Why Didn’t Marines Evacuate US Embassy In Sudan?

ANALYSIS – It was 100 operators from SEAL Team Six and the Army's 3rd Special Forces Group that evacuated over 70 American personnel from our embassy in Sudan. 

They used special ops MH-47 helicopters and flew the diplomats and their dependents to safety at a U.S. base in Djibouti on the Gulf of Aden.

As I noted earlier, a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) steaming offshore with multiple ships, helicopters, and trained troops would have normally been a primary option to perform the mission, but due to budget constraints and a dearth of amphibious ships, no MEU was available nearby.

That was disheartening to me and many Marines.

I served with a MEU in the Pacific and trained for these same missions. Back then, we had a SEAL Team onboard as part of the MEU. That appears to be happening again now.

But 12 U.S. Marines posted at the embassy in Khartoum from the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group did their part in the Sudan rescue operation.

And other Marines and their MEU are currently training to do the exact same evacuation operation in the future. And likely working more closely with maritime special operations forces.

Referring to the Sudan embassy Marines, a spokesman for Marine Corps Embassy Security Group told the Marine Corps Times:

Their relationships with our interagency partners at the Department of State, in particular the Diplomatic Security Service, ensured swift coordination. Their actions maintained security during a critical time and resulted in a safe movement out of Khartoum to return personnel to the U.S.

Marines have been assigned to protect U.S. embassies and consulates since 1948. Marine embassy security forces also helped in the evacuations of the U.S. embassies in Kabul in 2021 and Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2022.

“Our Marines who protect many of our embassies overseas do not often get the credit they deserve,” Christopher Maier, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict, said in a State Department news briefing following the evacuation.

I can also attest to that, as I proudly served at multiple U.S. embassies with these well-trained jarheads as a Marine and Naval Attaché (military diplomat).

Meanwhile, reported Military.com, “Just hours after helicopters finished bringing 70 employees out of the American embassy in Sudan, halfway across the world, the Marines of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) started practicing for the same type of mission.”

U.S. Naval Institute News reported on the mock crisis training:

For five days, a U.S. consulate in the tiny country of Obsidian had been surrounded by protestors who were upset with the American presence in their coastal nation. Fomented by an armed opposition group, the situation for the State Department staff, Marine guards and Americans in the region had become increasingly unstable.

First, additional Marines supported the guards by flying in as extra security. Then a command element from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit reinforced the Marines at the consulate. Finally, the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group sailed off the coast of Obsidian, prepared to fly off Americans and others in harm's way aboard the 26th MEU's MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors in a non-combatant evacuation operation – NEO – an action undertaken by the Department of Defense at the request of State.

Obsidian is actually a small section of North Carolina around Camp Lejeune, but the scenario shares similarities with several previous emergency evacuations and exercises the MEU's ability to pull off a NEO.

This is exactly the type of scenario I trained for with the MEU decades ago. It shouldn't be something new.

Miltary.com added:

The exercise, held at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and aboard a trio of Navy ships off the coast, was not only an opportunity for Marines to practice extracting noncombatants from dangerous situations, it also foreshadows a growing partnership between the maritime branch and special operations forces.

Col. Dennis Sampson, the MEU commander, told reporters aboard the USS Bataan on Monday that they made an effort to include more training with the Navy SEALs.

“What is unique for us, is we've actually attached them to the MEU,” Sampson explained before noting that this “makes us more relevant when you get into a theater and there's a crisis.”

Jonathan Berger, a State Department adviser to Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC), also noted that cooperation between the agency that runs embassies and consulates and special operations units “is increasing.”

“We've got a team now embedded in the embassy in Jakarta, for example. … We've got folks working in Taiwan,” Berger said before naming locations in the Philippines.

Considering that embassy reinforcement and non-combatant evacuation were part of the Marines' bread and butter back in the late 1980s, when I was with a MEU, and even as far as the 1990s when I was posted at U.S. embassies, it's good to see the Marines are finally re-emphasizing this core mission.

It's also good to see MARSOC, State Department and Special Operations Command remembering the vital role Marines and a MEU can play in any similar crisis.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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