ANTHOLOGY AND ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY                                         15


   On the East Coast, the II Marine Expeditionary Force consisted essentially
of the 2d Marine Division and 2d Force Service Support Group, based mainly
at Camp Lejeune, and the 2d Marine Aircraft Wing, based largely at Marine
Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, North Carolina. II MEF called itself the
"Carolina MAGTF" and it bore the imprint of General Gray's time as Com-
manding General, 2d Marine Division (1981-84), and Commanding General,
Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic (1984-87).
   In command was the current FMFLant commander, Lieutenant General Carl
E. Mundy, originally of Atlanta, Georgia. Commissioned in the Marine Corps
in 1957 after graduation from Auburn University, he had served as an opera-
tions officer and executive officer of an infantry battalion. Later, his string of
operational commands would include the 36th and 38th MAUs and the 4th
MAB.    Immediately before his assignment to FMFLant in July 1990, he had
been the Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans, Policies, and Operations at Head-
quarters, Marine Corps.  But he was not destined to go to the Persian Gulf
immediately.
   Nearly 30,000 Marines and sailors from II MEF were scheduled for the
Gulf.  Movement of the fly-in echelon (FIE) began on 9 December and was to
continue, at the rate of about 1,000 troops per day, until 15 January.   Part of
II MEF's logistic support would come from MPSRon1, which left the East
Coast on  14 November with a scheduled arrival date at Al Jubayl of 12
December.
   The departure of the major pan of II MEF for the Gulf was marked by an
elaborate farewell ceremony at Camp Lejeune on Monday, tO December, which
saw 24,000 departing troops drawn up in massive squares on the parade ground.
Both the Commandant, General Gray, and the Commander in Chief, U.S.
Atlantic Fleet, Admiral Powell F. Carter, were there to wish them well.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the parade was the massing of the scar-
let-and-gold colors of II MEF and its subordinate units.27
   But of the major elements, only the colors of the 2d Division and 2d Force
Service Support Group would be going to the Gulf, it having been decided that
there was not yet a requirement for the command elements of II Marine
Expeditionary Force and the 2d Marine Aircraft Wing. The deploying aviation
units would be joining the already deployed 3d Marine Aircraft Wing.    Thus on
15 January, the I Marine Expeditionary Force would be structured very much
like the Ill Marine Amphibious Force in Vietnam: two divisions, a very large
wing,28 and a substantial service support conunand.29 In addition there would
be two Marine Expeditionary Brigades and a special~perations-capable Marine
Expeditionary Unit afloat, offering a very powerful landing force for any
contemplated amphibious operations.
   Except for a demonstration incident to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the 2d
Marine Division had not been operationally deployed since World War II, where
it fought with great distinction at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, and Tinian.30
Reminiscent of expeditionary practices before World War I, a rifle company
was stripped out of the ceremonial guard at the Marine Barracks, Washington,
D.C., and sent to Saudi Arabia, as well.