The seven-month deployments of 1,200 west-coast Marines and Sailors assigned to the Okinawa-based 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit have been extended to 12 months. The action will make other units that had been scheduled for Japan this fall available for deployment to Iraq. Those units will in turn replace units that have been extended in Iraq. Units affected by the five-month extension in Japan are:
2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
E Battery, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines, Camp Pendleton.
2nd Platoon, C Company, 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif.
4th Platoon, A Company, 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, Camp Pendleton.
Marine Attack Squadron 214 from Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma, Ariz.
Detachment, Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 462, MCAS Miramar, Calif.
Detachment, Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 267, Camp Pendleton.
