RIMPAC partners conduct Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation training

Photo By Staff Sgt. Erik Estrada | Lance Cpl. Caleb Coulom, an infantryman with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, loads a magazine prior to providing security during Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation training as part of the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise 2014. Twenty-two nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, about 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 26 to Aug. 1 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. As world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2014 is the 24th exercise in the series that began in 1971. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Erik Estrada/Released)  

KAHUKU, HI, UNITED STATES

07.28.2014

Story by Cpl. Erik Estrada 

U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific

KAHUKU TRAINING AREA, Hawaii – U.S. Marines along with Canadian, Republic of Korea, Indonesia and New Zealand service members were inserted by CH53E Super Stallion helicopters to train for a Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO), July 27, during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise 2014.

When citizens of a foreign nation are in danger due to turmoil in the host nation which they are in, NEOs may be conducted to evacuate those people to a safer location. In some cases, certain host-nation citizens and third country nationals may also be evacuated.

In a real-time NEO, the ambassador at the embassy would hold the highest power and be responsible for the success of the mission. He is also the person who holds responsibility of requesting that the evacuation be done.

“This training continues to embody the idea of RIMPAC,” said Capt. Ryan Tannehill, a Fire Power Control leader with 5th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company. “We have several of our partners from the Pacific training all together.”

For the exercise portion done at KTA, platoons from every country for merged together to learn from each other and see the way they would handle the situation in which they were presented.

“It’s really good, we get to see how we conduct things and how the other countries handle these situations,” said Tannehill. “In reality if we’re evacuating our citizens from a country, other countries would most likely be doing the same.”

It is important that countries do training exercises with these scenarios due to the rise of attacks on embassies abroad. Most recently U.S. Marines had to evacuate more than 150 Americans from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya.

Twenty-two nations, more than 40 ships and submarines, about 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC from June 26 to Aug. 1 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California. As world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain the cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2014 is the 24th exercise in the series that began in 1971.

• Date Taken: 07.28.2014
• Date Posted: 07.31.2014 18:39
• Story ID: 137930
• Location: KAHUKU, HI, US