2nd Battalion, 4th Marines reported to have been killed in a helicopter crash that occurred northwest of Baghdad. He was actually killed by a suicide bomber at a checkpoint. From January to July 2008, 2/4 deployed to Okinawa, Japan, as the Battalion Landing Team for the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. BLT 2/4 spent time in the Philippines for Balikatan 2008, while Fox Company conducted training exercises in Indonesia. In May 2008, the 31st MEU supported Operation Response off the coast of Burma, due to the Cyclone Nargis making landfall in the Irrawaddy Delta. BLT 2/4 deployed in September 2009 as the Battalion Landing Team
2008 Yemen cyclone 2008 Yemen cyclone In October 2008, the remnants of a tropical cyclone caused extensive damage in Yemen, a poor country on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. The storm, officially known as Deep Depression ARB 02, was the sixth tropical cyclone of the 2008 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, and the second tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea that year. It formed on October 19 off the west coast of India from the same broader system that spawned a storm in the southern Indian Ocean. Moving generally westward, the depression failed to intensify much, reaching maximum sustained winds of