Exercise African Lion 2011 enters final days

Photo By Sgt. Zaid Dannsa | Maj. Gen. Darrell L. Moore, Director, Reserve Affairs, speaks with Marines on a visit here May 30 during the equipment wash-down portion of exercise African Lion 2011. African Lion is an annually scheduled bilateral exercise between the Kingdom of Morocco and the U.S. that involves more than 2,000 U.S. service members and approximately 900 members of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces.  

AGADIR, MOROCCO

05.30.2011

Story by Capt. Choli Ence 

U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa     

AGADIR, Morocco – U.S. and Royal Moroccan Armed Forces service members are bringing to a close another successful African Lion exercise, as the individual training areas throughout Morocco complete their final training events.

African Lion is an annually scheduled, bilateral U.S. and Moroccan exercise. This year’s exercise is the largest to date in the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility and is designed to promote interoperability and mutual understanding of each nation’s military tactics, technique and procedures.

This year more than 2,000 U.S. service members from every branch of the military, to include both active and reserve components, worked alongside more than 900 members of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces to successfully plan and execute this exercise.

Sgt. Maj. Mark Davis, sergeant major for Task Force African Lion, attributed the success of this year’s exercise to the hard work of both the Marines and “our partners.” He added that although the command structure was Marine centric, all of the different branches worked together to accomplish the trainings and humanitarian civic assistance projects during the exercise.

Maj. Arthur Czapka, operations officer for Task Force African Lion, stated that the “level of Moroccan interaction was higher than in previous African Lion exercises.” Service members participating in the exercise, “effected change at a level far beyond if they had only gone to a stateside exercise,” Czpaka said.

During exercise African Lion the Humanitarian and Civic Assistance personnel provided medical and dental services to more than 4,500 local civilians, and veterinarian services to more than 3,500 domesticated animals; the aerial transportation training unit transported more than 200 personnel and 62,800 pounds of cargo, and flew more than 100 flight hours; the Peacekeeping Operations personnel conducted non-lethal weapons training where more than 100 U.S. and Royal Moroccans Armed Forces service members received electronic shocks from a TASER® and wipes with Oleoresin Capsicum spray their eyes; and during the field training exercises more than 100,000 rounds of 5.56mm, 46,000 rounds of 7.62mm, and 25,000 rounds of .50 caliber rounds were expended on live-fire training ranges.

• Date Taken: 05.30.2011
• Date Posted: 06.02.2011 13:11
• Story ID: 71486
• Location: AGADIR, MA