THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 2, 1996 TAG: 9605020405
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Rebel Liberians learned Wednesday that there aren't just 250 Marines in town to keep peace at the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia.
There are another 1,000 or so off shore if they are needed.
In a show of force after three separate exchanges of gunfire with the Marines on Tuesday, Norfolk-based amphibious ships showed the Liberians what else they could face.
``At noon we came in and did a presence mission within about three miles of the embassy,'' said Capt. William D. Young in a satellite telephone interview Wednesday from the assault ship Guam.
Before Young brought the ships close enough to shore to be seen from the capital, they had been sitting offshore out of sight.
Young is the commander of Amphibious Squadron 2, which makes up the 1,500 Marines and a like number of sailors who have been ordered to remain off the African coast during Liberia's continuing civil war.
They have evacuated about 75 Americans so far and have kept a company of Camp Lejeune, N.C., Marines in the U.S. Embassy compound to provide security.
On Tuesday the Marines shot and killed three Liberians who fired on the embassy three different times. Two Marines were slightly injured. Neither required evacuation, said Young.
``A shell casing hit a piece of plywood and one Marine caught some splinters in the face,'' said Young. ``Another Marine had a spent shell, a stray round, that deflected off him.''
The Marines are from the amphibious assault ship Guam, dock landing ship Portland and amphibious transport dock Trenton.
Young, along with Marine Col. M.W. Forbush, commander of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, have been rotating each week a reinforced rifle company into the embassy compound.
Until Tuesday there had been few problems.
``We can't quite figure out what happened yesterday,'' said Young. ``There are lots of political things going on in there. We are hopeful things have settled down.''
Young has been careful to keep his ships about 25 miles off shore to avoid provoking any confrontation. But after Tuesday's assaults, Young wanted to show the warring factions the Navy's presence as a ``stabilizing thing, not as an intimidating thing, not as a scare tactic,'' an official said.
``They just need to know we're out here.''
Young, who has been at sea with his sailors and Marines since leaving the United States on Jan. 26, said he has no idea how long they will remain off the African coast. The ships first sailed the Mediterranean Sea and remained off the coast of the former Yugoslavia in support of operations in Bosnia.
They were summoned to the Liberian crisis April 10, leaving the dock landing ship Tortuga in the Med by itself.
``We have managed to go in under very unusual circumstances and demonstrate our capabilities on a very, very far shore,'' Young said. ``We are proud to make a contribution. We feel very useful.''
The amphibious ships are being resupplied by the oiler Big Horn and have the guns and missiles of the destroyer Conolly with them as well.
Young said their message to families at home is that they won't be there ``indefinitely. We're looking to get home on time.''
The ships are to return, along with the carrier George Washington battle group, in late July. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Capt. Young
KEYWORDS: U.S. MARINE CORPS U.S. NAVY LIBERIA by CNB