More than 200 Marines from Kaneohe Bay are scheduled to return to Hawaii today from their final deployment to Garmsir district in southern Afghanistan, but that won’t mark the end of their overseas deployments, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
As the Afghanistan mission winds down, Hawaii Marines are resuming the "Unit Deployment Program" rotations to Japan that were curtailed with war needs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With the full return in coming days of the 1,000-member 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, Marine Corps Base Hawaii’s three infantry battalions will have ended their rotational deployments to Afghanistan, an official said.
A ceremony is expected to be held after the return of all the 3rd Battalion Marines recognizing the shift back to an emphasis on the Pacific, and with most of another infantry unit at Kaneohe Bay, the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, heading to Okinawa on the Unit Deployment Program, an official said.
The Pentagon’s Marine Corps headquarters confirmed Wednesday that the 2nd Battalion from Hawaii will be the first infantry unit across the Corps to deploy as part of UDP resumption.
About 800 Hawaii Marines with the 2nd Battalion will deploy to Japan in early summer.
"The Marine Corps, as America’s expeditionary force in readiness, constantly seeks opportunities to train and partner with allies and friends in the Pacific theater," the service said in a statement. "The Unit Deployment Program, or UDP, has been a cost-effective way to expose U.S.-based Marine units to various training environments and maintain military partnerships throughout the region since 1977."
The Corps said after reducing UDP in scale in 2003 due to the increased personnel and equipment demands involved in fighting two wars, it will begin, incrementally, to return to the routine deployment cycle of units rotating to Japan from U.S. home stations.
"The number and timing of additional deployments as part of the Unit Deployment Program are to be determined," the Marine Corps said. "The pace of UDP resumption is contingent upon the drawdown of Marines in Afghanistan."
About 200 Hawaii Marines with the 2nd Battalion left in late March or early April in another first for the unit to serve on rotational deployments to Australia that were announced by President Barack Obama in November.
That rotational force — to be drawn from across the Marine Corps — is expected to reach 2,500 in Australia in coming years as the U.S. seeks to maintain a forward-based military presence across the Asia-Pacific region.
The 2nd Battalion’s 1,000 Marines were training for what was originally expected to be a late April or early May deployment to Helmand province in Afghanistan, but that was canceled as the Marine Corps draws down its forces in the country.
Maj. Gen. John Toolan, who until the spring commanded the U.S. Marine contingent in Helmand, told the Associated Press in March that the number of Marines in the south of the country, 17,500, was likely to shrink by 8,000 to 10,000 by the end of September.
The bulk of the 3rd Battalion, known as "America’s Battalion," will be returning to Hawaii in coming days.
The battalion replaced the Hawaii-based 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, in Garmsir in November — taking over a 50-mile-long "battle space" along the Helmand River.
