MARINES IN KUWAIT — U.S. Marines serving with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s Command Element debark from a Landing Craft Utility vessel during the MEU’s offload into Kuwait, Oct. 4, 2006. The Marines will hone their desert training skills and fire weapons on nearby ranges.U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Jeffrey A. Cosola
From The Danger Room:
During the Cold War, the Navy's "big-deck" amphibious assault ships, with full loads of Marines, helicopters and Harrier jump jets, rotated through two stations: one in the eastern Mediterranean, and another in the Pacific. The idea was that the Pentagon would always have a reinforced battalion of troops close to potential hot spots, primed for action.
Iraq changed all that. Since 2003, with the Marines busy in the sandbox, it became impossible to keep a battalion at those old sea stations, and the Marines' "expeditionary" amphibious skills decayed as a result.
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My Comment: I do not think that most of the marines will object to this change in focus.