Kane'ohe Marines going to Afghanistan
Advertiser Staff
About 20 Kane'ohe Bay Marines were scheduled to leave last night for a nine-month deployment to train a battalion of Afghan National Army soldiers.
The members of the 3rd Marine Regiment will be part of embedded training teams in eastern Afghanistan. Marines usually deploy on seven-month combat tours to Iraq or Afghanistan.
The return in May of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines from Afghanistan signaled an end to a cycle of deployments to Afghanistan by Hawai'i Marine battalions.
The 1st Battalion of about 1,000 Marines now is training for a return to Iraq in the spring. The unit first deployed to Iraq in 2004.
The 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment at Kane'ohe Bay, an artillery unit, also is leaving for western Iraq in the spring as a provisional military police unit.
