U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Bataan transits the Mediterranean Sea, Feb. 25, 2024. The Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit left the Mediterranean on March 6, 2024 to return to the U.S. after a nearly eight-month deployment. (Rafael Brambila-Pelayo/U.S. Marine Corps)
NAPLES, Italy — The Bataan Amphibious Ready Group left the Mediterranean Sea this week after a nearly eight-month deployment that began with Iran’s attempted seizures of commercial ships and continued amid the Middle East’s expanding upheaval.
The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, dock landing ship USS Carter Hall, amphibious transport dock ship USS Mesa Verde and embarked 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit transited the Strait of Gibraltar on Wednesday, Amphibious Squadron 8 announced in a statement the same day.
In the coming weeks, the ships will return to Norfolk, Va., according to the statement. The 26th MEU is based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The Bataan Amphibious Ready Group departed from Norfolk on July 10.
It was unclear whether the Navy intended to send another similar group or ship into the Mediterranean, which has had a nearly continuous presence of an aircraft carrier or amphibious ready group since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Bataan ARG had been in the region since December, helping to maintain a Navy presence in the eastern Mediterranean as part of the U.S. strategy to keep the Israel-Hamas war from broadening.
In January, the USS Gerald R. Ford returned to Norfolk after an eight-month deployment to the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations, leaving the Bataan ARG on duty.
“Our presence in the eastern Mediterranean was exactly what our nation needed: an integrated Navy and Marine Corps force ready to respond when called upon,” Capt. Martin Robertson, commodore of Amphibious Squadron 8, said in the statement.
While in the Mediterranean, the Bataan ARG participated in several exercises and made multiple port calls, including at least four to Naval Support Activity Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete.
In August, Bataan and Carter Hall, along with about 3,000 sailors and Marines, arrived in the Middle East as part of a Defense Department push to counter Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf.
The assignment to the Middle East was prompted by Iran’s continued harassment of commercial ships and attempted seizure of two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman in July. In one of those instances, Iranian naval forces fired at the tanker.
Meanwhile, Mesa Verde, along with the embarked 26th MEU Bravo Command, operated in the NAVEUR-6th Fleet area of responsibility, taking part in exercises and other operations in the Baltic Sea.
That included a September port call in Riga, Latvia, and participation in a German-led naval exercise with other NATO nations and European Union countries the same month.
The three ships rejoined in December for duty in the Mediterranean.
