[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 97 (Monday, July 20, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S8552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE MARINE ACTION IN CENTCOM FOR NEO OPERATIONS

  Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I rise today to compliment the men and 
women of our sea services, the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy, on 
an operation recently conducted. It was about a month ago in the 
African country of Eritrea. I think we should all be very proud of the 
way the Navy and the Marine Corps team responded to what I refer to as 
a 911 call, to execute an evacuation operation, commonly called a NEO, 
in that part of the world in Africa. It resulted from the unrest that 
this country, Eritrea, has had with its neighbor, Ethiopia. Let me 
highlight the action as it unfolded.
  On the evening of the June 5 of this year, the marines and sailors of 
the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, part of a forward-deployed 
Amphibious Ready Group, received what is called a warning order. A 
warning order is a ``heads up'' that a specific tasking is about to 
come your way and you had better start thinking about the mission that 
is contained in the warning order. That mission was the removal of 
American citizens from Eritrea because of the increasing unrest, as I 
have indicated, with Ethiopia. The marines, who had just finished 
conducting an exercise in Jordan, began their preparations right off 
the bat.
  At 3:30 in the afternoon of the 6th of June, the commanding officer, 
Colonel T.L. Moore, as ordered by General Anthony Zinni, the Commander 
in Chief of the U.S. Central Command, launched two C-130 aircraft along 
with 30 marines and sailors from this expeditionary unit. They arrived 
in Asmara, Eritrea, and began removing U.S. citizens and personnel from 
other countries. At 11:50 p.m., on that same day, the mission was 
complete.
  What mission?
  These superb marines and sailors removed from harm's way, and to 
safety, 105 American citizens, 24 Norwegians, 20 who were British, 8 
Canadians, 3 Ethiopians, 3 Japanese, 1 Korean, 1 Mexican, and 1 Swedish 
civilian. I am told the C-130s were proudly flying the Stars and 
Stripes in regards to this mission instead of their usual command 
banner strictly as a matter of pride in their mission and their nation.
  Also as part of this continuing effort, the U.S.S. Tarawa got 
underway at 3 p.m. on the 6th and steamed at full speed to the coast of 
Eritrea to wait for any further requests for NEO assistance in case any 
more problems did, simply, come up.
  I think the remarkable thing about the Tarawa is that the ship did 
actually prepare for this mission and got underway in less than 72 
hours.
  There was not any fanfare in the press about this. There were no 
stories in the media about the successful effort or pride of our men 
and women involved in this important mission. I think probably too many 
times the only military stories we hear about are some isolated event 
involving a service member that creates a negative headline, or some 
controversial issue, like today we are hearing over the media that 
somehow or other we are going to lessen or keep or improve or make more 
stringent the rules of the military in regards to adultery.
  I just wanted to take this opportunity to share this mission with my 
colleagues because it reflects, I think, the pride and the 
professionalism that is the standard of the vast majority of the 
members of our Armed Forces. It is so infrequent that we in the 
Congress really salute these fine Americans.
  So, Semper Fi and Bravo Zulu to the men and women of the 11th Marine 
Expeditionary Unit, the U.S.S. Tarawa, and all other members of our 
Corps and Navy involved in this effort.

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