Expeditionary· West Africa NEO Operations
Op NOBLE OBELISK
Operation Noble Obelisk was a noncombatant evacuation operation mounted to rescue Americans and other foreign nationals from Sierra Leone when a military coup and the ensuing violence threatened the lives of civilians in the country.
As the security situation collapsed, Marines moved to evacuate the endangered population, bringing the threatened civilians out to safety from a nation gripped by upheaval and the breakdown of order. The Marines conducted the extraction with discipline in a volatile environment, projecting force from the sea to safeguard lives amid the chaos of the coup. Noble Obelisk extended the pattern of Marine interventions in West Africa beyond Liberia to neighboring Sierra Leone, another of the region's states convulsed by violence and military upheaval. The operation was a protective evacuation rather than a combat mission, the Marines using their readiness and amphibious capability to respond rapidly to a crisis and rescue those caught in the collapse of order in yet another West African country.
Record no. 828