Peleliu Amphibious Ready Group, 15th MEU Leave Middle East

The ships of the San Diego-based Peleliu Amphibious Ready Group sailed out of the Middle East Thursday, ending five months on station in support of maritime security, the Navy announced.

The amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu, amphibious transport dock ship USS Green Bay and amphibious dock landing ship USS Rushmore moved into the Seventh Fleet's area of responsibility, which covers the eastern Indian and western Pacific oceans, according to the Navy.

There was no indication when the sailors, and members of the embarked 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, will return home. The unit—based out of Camp Pendleton—left San Diego on Sept. 17.

The Navy has been repositioning Seventh Fleet vessels this week in response to near-daily threats by North Korea. The sailors and Marines left San Diego amid tensions over Iran's nuclear program and an assault on a U.S. consulate in Libya that killed four Americans -- three from San Diego County.

"We conducted a lot of very valuable unit-level training, but more importantly we supported a lot of real-world missions and operations such as counter-weapons proliferation, special forces mission support and contingency security reinforcement for several embassies and consulates, to name a few," said Capt. Shawn Lobree, the commander of Amphibious Squadron Three.

He said operations in the theater pulled the squadron in three directions at times.

"It was a bit of a challenge to maintain awareness with the leadership both on the blue-side and green-side, but with the robust communication capability that the Peleliu (Amphibious Ready Group) has, we were able to maintain proper command and control of events," Lobree said.

His reference to "blue" and "green" sides referred to Navy and Marine commands.

—City News Service