A Marine went missing from the USS Anchorage during integrated training off the Southern California coast, and the Navy has shifted from a search operation to a recovery mission.
The Marine was aboard the Anchorage as part of exercises with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Pendleton, and the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group. The search began Thursday before Navy officials declared it a recovery operation Friday.
Three surface ships and 12 aircraft from the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Air Force took part — covering roughly 2,400 square miles of open water.
Still no name. The Marine’s identity was being withheld pending family notification, the Navy said.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and all who are affected during this difficult time,” the Navy said in a news release this week.
The USS Anchorage is an amphibious transport dock ship homeported at Naval Base San Diego. Its crew and embarked Marines were conducting what the service describes as integrated training — the kind of at-sea rehearsal that precedes deployments and involves multiple units operating together.
The disappearance is at least the second time in six weeks that the U.S. military has had to launch a search for a missing service member. In May, the Army recovered the remains of the second of two soldiers who vanished during training exercises in Morocco, closing out a multinational operation that drew on air, naval and artificial intelligence assets.
No cause for the Marine’s disappearance has been given, and the Navy hasn’t said whether the service member was last seen on deck, in the water, or elsewhere aboard the ship.
