{"id":10978,"date":"2026-03-29T14:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T14:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/10978\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T14:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T14:52:15","slug":"uss-tripoli-embarked-31st-marine-expeditionary-unit-arrive-in-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/10978\/","title":{"rendered":"USS Tripoli, embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit arrive in Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Marines and sailors assigned to the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group arrived in U.S. Central Command waters on Friday, the command announced<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The group, led by the America-class amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, departed earlier this month from its homeport of Sasebo, Japan. Also included in the arriving force is the embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Tripoli group began steaming toward the Middle East after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly approved a CENTCOM request for additional support to help curtail Iran\u2019s regional attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Announcement of the group\u2019s arrival comes one day after a dozen U.S. service members were wounded in an Iranian missile and drone strike on Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, the Wall Street Journal first reported<\/a>. Two of the 12 personnel are in serious condition.<\/p>\n

That strike, which reportedly damaged multiple U.S. refueling aircraft, comes as the U.S. military continues to pour assets into the region.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon on Wednesday confirmed elements from the 82nd Airborne Division<\/a> headquarters and a brigade combat team are slated to deploy to the Middle East. Based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the 82nd acts as the Army\u2019s rapid-response force and is often among the first units sent to respond to emerging crises.<\/p>\n

The 31st MEU, meanwhile, includes a ground combat element, which features a battalion landing team \u2014 an infantry battalion and combat support elements \u2014 of around 1,100 Marines and sailors.<\/p>\n

Also included is the MEU\u2019s aviation combat element, which features tiltrotor and fixed-wing aircraft, transport and attack helicopters, ground support assets and air defense teams.<\/p>\n

A combat logistics battalion with equipment and personnel capable of sustaining a MEU in austere environments for up to 15 days will also join the effort. <\/p>\n

The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, part of the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, has also been rumored to serve as a potential reinforcement. The group deployed in recent weeks and is currently operating<\/a> in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations in the eastern Pacific.<\/p>\n

The U.S. military on Saturday also announced that the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford<\/a>, which had been deployed in U.S.-Israeli operations against Iran, pulled into port in Split, Croatia, for maintenance.<\/p>\n

Thirteen service members have been killed in action and nearly 300 wounded during Operation Epic Fury, a joint undertaking by U.S. and Israeli militaries against the Islamic Republic that began on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n

The majority of the wounded have since returned to duty, according to U.S. Central Command. Prior to Friday\u2019s attack, 10 U.S. troops reportedly remained in serious condition.<\/p>\n

Military Times reporters Riley Ceder and Eve Sampson contributed to this report. <\/p>\n

J.D. Simkins is Editor-in-Chief of Military Times and Defense News, and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Marines and sailors assigned to the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group arrived in U.S. Central Command waters on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7725,850,194,192,189,193,1431,8,1072,19,7724,7726,195,9,7,6172],"class_list":{"0":"post-10978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-31st-meu","9":"tag-centcom","10":"tag-circulated-defense-news","11":"tag-circulated-marine-corps-times","12":"tag-circulated-military-times","13":"tag-circulated-navy-times","14":"tag-dn-dnr","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-hegseth","17":"tag-iran","18":"tag-marine-corps","19":"tag-marine-expeditionary-unit","20":"tag-military-times","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-uss-tripoli"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116313033411590512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}