Cherry Point Marines return from 10-month deployment

Cherry Point Marines return from 10-month deployment
Harrier detachment part of 22nd MEU

Drew C. Wilson
Capt. Michael Murphy, a Harrier pilot with VMA-231, bends down to talk to daughter Elliot, 5, while walking hand in hand with daughter Annabel, 4, and wife JoAnne Murphy, of New Bern Thursday after Murphy returned from 10-month deployment.

Drew C. Wilson
Havelock News
Some call them heroes, the men who pilot jet fighters in far off lands, protecting the United States and its allies from harm.

They see it a little differently.

“I think the heroes out of the whole group were the families that had to keep on pushing for 10 months with their spouses being gone,” said Maj. Michael P. Murphy, an AV-8B Harrier pilot who returned to Cherry Point Thursday after a 10-month deployment with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.

The return of the six Harriers attached to Marine Attack Squadron 231 Thursday was just the beginning of homecomings at Camp Lejeune, New River and Cherry Point as the 2,200 Marines and sailors completed the longest sea deployment for a MEU since 1973. The typical MEU deployment is about six months.

“It was four months longer than most people were ready for, but we did it,” Murphy said. “I think everyone’s proud that we were able to make it happen.”

The 22nd MEU deployed about three months early on March 29 as tensions increased in Libya and the Middle East.
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