Haiti Saps US Responsiveness

While it is a major military mission, it's also draining our readiness for worldwide responsiveness.

In addition to the 82nd Airborne paratroopers, 1,700 Marines of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit embarked aboard three warships. Now the Pentagon has ordered the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit diverted from deployment to Afghanistan to join the forces committed to Haiti.
That order means that two of the Marine Corps' six expeditionary units, normally held for crisis response, are committed to Haiti. And the 82nd Airborne is also normally held in reserve for military crises as part of the Defense Department's Global Response Force.
But this is no simple military operation. If it were, the 82nd Airborne Division brigade would have been gone last weekend: the wartime standard is to load and fly the brigade into combat within 96 hours.
Instead, the brigade is equipped for an extended humanitarian assistance mission, taking gear like wreckers, fuel tankers, and cargo trucks.

What's in a MEU? A whole lot of ground-based toys, plus some other stuff.

The Ground Combat Element (GCE) is based around the Battalion Landing Team (BLT), an infantry battalion reinforced with an artillery battery, Amphibious Assault Vehicle platoon, combat engineer platoon, light armored reconnaissance company, tank platoon, reconnaissance platoon, and other units as the mission and circumstances require. The total strength is approximately 1,200 members.
The reconnaissance platoon provides the basic element for the Maritime Special Purpose Force. This force consists of four elements. The assault platoon (a direct action platoon augmented from Force Recon), security (a selected infantry platoon from the battalion landing team), reconnaissance and surveillance assets, and a headquarters section. The total strength is approximately 350 Marines and sailors.

By: Brant