TDG #2 - NEO in Africa (Noncombatant Evacuation Operation)
You must evacuate American personnel from an overseas embassy!
See: http://www.militaryspot.com/tdg.htm

You are the Battalion Commander of Battalion Landing Team 2/2, 24th MEUSOC (Marine Expeditionary Unit Special Operations Capable). Your battalion is currently deployed aboard the USS Wasp and three support ships, operating off the coast of eastern Africa near the impoverished country of Okagor.

A violent coup is taking place in Saboga (population 750,000), the capital city of Okagor. Intelligence indicates that anti-American rebels are beheading people in the streets and are closing in on the American Embassy, which sits on the bank of the Chapera river in downtown Saboga. The rebels are armed with machetes, AK-47s and RPGs.

Saboga is located about thirty kilometers inland on the Chapera River Delta. For your battalion, access to the city can be accomplished by a coastal landing (and a 30 kilometer land advance), by water up the Chapera River Delta, or by air.

The American Embassy is currently guarded by a small contingent of embassy Marines, however, a large and hostile crowd is gathering in soccer fields next to the embassy. (The soccer fields are the only open area in the general vicinity of the embassy.) To further complicate matters, rebels have blown craters in the city's only airfield and parked buses and other vehicles on the airfield, making evacuation by airplane impossible.

Your task is to reinforce the embassy as soon as possible and evacuate the thirty American personnel out of the country in the fastest and safest way possible. To accomplish your mission, you have the full range of military personnel and gear usually deployed with a MEUSOC.

The official solution to this TDG is very interesting and requires some "outside of the box" thinking.

Well, I'll take a shot at it although I'm Army and know zilch about the capabilities of a MEUSOC.

I'd do a beach landing spearheaded by some armor, figuring it would take a couple of hours to make that 30k trip if we don't have to fight our way into the city. No idea how much armor would be available or what type of troop transports they would have or how many.

I'd use air assets to protect the land force and supress hostile attempts on the embassy.

At the same time I'd send some LCAC's loaded with as many AAV's as they could hold up the river. I guess that would be about 30k too. The LCAC's are pretty fast so they might get to the landing point 3k south of the embassy about the same time as the land force enters the city. it probably wouldn't hurt if they got there first actually, since three AAV's could have 75 Marines, I think.

The land force would take their minds off the embassy for awhile and would be strong enough to defeat hostile activity. Their primary mission would be to contain the hostile crowd on the soccer field.

Land the AAV's and use the Marines to secure the embassy. The embassy personel would be loaded onto a couple of AAV's while the empty AAV's would escort them back to the LCAC's which would take them to safety.

Then I'd send the AAV's back to the embassy where they would act as an armored group to provide further security for the embassy defenders.

Hopefully this would work because the hostiles now have a two front op.

This scheme will probably be iron-clad proof that Army Grunts should not be running an MEUSOC!

Not that we wouldn't be crazy enough to try.

Probably take a Marine to come up with the best sceanario. I'm giving you Jarheads your props so y'all won't laugh too hard.

So what's the solution TOW? Enough suspense already...