22nd MEU comes home after 10-month deployment to Southern Command

Marines and sailors of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit returned to Camp Lejeune, N.C., Monday after a nearly 10-month deployment to the U.S. Southern Command.

Families and loved ones welcomed the unit home during a ceremony in the afternoon.

“This deployment proved a fundamental truth about our naval expeditionary forces: nobody can do what a ARG/MEU can do organically, across all warfighting functions and all domains,” said Col. Tom Trimble, commanding officer of the 22nd MEU, in a service news release.

The 22nd MEU embarked in August on three ships — the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima and two amphibious transport docks, USS Fort Lauderdale and USS San Antonio. They spent most of their deployment in the Central Caribbean Basin, transiting more than 130,000 nautical miles.

During the deployment, the 22nd MEU reinforced embassies in Haiti and Venezuela during periods of instability, conducted five maritime interception operations to disrupt illegal trafficking networks in the Caribbean, worked with Special Operations Forces, and supported humanitarian efforts in Jamaica, according to the release.

The 24th MEU is now the primary force deployed to support these operations in the Caribbean.

“I am incredibly proud of this blue‑green team. Watching them pivot from high‑stakes power projection one day, to embassy reinforcement and a massive humanitarian relief effort the next was nothing short of eye‑watering,” Trimble said.

The 22nd MEU is composed of Battalion Landing Team 3/6, Combat Logistics Battalion 26 and Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263.