Camp Pendleton Marines Deploying To Afghanistan This Summer

The Camp Pendleton-based 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment is headed to Afghanistan this summer for a deployment of undetermined length, according to the North County Times.

The 1st Battalion, 1st Marine regiment is made up of about 800 Marines. They will deploy to Helmand province. The North County Times reports the 1/1 will:

"complement operations in southwest Afghanistan during the final phase of the surge recovery."

The surge is the final hurrah of sorts for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. As Home Post reported last week, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan recently announced the number of U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan would be cut by 23,000 as of September 30th, 2012. There are roughly 88,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan right now.

U.S. and NATO forces have agreed to hand over command of all combat missions to Afghan troops in 2013.

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