Pentagon Sends Marines to Gulf as Oil Prices Top $100
Two weeks into the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, gas prices have surged past $3.60 a gallon, 13 service members are dead, and 2,200 Marines are steaming toward a nearly sealed Strait of Hormuz.
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At American gas stations and military family homes alike, the cost of war has become impossible to ignore. Two weeks after the United States and Israel struck Iran and killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Pentagon has ordered more than 2,200 Marines toward the Persian Gulf as oil prices climbed above $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022.
The surge in energy costs has hit American families hard. U.S. gasoline prices jumped from $2.94 to $3.63 per gallon since the war began Feb. 28, while diesel climbed more than $1.20 per gallon — increases that pile fresh inflationary pressure onto household budgets just months before the midterm elections.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved the deployment of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli. The warship departed Okinawa alongside the guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls, the amphibious transport dock USS New Orleans, and the guided-missile destroyer USS Rafael Peralta.
The fleet carries F-35B fighter jets, MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor transports, and AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters — an aircraft mix that signals potential amphibious or ground operations in the region.
Those capabilities may be badly needed. The Strait of Hormuz has effectively closed since hostilities began, with daily transits collapsing from an average of 138 ships to no more than five per day, according to maritime monitoring data. At least 16 to 18 commercial vessels have been attacked in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, strangling one of the world's most critical energy choke points.
Americans have already paid in blood. Thirteen U.S. service members have been confirmed dead — among them six killed in a March 12 KC-135 crash in Iraq, and six Army reservists struck by a drone attack on Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, on March 1. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said about 140 service members have been wounded, including eight severely.
The scale of the supply shock prompted the International Energy Agency to announce a record 400 million barrel emergency oil release on March 11. The largest release in the agency's history will draw from IEA member stockpiles, with the U.S. contributing 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
At current global supply shortfall rates of 15 to 20 million barrels daily, that reserve would be absorbed in approximately 26 days.
Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed on March 12 that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed as "a tool of pressure and lever that must continue to be used." His first statement in the role came as the conflict escalated on multiple fronts.
Hegseth offered a blunter assessment at a March 13 Pentagon briefing. "Iran's leadership is in no better shape. Desperate and hiding, they've gone underground, cowering. That's what rats do," he said. He added that U.S. forces are "shooting down and destroying what missiles they still have in stock" while targeting Iran's capacity to manufacture more. On the strait itself, Hegseth was direct: "The only thing prohibiting traffic in the strait at the moment is Iran shooting at shipping. We will not allow the strait to remain contested."
President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on March 13 that the U.S. had struck Kharg Island, Iran's largest oil export terminal; the Pentagon described the targets more broadly as military sites. "We are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise," Trump wrote. The U.S. military says more than 6,000 Iranian targets have been struck as of March 13, including more than 60 ships and 30 minelayers.
Back home, the price at the pump is reshaping the political landscape. David McLennan, director of the Meredith Poll, said the electoral arithmetic is unsparing: "Whether people walk into the grocery store or stop to fill up their car, they just see prices higher than they're used to and they blame politicians. The politicians that are in charge are Republicans, so they'll blame Republicans."
The 31st MEU is expected to reach the Strait of Hormuz area within 10 to 15 days. The Pentagon said it expects U.S. forces to continue degrading Iran's ability to project power throughout the voyage. For the families of those already lost — and for drivers staring at a $3.63 pump price with no end in sight — every one of those days will count.