The Newport Rotary Club Program for January 26, 2009 was presented by Lt. Col. Robert D. Curtis of the VMU-2 Night Owls UAV Squadron.
The Night Owls are one of two squadrons flying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the Marine Corps. As a result, the squadron is the most deployed in the Corps, being forward deployed 7 months for every 5 month stateside.
Lt. Col. Curtis told the group of his four deployments, three in Iraq and one in forward staging offshore the Africa coast with the 2nd MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit). The Iraq deployments showed an amazing progress over the time he was there. He was on the ground in Bagdad and Tikrit, flew Helicopters the second deployment, and oversaw UAVs in his most recent deployment. He supported humanitarian efforts in Kenya during his MEU deployment.
It was during this last deployment that he related a significant change in the social and political environment in Iraq. The US strategy of developing the people's trust has slowly worked, and they now want to control their own destiny. The Marine Corps is working toward that goal by supporting Iraqi border protection and development of their police force and military. He commended the maturity and patriotism of the young Marines under his command.
1 comment:
I really enjoyed meeting you all last night and having dinner.
Thank you for the invitation.
LtCol R. D. "Sideshow" Curtis
Commanding Officer, VMU-2
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