Expeditionary· West Africa NEO Operations
Embassy Evacuation
As civil war swallowed Monrovia, the American embassy became an island in a sea of violence, with diplomats, citizens, and foreign nationals sheltering inside while the fighting closed in.
The Marines came from offshore to get them out. They secured the compound, locked down the evacuation routes, and held the line against the armed bands roaming the capital, all while keeping their fingers off the trigger unless they had no choice. It was the Corps' oldest embassy duty carried out under the worst conditions, a rescue threaded through a city tearing itself apart. The amphibious force did what amphibious forces do best, materializing from the sea to pluck the endangered out of harm's way and carry them to safety. There was no glory in it and no decisive battle, just the disciplined, dangerous work of getting people out alive, the first of several times the Marines would do exactly this in Liberia.
Record no. 827