Yuma squadron headed to Japan

Yuma squadron headed to Japan
The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Jan 4, 2009 10:03:21 EST

YUMA, Ariz. — A Marine Corps Harrier squadron set to leave Yuma on Monday for a deployment to Japan plans to stop at Wake Island in the mid-Pacific, where earlier squadron members helped hold off the Japanese in the early days of World War II before being overwhelmed.

About 135 Marines from Marine Attack Squadron 211 are scheduled to leave the Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma on Monday, along with eight AV-8B Harrier attack jets. They’ll join up with amphibious assault ship Essex in Japan and be aboard ship throughout Southeast Asia for seven to nine months.

But it is the stop at Wake Island that will likely be the most memorable.

“Marines have always been reverent of their history,” said Gunnery Sgt. Bill Lisbon, a base spokesman. “Anytime a present-day Marine can go back and experience that, it is something that builds on the Corps’ tradition and a way to touch the past.”

VMF-211 was sent to Wake Island in November, 1941. While on the island on Dec. 8 (Dec. 7 in Hawaii), the Japanese attacked, destroying seven aircraft on the ground, according to the squadron’s official history. In the next two weeks, the remaining five planes repelled numerous attacks and inflicted great losses on the enemy before the island’s entire Marine garrison surrendered on Dec. 23.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/01/ap_squadrondeploys_01409/%2e