Camp Pendleton Marines React To President's Speech

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published June 23, 2011 at 3:00 AM PDT

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

Marines on Camp Pendleton say they do not expect the President’s announcement of a drawdown of troops from Afghanistan to affect their planned deployments in the near future.

Camp Pendleton Marines are still preparing for another major deployment next spring, when the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force expects to carry out a planned rotation to replace Marines from Camp Le Jeune.

Master Sergeant Mark Oliva of 1MEF, who served in Afghanistan earlier this year, said the Marines are unlikely to be among the first to withdraw.

“Marines from 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based here on Camp Pendleton are continuing to plan for an upcoming deployment to Helmand Province and Nimruz Province early next year," he said. “We fully expect that a very similar force of what you see of Marines in Afghanistan right now is likely to continue through the near future.“

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Oliva said Marines still have a key role to play in strengthening Afghan forces to take over control when U.S. forces leave, and maintaining recent gains. He said many Marines still listened carefully to what the President had to say.

“Even if it is not forces in our area for the initial draw down,” he said, “it is still going to have a significant impact on how we do business and where we‘re going to be placed.”

Oliva said about 5,000 Camp Pendleton-based Marines are currently in Afghanistan, down from a high of about 10,000 earlier this year.

He said the base is planning rigorous training exercises in preparation to boost those numbers again in southern Afghanistan next spring.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.