 The MEU deployed again 25 October, only seven months after returning to Camp Pendleton.Following a scheduled exercise on Okinawa, 11–13 November, the MEU sailed to the Persian Gulf.During this period the MEU conducted a Maritime Interdiction Operation/Visit Board Search and Seizure (MIO/VBSS) mission aboard the Honduran-flagged merchant vessel Ajmer, which was in violation of United Nations sanctions on Iraq.