The Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) is best known as enabling force designed in size and strength to seize airfields and ports for follow-on forces that will transplace from far off distances. The most noted capability of the MEU is the Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO). To any of these ends, the MEU, a sea-based force, stands poised ready to respond to NCA tasking. Yet, in times of regional crises when military operations other than war (MOOTW) seems to be the action du jour, is the MEU not capable of more. This paper presents, through analysis of the Somalia case study, how a MEU can be employed at the operational level of war, specifically in MOOTW. Selected aspects of military art are analyzed. More specifically, the NEU is discussed in terms of operational objective, operational task, operational maneuver, operational reach, and operational isolation. The MEU, traditionally recognized as a tactical unit, is able to transcend the tactical, operational, and even the strategic levels of war. In the final analysis, the MEU, a force of tactical means, is capable of operational consequence. (AN).


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