SAN DIEGO -- The Tarawa Expeditionary Strike Group leaves San Diego Monday for a six-month deployment to the western Pacific and Persian Gulf.

Aboard the three U.S. Navy warships -- the USS Tarawa, the USS Germantown and the USS Cleveland -- are more than 4,000 sailors and members of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Pendleton, said Navy deputy public affairs officer Dave Hosteler.

The ships also carry amphibious landing craft, helicopters and AV8B Harrier jump jets.

The Tarawa strike group last deployed in 2005, when sailors helped train the new Iraqi navy, protected Iraqi oil terminals and joined in a naval exercise called "Bright Star," Hosteler said.