Roughly 170 Marines who remained in Iraq after the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s April departure will return come home to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, on Friday night.

The detachment, known as Task Force Spartan, stayed in country to man the guns at of a firebase Kara Soar Counter Fire Complex near Makhmour in northern Iraq until U.S. Army artillerymen could provide relief. The firebase Kara Soar Counter Fire Complex was established in March roughly 15 miles from Islamic State group enemy territory. It was is a key staging area for the Iraqi army as it battleds to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group, more commonly known as ISIS or ISIL.

The team that remained on station included was comprised of Marines and sailors with the of the MEU's command element; Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines; 2/6 and Combat Logistics Battalion 26, said according to Capt. Lindsay Pirek Pitrek, a MEU spokeswoman. It's not immediately clear which Army unit replaced them.

Friday’s homecoming will be bittersweet for the Marine artillerymen, who lost Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin in a March 19 rocket attack. Eight other Marines were injured in the attack. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford in April visited the firebase in April to award Purple Hearts to four of those Marines. The ISIS rocket expert believed responsible for the March 19 attack on the base was killed in an April 3 drone strike.

The Marine company Fewer than 200 Marines set up the outpost, which had at least four M777A2 howitzer artillery guns. It marked the first time since U.S. forces returned to Iraq in 2014 that Americans have set up a quasi-permanent presence on the ground outside the perimeter of a major Iraqi military installation.

Marines with the 26th MEU's Task Force Spartan position their M777A2 howitzer at the Kara Soar Counter Fire Complex, Iraq.

Photo Credit: Staff Sgt. Peter Berardi/Marine Corps

The team that remained on station was comprised of Marines and sailors with the of the MEU's command element, Battalion Landing Team 2/6 and Combat Logistics Battalion 26, according to Capt. Lindsay Pitrek, MEU spokeswoman. The task force y provided fire support and counter-battery fires for Iraqi security forces and coalition ground operations in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military's fight against ISIS. When the MEU left the region in April at the end of its deployment, commanders there Task force officials deemed the artillery support to be too valuable to lose at that point. when it came time for the 26th MEU to pop smoke. The rest of the 26th MEU, which deployed in November, returned home on May 1.

The 26th MEU deployed aboard the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge, amphibious transport dock Arlington, . out of Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, and the dock landing ship Oak Hill in Octoberout of Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek/Fort Story. It marked the first deployment for Arlington, which was commissioned in April 2013. The eighth ship in the San Antonio class, Arlington is named in honor of the 184 victims who died when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon Sept. 11, 2001, as well as the first responders from Arlington County.

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