Ships back from Iraq
bring 6,400 for port callSailors and Marines will stop
in Hawaii en route to San Diego
Nearly 6,400 sailors and Marines will arrive at Pearl Harbor this morning for a brief Hawaiian port call on their way home to San Diego and Camp Pendleton from the Iraq war.
The Marines belong to Regimental Combat Team 1, while the sailors are assigned to five amphibious ships -- USS Boxer, USS Bonhomme Richard, USS Cleveland, USS Dubuque and USS Pearl Harbor.
They are part of the first groups of Marines that shipped out for the Iraqi war from San Diego as part of the USS Tarawa Amphibious Group.
About 2,200 Marines from Camp Pendleton belonging to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit with their 33 Harrier jets passed through the islands last week and were back in San Diego today. The Tarawa Amphibious Group left San Diego Jan. 6 and arrived in Kuwait in February.
The 2,000 sailors visiting the islands last week were on the amphibious ships USS Tarawa, USS Rushmore and USS Duluth.