42 Cdo Coming Home

19 Assaults with 19 Triumphs

The previous page was: "42 Commando Limbang"

42 Coming Home; 17th April 2009, Royal Marines and soldiers from 42 Commando Group, based at Bickleigh, Devon, returned home via Exeter Airport yesterday following the end of their seven-month deployment to Afghanistan.

The Royal Marines of 42 Commando are happy to be reunited with their families at Exeter Airport after seven months on military operations in Helmand.

Led by their Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Charlie Stickland RM, 550 Royal Marines and soldiers who were attached to the Commando Group and were deployed to Afghanistan, working not just in Helmand but across the whole of southern Afghanistan and as far north as the capital city, Kabul.

42 Commando Red-Dagger

Since September 2008 the unit has

Been deployed as a Manoeuvre Battle Group working directly to the Regional Command (South), together with the Dutch, Canadians and Americans, primarily using helicopter insertion to assault insurgent safe havens - striking at the very heart of the insurgency.

The highly effective manner in which the Commando Group has operated magnified the size of its contribution, conducting no less than 19 Battle Group-level aviation assaults shocking and dislocating their foe.

Huge stockpiles of weapons and explosives, bomb making equipment, pressure plates and drugs have been unearthed across the South, significantly degrading insurgent capability.

Royal Marines of 42 Commando Group await extraction by Chinook helicopter following the successful completion of the third cycle of Operation AABI TOORAH in central Helmand in March 2009.

Such huge success has, however

Come at a price. The Plymouth-based Commando unit lost Marine Georgie Sparks and Marine Tony Evans in Nad e-Ali in the late autumn and, on Christmas Eve, Lance Corporal Ben Whatley was killed in action in the same area.

Corporal Rob Dearing from the Commando Logistic Regiment, but attached to 42 Commando, had been tragically killed but a few days before.

Lt Col Charlie Stickland RM said: "42 Commando Group have given their all to our part of the Afghanistan Campaign and they have had an enormous impact across the whole of southern Afghanistan."

"We mourn and will remember our fallen and feel very comfortable stating that as 'Honourable Warriors' we have made a difference."

"I pay tribute to my Marines and those that supported them - to their robustness, strength of human spirit, their trust in each other and agility to dance from 'fire fight' to drinking tea with the elders and back again at a moment's notice."

"They have soldiered in some of the most extraordinary and vexed of circumstances and they have never let me down."

Men of 42 Commando Royal Marines

Arrive at Exeter Airport after a successful seven-month deployment to southern Afghanistan.

The Commando Group finished its long deployment on a high when last month it completed a daring raid and particularly kinetic operation into the area of Marjah, in Helmand province, a hotbed of huge value and significance to the insurgency.

Among those arriving home yesterday was Corporal Jonathan Owen, aged 26, who was reunited with his wife and four children at Exeter Airport. He said: "I'm so happy to be back. It is always tough being away from your family so a welcome like this is even more special."

The men of 42 Commando Group will now proceed on a period of post-operational tour leave. They will march through Plymouth on the morning of 7th May 2009 to mark their homecoming.

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3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines

Paid dearly for their huge success in Afghanistan against the Taleban.

It was without any doubt an outstanding job done well, but it is tempered by the loss of many and the numbers of very seriously wounded.

There have been 31 deaths in the Brigade this tour, 16 of them Royal Marines. There were 33 very seriously wounded, 17 of them Royal Marines. The total of other battle injuries was 153 72 of them being Royal Marines-well over 150 from the past three years.

The worry is how many will suffer in the future from these injuries?

The Corps has decided to invest in these people in a big way. Tony Jacka has started a new job as the Royal Marine Casualty Warrent Officer, with the task of tracking these casualties and ensuring that they are properly looked after and do not slip through the net.

The next Link below will be: "42 Cdo Honourable Warriors"

42 Cdo Coming Home 42 Cdo Honourable Warriors

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