15 August 2002 – Twenty-two Marines were the first to move back into the Pentagon’s outer E Ring offices that were demolished by the terrorist attacks of
28 August 2002 – For the first time in recent memory, two of the east coast MEUs traded places stateside rather than on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The 24th MEU left Camp Lejeune as the 22d MEU returned. Deployments were thrown slightly off kilter since the war in Afghanistan began but were put back on track with the unusual at home tradeoff.
18 August 2003 – Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps General William Nyland visited Djibouti to congratulate CJTF-HOA personnel on a job well done. He also reiterated the importance of their mission there. After his speech, Gen Nyland answered questions from service members and took pictures with many of those among the crowd.
___August 2004 – Numerous aviation units returned home from Operation Iraqi Freedom throughout the month of August. Included were Marines from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 466, Marine Attack Squadron (VMA) 214, Marine Air Control Squadron (MACS) 2, Marine Wing Support Squadron (MWSS) 273, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM) 261 and Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron (VMU) 2.
5 August 2004 – A cease-fire signed in June between members of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Muqtada Militia and Iraqi officials in Iraq ended when the militia launched attacks against Marines with the 11th MEU and Iraqi security forces in Najaf, Iraq. The gunmen violated international laws of war by using the Imam Ali-Shrine and neighboring cemetery to strike against the Marines and Iraqi National Guardsmen. Within a week, Marines had surrounded the captured mosques and continued to increase pressure on the entrenched militia. Fighting in the city finally ended on 28 August.
17 August 2004 – The Marines of the Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii-based 31st MEU were issued deployment orders to the Middle East to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. The MEU including 1st Battalion, 3d Marines, and HMM-265, departed Okinawa less than a week later. It was the largest deployment of Hawaii-based Marines in the Global War on Terrorism to date.
18 August 2004 – The redeployment of the 22d MEU (SOC) finally got under way less than a week after the unit was informed that its deployment was to be extended for another thirty days. The extension came only days after the Combat Action Ribbon was approved for the Marines and sailors of the unit who participated in combat operations in south-central Afghanistan from 25 March through 10 July 2004.
23 August 2004 – The court-martial of Sgt Gary P. Pittman began. Sgt Pittman, a reservist with 2d Battalion, 25th Marines, was charged with assault and dereliction of duty in connection with the treatment of prisoners at Camp Whitehorse detention center near Nasiriyah, Iraq. On the same day, Sgt Matthew K. Travis’ court-martial also began. He faced charges stemming from an incident in April where an Iraqi detainee was shocked with electricity while in custody of 2d Battalion, 2d Marines.
__August 2005 – Marines with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 264 (HMM-264), Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 224 (VMFA(AW)-224), and Marine Wing Communications Squadron 38 returned throughout the month following deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
3 August 2005 – Fourteen Marine reservists and a civilian interpreter were killed in Haditha, Iraq, when the amphibious assault vehicle they were traveling in was struck by a roadside bomb. Two days earlier, six other Marines were killed near the same city by enemy gunfire. Nineteen of the 20 killed in those two days were from the same Ohio-based unit, 3d Battalion, 25th Marines.
3-10 August 2005 – Marines participated in Operation Quick Strike, an offensive operation aimed at disrupting insurgent activities in the Iraqi cities of Haditha, Haqliniyah, and Barwanah. Marines netted nine car bombs, 28 other explosive devices, and captured 36 suspected insurgents.
7 August 2005 – Marines with HMM-266 deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom less than a year after it’s last deployment. Four days later, on 11 August, HMM-161 also deployed to Iraq for the third time. Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 167 (HMLA-167) also arrived in country in mid-August to replace HMLA-269, which was on its way home after a six-month deployment.
13 August – Marines and Afghan troops launched an offensive in the remote Afghanistan Korengal Valley. The operation was aimed at rebels believed to have killed 19 U.S. troops in June 2005 hiding out in the eastern Kunar province near the Pakistani border. Only two Marines were wounded during the offensive.
26 August – 1 September 2005 – Marines launched several precision air strikes against al-Qaida positions in the western Iraqi province of Al Anbar.
1 August 2006 – The Naval Criminal Investigative Service concluded its investigation into the murders of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq, by Marines and handed the case over to a military prosecution team.
10 August 2006 – Camp Pendleton officials opened the Wounded Warrior Center, based on a similar program at Camp Lejeune. The center is designed to help wounded Marines and sailors who are too well to be hospitalized but not well enough to return to their units or the civilian world.
15 August 2006 – Marines with the 11th MEU began returning home to Camp Pendleton after a six-month deployment. The MEU was deployed to the Western Pacific and Persian Gulf since 15 February 2006 with elements participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom for a time.
21-25 August 2006 – Marines from 9th Engineer Support Battalion deployed from Camp Hansen, Okinawa, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
22 August 2006 – Marine Corps officials announced they had been authorized to recall thousands of Marines to active duty from the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), a segment of the reserves that consists of those who left active duty but still have time remaining on their eight-year military obligation. It was the first time the Marine Corps planned to use the involuntary recall since the beginning of the Global War on Terror. MARADMIN 397/06 announced the recalls.
23 August 2006 – Marines with 2d Battalion, 3d Marines, began deploying to Iraq from Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. The unit had deployed previously to Afghanistan in June 2005, but this was the unit’s first deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
31 August 2006 – As the Marines of 3d Battalion, 4th Marines, began deploying in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the unit was among the first to return to Iraq for a fourth tour.
1 August 2007 – Wounded Warrior Battalion-West officially uncased its colors during a ceremony at Camp Pendleton. The battalion, one of two under the new Wounded Warrior Regiment based at MCB Quantico, was established to provide oversight and care for recovering Marines west of the Mississippi River.
1 August 2007 – Cpl Marshall Magincalda was found guilty of conspiracy to murder in the 26 April 2006 killing of an unarmed Iraqi man in Hamandiya, Iraq, but was acquitted of the more serious charge of premeditated murder. He was sentenced to time served for the 448 days he had spent in a Navy brig awaiting trial and was reduced in rank to private. The very next day, squad leader Sgt Lawrence G. Hutchins III, was convicted by a different jury of numerous charges in connection with the same case, the most serious being unpremeditated murder. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, a reduction in rank to private, and a dishonorable discharge.
7 August 2007 – Two Marines who pleaded guilty to taking part in the 26 April 2006 killing of an unarmed Iraqi man in Hamandiya, Iraq, were ordered released by LtGen James N. Mattis, commanding general of Marine Corps Forces Central Command. Pvts Tyler A. Jackson and Jerry E. Shumate, Jr., each served about nine months of the 21-month sentences imposed under a plea bargain. Three days later, Pvt Robert Pennington, the only Marine still incarcerated after pleading guilty in the case, was the also granted early release.
9 August 2007 – LtGen James N. Mattis dismissed all charges against LCpl Justin Sharratt. LCpl Sharratt was one of four enlisted Marines who originally faced murder and other charges in the deaths of several Iraqi citizens in Haditha on 19 November 2005. Charges were also dismissed against a military lawyer, Capt Randy W. Stone, who was accused of not properly investigating the slayings.
16 August 2007 – A former Marine sergeant was charged in federal court in Los Angeles, California, for his alleged role in the killing of eight unarmed Iraqi prisoners during the intense November 2004 battle for Fallujah. Four days later, the Marine Corps announced it was charging another Marine in connection with the same incident. Both men were members Company K, 3d Battalion, 1st Marines.
16 August 2007 – Marines with 3d Battalion, 6th Marines, began returning to North Carolina following a seven-month deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. About a week later, on 22 August, 2d Battalion, 7th Marines, also began arriving home in California from Iraq .
__ August 2008 – The Pentagon ordered roughly 1,250 Marines serving in Afghanistan as trainers with Afghan security forces to stay in country for a month longer than originally planned. The Marines of 2d Battalion, 7th Marines, were ordered to stay the extra 30 days just one month after the tour was also extended for 24th MEU.
8 August 2008 – LtGen Samuel T. Helland, the commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Central Command, ordered Sgt Ryan Weemer to court-martial on charges of unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty in the killing of unarmed detainees in Fallujah, Iraq, on 9 November 2004. The case came to light in 2006 when Sgt Weemer volunteered details to a U.S. Secret Service interviewer during a polygraph screening that included a question about the most serious crime he had ever committed. Two other Marines were also implicated in the crime and were facing charges.
14 August 2008 – About 120 Marines from 2d Battalion, 3d Marines, began returning home to Marine Corps Base Hawaii following a seven-month deployment to Iraq. The rest of the unit was scheduled to return later in the month. The next day, more than 1,000 Marines and sailors from 2d Battalion, 24th Marines, also began returning home to Marine Corps Base Twentynine Palms, California, following a deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
19 August 2008 – The civilian trial for former Marine Sgt Jose Nazario, Jr., in the death of unarmed Iraqi detainees in Fallujah, Iraq, in November 2004, began. The trial marked the first time a little-known federal law had been used to prosecute a former Marine or soldier for actions during combat. Former Sgt Nazario was the first of three Marines to go on trial in connection with the case.
26 August 2008 – Iraqi leaders signed the Command and Control Memorandum of Understanding in a ceremony at the Anbar Governance Center in the Al Anbar Province, a step towards taking full control and responsibility for security from Coalition forces.
28 August 2008 – A civilian jury acquitted former Marine Sgt Jose Nazario, Jr., of all charges after six hours of deliberation in connection with the death of unarmed Iraqi detainees in Fallujah, in November 2004. Two Marines, Sgt Ryan Weemer and Sgt Jermaine Nelson, still faced court-martial in the case and were found in contempt of court for refusing to testify against their former squadmate during his trial.
