laststandonzombieisland

After mentioning the helicopter carrier that saw the first use of ships’ caps for recovered astronauts earlier this week– USS Guam (LPH 9) in 1966’s Gemini 11, we would be remiss not to mention what that same humble Iwo Jima-class phib was up to some 30 years ago this week.

Guam, some 31 years young at the time, left Morehead City, North Carolina, on 27 Jan 1996 at the head of an ARG that included the transport dock ship USS Trenton (LPD 14) and the dock landing ships USS Portland (LSD 37) and USS Tortuga (LSD 46). Embarked was the 22nd MEU (SOC), made up of Battalion Landing Team 2/4, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM) 261, and assorted support elements, sailing under U.S. Sixth Fleet orders.

Just over two months into her (planned) six-month deployment to the Med and afloat in the Adriatic on a series of planned exercises, the call came on 11 April 1996 for Guam— the Mediterranean ARG with the embarked Landing Force Sixth Fleet– to sail at best speed to Monrovia, Liberia, some 3,000nm distant, where trouble was brewing. Leaving Tortuga behind (she was in Haifa, Israel, with the MEU artillery– Battery B, 1st Battalion, 10th Marines, and the light armored reconnaissance company, Company D (-), 2d Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion) to take part in exercise Noble Shirley), Guam and the rest of the ARG made for West Africa.

Four days later, on 15 April, the Marines of the 22nd MEU’s flyaway forward liaison cell arrived at the embassy in Monrovia to begin coordinating with the deployed European Special Operations Command’s forward headquarters in the country.

By 19 April, Guam and the promise of embarked Marines just offshore became real when they arrived at Mamba Station located off the coast of Liberia. The mission now assigned to 22d MEU was to conduct noncombatant evacuation operations and to provide security for the American Embassy in Liberia– Operation Assured Response.

As noted by the 82-page Marine History of Assured Response:

At 0600 on 20 April, the first helicopter sorties carrying Marines arrived to replace the soldiers at the embassy in Monrovia. The well-briefed platoon guides from Company F and Weapons Company BLT 2/2 came ashore first. The main body of Marines began arriving at the basketball court landing zone one hour later. Company F arrived first, quickly followed by the small 22d MEU forward command element and some MEU Service Support Group 22 (MSSG-22) personnel. Fast attack vehicles debarked carrying .50-caliber machine guns, Mk19 grenade launchers, and tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided

missiles, commonly called TOW missiles. These vehicles, combined with the mortars, machine guns, and sniper weapons already on station at the embassy, significantly enhanced the Marines’ firepower. The MEU completed the entire lift by 1015.

Company F, commanded by Captain Eric M. Mellinger, assumed security of the compound. The smooth transition left Marine squad leaders and platoon commanders with fire plans and field sketches drawn by the departing airborne troops. Starting at about 1230, soldiers from Company C, 3d Battalion, 325th Infantry, left in six sorties of three Boeing MH-47D Chinook helicopters. The last flight out of the embassy at 2015 included the outgoing commander of the European Special Operations Command’s Joint Task Force Assured Response. That evening, more than 275 Marines protected the compound. Captain Mellinger noted the embassy staff seemed overjoyed the Marines had arrived.

Guam, her two fellow gators, and (most of) the 22nd MEU would remain in/off Liberia with the ships often within direct-line sight of Monrovia for weeks as USAF aircraft ran a quiet evac operation ashore (103 combined sorties via MH-53 Pave Low helicopters, MC-130 Combat Talon aircraft, AC-130 gunships, KC-135 Stratotankers, and C-130 cargo aircraft) from M’Poko Airfield, with the Navy/Marine force providing muscle and presence.

The already split ARG/MEU was further dimenished when Trenton left for the coast of Spain to join with Tortuga for Exercise Matador 96 in early May, and Portland left on 20 June, leaving Guam alone on station off Liberia until the scratch-built SPMAGTF Liberia (732 Marines and Green side Navy personnel with 5 LAVs and 9 AAPV7s, along with six CH-46Es of HMM-264) arrived crammed aboard USS Ponce (LPD 15) on 27 June.

Between 9 April and 18 June, Joint Task Force Operation Assured Response evacuated 2,444 people (485 Americans and 1,959 citizens of 72 other countries) from Liberia.

USS Guam was decommissioned on 25 August 1998 and was disposed of as a target off the East Coast on 16 October 2001 in a SINKEX conducted by the John F. Kennedy Battle Group.

Although battered, Guam took over 12 hours to sink. One tough girl to the last.

Her motto was “Swift and bold.”