the New year's Eve party to end all New Year's Eve parties .

We ended up cruising back and forth off Malta for a few days while George Bush, Sr. summited there with Gorbachev. Met some Russian sailors from the guided missile cruiser Slava, and spent a sobering Thanksgiving day cruising around in small boats looking for survivors/wreckage from a Cobra that went down off the Iwo Jima.

Can't really say how it affected my career, since I was already planning to get out when we returned, but I think every Marine grunt needs to do at least one float to know what it's really like.

Lots of PT and weapons cleaning on ship, some boring times, but also a lot of time for reflection, to think about why you're out there in the first place. It's all what you make of it. Some guys were completely misearable, but you can find things to do. I took a German class on the ship, which piqued my interest enough that it later became one of my college majors. Took a ton of pictures, did some of the offered tours, drank a lot of beer, and also saved a lot of money (amazing how little you really need when all you buy is pogie bait and batteries in the ship's store).

If you're scheduled to go on a float, enjoy it.

Thanks for the replies. I am in a somewhat rare position to be in as far as the Corps goes. I have a choice of deployments. I can go to Iraq with a Task Force as provisional MPs or I can attach with a BLT and go on a MEU to Afghanistan.

I was never in the MEU on my 2 deployments but spent around 20 days on an LST. A freaking flat bottom boat. It was boring azz hell and we spent half a day cleaning our sleeping area and the other half cleaning weapons. But since your an occifer, you don't have to do any of the BS that we enlisted do. You probably sit on a lot of 2 hours meetings that can be summarized in 10 minutes.


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I did two MEU's. First one one better than the second. Went out with the 13th MEU Jan-July 92. Hit a lot ports. Subic Bay, Hong Kong,Australia, Kenya,Baharein,Malaysia,We were in Kuwait exactly
a year after Desert Storm ended,so I got to see all the destruction that we wrought, that I didn't get to see due to oil smoke always in our faces. Had a grat time. Spent one somber day off the coast of Africa looking for Marines from Bravo 1/1 that crashed in a 46.Second float was O.K..We flew to Oki to hook-up with the 31st Meu. We spent most of our time on the island training at the NTA. Then went and hit a few port calls for one month. As far as career goes, did'nt help mine, but I learned alot by being around differant MOS's and getting to see how Grunts operate.And they do have the hardest job in the Corps, no doubt.

S/F

Three cruises here. July-Dec '98 with 22MEU onboard USS Saipan, Feb-Aug '00 24MEU USS Wasp, then Jan-July '03 onboard USS Bataan with a mix of MAG-29 and several ground units for OIF 1. The two peacetime Med cruises were a blast, except for the 47 straight days in the Adriatic on the Saipan because of the Balkans problems. We only hit 4 ports besides Rota on that cruise. In 2000 onboard the Wasp, I think we hit about 12 ports including Majorca, Haifa, and Tulon. That was an outstanding time. The last cruise headed directly to the Persian Gulf, and the 140+ days at sea we did was pretty horrendous. One port on the way home- Lisbon, Portugal- to blow off steam and keep everybody from tearing up J-ville and Havelock when we got back. I don't think Med cruises will be like they once were for quite a while, with a ton of different libbo ports and such. And if you're attached to the Wing in any way, count on working like a slave, 12 on, 12 off, seven days a week. Career wise? Probably not much impact other than giving me a new appreciation for land dets.

scmerle, i did the med float in 1972 with H&S Co..the liberty ports were. Spain, France, Greece, Italy...there was a small thing going on with the Suez canal....we were on stand by...but nothing happened...

24th MEU, MSSG-24 1995-1998.

Europe:
Spain
France (people stink)
Italy
Vatican City
Greese (Good looking Russian working the bars)
Romania (Some of the hottest women I've seen)

Sat off the Coast of Bosnia and watched them shoot rockets at each other.

Africa:
Tunisia. (worst hell hole on the face of the Earth)

Middle East
Egypt (Good place to buy stuff)
Turkey (I still have a hangover from that beer we got)
Isreal (Good looking womens in the IDF)
Bahrain (Beer on the base and Cuban cigars)
Kuwait (No beer and sat on the damn boarder)
Saudi Arabia (No beer).

Had they put me back on a MEU I would still be active duty to this day.

Semper Fi

Johnny Blaze

My very first Caribbean cruise was with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force under command of Major General F.L. Weiseman, 2nd Marine Division.

Cuban Missile Crisis, October, 1962.

Sailed around in circles in the Caribbean waiting for the word to jump off. Never did, and, I'm told, the world breathed a sigh of relief.

Boring for the troops however.

- LarSim

POKER!!!!


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