Hawaii-based Marines come home - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Hawaii-based Marines come home

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — More than 200 Hawaii-based Marines and sailors are set to arrive home Tuesday after a combat tour in Iraq, Marine Corps officials said.

The troops belong to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, an infantry battalion from Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. The unit is wrapping up seven months spent operating in Iraq’s Anbar province, according to 1st Lt. Binford Strickland, a Kaneohe Bay spokesman.

The battalion, led by Lt. Col. Nathan Nastase, recently handed over its area of operations in Fallujah to another Hawaii unit — 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, which joins the Camp Pendleton-based Regimental Combat Team 1 at Camp Fallujah.

Other members of 3/3 are expected to return home to California later in the week, Strickland said.

The advance party of a West Coast-based battalion is expected home tomorrow.

About 50 Marines and sailors with 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, will return to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., according to Capt. Neal Fisher, a combat center spokesman.

The battalion, led by Lt. Col. J.J. Dill, operated as part of Regimental Combat Team 2 in Anbar’s Euphrates River valley.

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