Home » Home » Palm Bay Native Lance Cpl. Paloma Mendez Completes Two Deployments in Indo-Pacific Region

Palm Bay Native Lance Cpl. Paloma Mendez Completes Two Deployments in Indo-Pacific Region

By  //  June 23, 2018

held the unit colors during a change of command ceremony at Camp Hansen, Okinawa, Japan

Palm Bay native Lance Cpl. Paloma Mendez, an administrative clerk with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, holds the unit colors during a change of command ceremony at Camp Hansen, Okinawa, Japan, on June 13. (U.S. Marine Corps image by Gunnery Sgt. T.T. Parish)

OKINAWA, JAPAN – Palm Bay, Florida, native Lance Cpl. Paloma Mendez, an administrative clerk with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, held the unit colors during a change of command ceremony at Camp Hansen, Okinawa, Japan, on June 13.

Mendez is a 2016 graduate of Bayside High School in Brevard County and enlisted through Recruiting Station Tampa in January 2017. She has completed two deployments in the Indo-Pacific region aboard ship and is slated for another later this year.

Colonel Robert Brodie, the newly appointed commander of the 31st MEU, took command from Col. Tye R. Wallace during the change of command ceremony. Brodie assumed command after recently serving at 1st Air Force, 601st Air Operations Center.

Wallace, a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, led the 31st MEU through four deployments during his tenure, including the historic operational MEU deployment featuring the F-35B Lightning II fighter jet earlier in 2018.

The 31st MEU, the Marine Corps’ only continuously forward-deployed MEU, provides a flexible force ready to perform a wide-range of military operations.

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