Flashback: Deployment Aboard USS Iwo Jima
June 12, 2009
USS Iwo Jima LHD-7 in the Fog.
My deployment in 2006 was a very difficult time for me. A lot of emotions flying in every direction. I’d like to think that it was so hard because it was my first time. I’d like to think that I would be able to handle it now with an optimistic attitude and with more focus on the bigger picture.
We departed in June 2006 (on 6/6/06 actually…foreshadow much?), with the mission of taking the 24 MEU to Jordan to conduct training and then to fight pirates off the coast of Somalia. On the way to Jordan, we had port visits in Marseilles, France and Rome, Italy. We did the most we could to enjoy the stops since we didn’t know when we’d have another opportunity to get off the ship.
We never made it to Somalia. Soon after we dropped off our marines in Jordan, Hizballah paramilitary forces engaged the Israeli military. The President assigned the USS Iwo Jima to be the military presence off the coast of Beirut, Lebanon as the Americans were evacuated from the area. We did make a couple trips to the island of Cyprus where the American evacuees had been taken. After a little more than a month, our mission in the region ended and we headed back through the Suez Canal toward Kuwait.
We spent most of the remainder of deployment in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Kuwait. We made a couple trips to Dubai, which is one of the most incredible and interesting cities. Aside from the obvious stress from being in enemy waters, this period of time wasn’t too bad because we were given a break from the marines. There was more space aboard the ship, and less territorial issues.
After completing our mission, we started to head back home. We stopped again in Rome, and then in Toulon, France…but those port calls were basically lost because we all just wanted to get back to Norfolk so badly.
Looking back, I can’t really say that deploying on a ship is my favorite activity…but it’s really not that bad. You just have to make the most of your situation and look for any way to keep yourself sane.
