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'Only the MEU can conduct this operation': Expert explains importance of Marine Expeditionary Unit

On March 15, 2026, The Jerusalem Post published 'Only the MEU can conduct this operation': Expert explains importance of Marine Expeditionary Unit, by Danielle Greyman-Kennard. A Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, is a Marine force that travels on Navy ships and can move troops from ship to shore. The Post says the 31st MEU, about 2,200 Marines, was sent toward the Middle East. An American family should care because ship-to-shore is how Marines put people on a coast.

Background for new readers: On 28 February 2026 the United States and Israel began a joint air war on Iran. The Pentagon calls its part Operation Epic Fury; Israel calls its part Operation Roaring Lion. It came eight months after a shorter war in June 2025, when US bombers hit Iran's nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The question running through this section is whether the air war turns into American soldiers fighting on Iranian soil. This article is filed under Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid; the full article index lists every article on this shelf.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. The unit, its size, and its ship-to-shore role are reported by The Jerusalem Post, citing ABC News. The reading that it could secure landing places on Iranian soil is military historian Lynette Nusbacher's, quoted by name.

What the article says​

Jonathan Hackett, a US Marine Corps veteran, told the Post on March 15, 2026, that only the 31st MEU is capable of the size, scope, and scale of amphibious operations he said were expected against Iran's regime. His words, as the Post prints them: "Only the MEU can conduct this type of operation." He said no other US unit is specifically organized to launch ship-to-shore deployments of this size. The Post says the United States dispatched the unit with about 2,200 Marines on three Navy amphibious ships, citing ABC News from that Friday. Hackett said it can launch a battalion landing team of up to 550 Marines, with its own air and logistics support from ship to shore, and that it can seize and hold gas and oil platforms.

The Post reports ABC News this way: the deployment does not indicate that the Marines will be involved in any potential ground combat operations in Iran. They may instead be positioned to add air, land, and sea forces in the region.

Military historian Lynette Nusbacher told the Post that the MEU is built to put a battle group of Marines onto land, but that taking it from Asia would take days and would signal weakness to North Korea and China. She said information was limited, and that a landing was possible.

this Marine unit could be on its way to secure landing places for an air-delivered infantry brigade as part of a phased joint operation on Iranian soil.

Lynette Nusbacher, as quoted by The Jerusalem Post, March 15, 2026.

She said such a move could deny Iranian forces ground they might use to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea lane beside Iran. She said it could be the start of boots on the ground, which would be a major step up from a war fought from the air. She also said air power alone is very unlikely to overthrow a regime. She said US aims had varied, including support for protesters overthrowing the regime, and that putting Marines to that task would take a corps or larger, many divisions, much bigger than this MEU. She said that without a very large-scale mobilization of US forces, including reserve and National Guard forces, the United States would be unlikely to have enough boots on the ground to overthrow the Iranian regime.

The National Guard is the part-time military force based in the states. The reserves are part-time federal forces. Selective Service is the separate US list of young men who must register for a possible draft. She was describing what she thinks a regime-change war would require.

Asked if the deployment was a message to the regime, she said it was "tantalizing but highly speculative." She said that in her view the United States had never had clear goals for the mission. She said her assessment was that Trump thought the operation would be finished quickly, with a new government in charge, and that the Iranian regime was largely still in place. She said the mission that remained, in her view, was opening the Strait of Hormuz.

The Post says these capabilities were being deployed after Iran cut access to the Strait of Hormuz, and that the passage had been effectively closed to most of the world's shipping since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. It says Trump had threatened more strikes on Kharg Island, which the article calls Iran's main oil export hub.

The byline is Danielle Greyman-Kennard. The Post says Jerusalem Post Staff, Reuters, and Goldie Katz contributed.

What other reporting adds​

The same unit, from other angles. An X account summarizing Israel's Channel 14 on 16 March wrote that the station "reports that the United States is planning potential ground operations," and that the 31st MEU, "around 2,200 troops based in Japan, has been deployed to the Middle East" (research capture: twitter/t51__v612.md). Representative Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, described the likely job as an island: "I believe that what these 2,500 Marines would be is to secure the island. The island is not, in my opinion, boots on the ground in combat circumstances. It's not like inside Iran in the cities." (as rendered on Threads, 17 March 2026; research captures: twitter/t52__v613.md, twitter/t52__v616.md).

Nusbacher's mobilization point, tested. Two things in the research captures speak to her claim that a regime-change war would need reserves and the National Guard. First, the commander of the Marine Corps Reserve, Lieutenant General Leonard F. Anderson IV, wrote to his Marines in a letter dated 26 March 2026, eleven days after this article, that "A mass mobilization could become reality." X's chatbot Grok, asked about the letter, said it "is real." Grok also called it "Not full active-duty call-up yet." (posts by @jackimaniel and @grok, 28 March 2026; the letter itself was not opened; research capture: twitter/t54__v637.md). Second, the analyst behind the Policy Tensor newsletter ran the numbers on 18 March and concluded: "The US cannot occupy Iran even with a draft." (Policy Tensor on X; research capture: twitter/t54__v638.md). Both show that the question of reserves and a draft was being asked in March 2026.

What it shows​

The Jerusalem Post laid out the ladder this section documents, eleven days before the Marine Reserve's commander warned that "A mass mobilization could become reality." First, a Marine unit built to put troops ashore sails toward Iran; a Marine veteran says "Only the MEU can conduct this type of operation." Next, in Nusbacher's words, it "could be on its way to secure landing places for an air-delivered infantry brigade as part of a phased joint operation on Iranian soil."

Last, a war for regime change would need a corps or more, which she said the United States would be unlikely to field without a very large-scale mobilization of reserve and National Guard forces. That last step is where the troop math meets the draft. See Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid, The Buildup, and Reserves, the Guard, and the Road to a Draft.

Check it yourself​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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