MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT, San Diego -- For more than 235 years, the Marine Corps has defined itself by its ability to adapt and overcome complex and difficult situations. For a large part of that history, the main mission of the Corps has been outlined by the National Security Act of 1947 as “the seizure or defense of advanced naval bases and other land operations to support naval campaigns.”
Pacific Horizon 2011, a brigade level crisis response training exercise consisting of the Navy/ Marine Corps team took place March 3- 8 at Red Beach on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif. The operation was a joint effort between elements of I Marine Expeditionary Force and the Navy’s Expeditionary Strike Force 3.
“The goal of the exercise is to make sure that our Marines are operationally ready,” said Maj. Gen. Melvin Spiese, deputy commanding general of I Marine Expeditionary Force and the commanding general of I Marine Expeditionary Brigade for the exercise. “We are refocusing after eight years of extensive operations ashore.”
The exercise was designed to test and refine the Marine Corps and Navy’s readiness of the Maritime Prepositioning Force, a strategy used by the Marine Corps in conjunction with the Navy to have gear, vehicles and supplies ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.
The objective of MPF is to be able to strategically position tactical and humanitarian equipment around the world, explained Capt. Jack Long, beach operations group officer in charge, Combat Logistics Battalion 15, Combat Logistics Group 17, 1st Marine Logistics Group. Maritime Propositioning Force ensures the Marines and their gear can be on site within days. This allows successful response times to be measured in days and weeks instead of months.
From Spiese’s perspective, exercises like this have evolved greatly since the inception of the MPF strategy more than 25 years ago.
“It may look like we’re just rolling tanks off of flatboats and going into the fight, but before that can happen, we have to get that tank across the world,” said Spiese. “Maritime Propositioning Force combines the economy and volume of naval transport with the speed and effectiveness of airlift to pair Marines and their tools.”
According to Sgt. Austin Brown, landing support specialist for CLB-15, CLR-17, 1st MLG, the operation tested the tactical capability of more than 4,800 personnel in the off-loading, inventory, tactical use, and reloading of more than 200 vehicles, supplies and supporting troops.
“It took just over 48 hours to unload and inventory all the gear,” said Brown. “We use radio frequency identification tags to keep 100 percent eyes-on of every piece of equipment.”
Once the gear was ashore, the force responded to a simulated humanitarian crisis.
“An exercise like this tests our ability to respond to any kind of situation,” said Long. “This exercise was designed as humanitarian aid, but we could, just as easily, have rolled right into combat from here.”
The operation went smoothly for the most part, according to Spiese. There were a couple issues, but they were mostly mechanical in nature.
“The friction is a good thing here,” said Spiese. “We are looking for the learning that still needs to be done. When the problems arise in this setting, we have the opportunity to fix it the right way. I would much rather throw a Marine at the problem than extra time or money.”
Pacific Horizon 2011 has made left Marines Corps better prepared, better organized and more resilient. The lessons learned from this exercise have given invaluable insight and practicable knowledge into the procedures and skills they will need should an actual response be necessary.
“Maritime Propositioning Force essentially defines the Marine Corps,” said Spiese. “We have taken another step in our ability to effectively come together with the Navy, as well as learn something about ourselves. Pacific Horizon was executed to exercise and test our core competencies as Marines, and once again, we have performed superbly.”