USS Boxer group deploys

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – The amphibious ready group led by the USS Boxer left
San Diego Friday on its way to the Western Pacific and Middle East.

The group includes the 847-foot-long amphibious assault ship USS Boxer,
684-foot amphibious transport dock USS New Orleans and the 610-foot amphibious
dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry.

Around 2,400 Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit based at
Camp Pendleton are aboard the vessels.

According to the Navy, the group will focus on maritime and theater
security. The sailors and Marines will be available for any needed amphibious
assault and Special Forces operations, humanitarian missions and non-combatant
operations, the Navy reported.

Capt. Malcolm Potts, the commander of Amphibious Squadron 1 and the
Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, told NBC7/39 that the Navy and Marine Corps are
“excited to come together as a great team” that will “work very hard to do
the business of our nation and see that our national interests are taken care
of very well.”

The USS Boxer is the sixth Navy vessel bearing the Boxer name. The
original was His Majesty's Brig Boxer belonging to Great Britain. It was
captured off the coast of Maine in 1813, during the war of 1812.

The USS Harpers Ferry is named after a raid by abolitionist John Brown
on an arsenal in 1859 in the run up to the Civil War. Many of the raiders were
killed, and Brown was convicted and hanged.