Photo By Sgt. William Hester | The deployable joint command and control system is used March 16-24 by the 3rd Marine...... read more read more
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USS BONHOMME RICHARD — Marines with III Marine Expeditionary Force conducted a certification exercise at sea in vicinity of Okinawa March 16-24.
The purpose of CERTEX is to evaluate the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit in multiple categories.
“During the exercise we evaluated the interoperability between the amphibious ready group and the MEU, the ability of the Marine Air Ground Task Force to integrate and employ its capabilities and the ability of the MEU as a MAGTF to demonstrate proficiency in its assigned mission,” said Col. John Armellino, the Chief of Staff with 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, III Marine Expeditionary Force.
This exercise simulated a crisis situation in the region where the brigade deployed to and set up command and control, according to Lt. Col. Rodney Legowski, the operations officer with the brigade. We replicated that here on Camp Courtney, Okinawa, Japan.
Marines with the brigade used a deployable joint command and control system to integrate with Expeditionary Strike Group 7, U.S. Seventh Fleet’s principal amphibious capability.
“The DJC2 system is a Pacific Command asset and a command and control suite that can be scalable and tailor able to meet any mission requirements,” said Legowski.
The system is designed to provide a command and control center that offers an opportunity to operate as a joint effort with different branches.
“We integrated with Expeditionary Strike Group 7, in order to command and control with the naval force,” said Legowski, a Toledo, Ohio, native.
The 31st MEU conducted missions at sea commanded by naval forces, and ashore commanded by 3rd MEB.
“What’s different about this CERTEX is that the 31st MEU is being evaluated on its ability to perform their missions, but also on other capabilities within the Pacific Command that either augment or relieve the MEU for follow on missions,” said Armellino, a Newark, New Jersey, native.
This factor gave the MEU two different bosses to take orders from.
After notionally arriving in Korea, the MEU performed an embassy reinforcement, commanded by the MEB, and was relieved by a Fleet Anti-terrorism Support Team provided by 7th Fleet.
“Crisis response is a MEF effort,” said Legowski. “The 31st MEU embarked in the crisis area and the MEF had to figure out how to integrate them with other assets.”
The MEU conducted two of the missions during the exercise at sea under a naval command that had brigade representatives aboard.
“We’re getting a lot out of the MEU CERTEX by having the MEB and ESG-7 integrated,” said Legowski. “Hopefully other MEUs can take away from this because this is the way of the future.”
| Date Taken: | 03.21.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.02.2015 10:25 |
| Story ID: | 158933 |
| Location: | OKINAWA, JP |
| Web Views: | 123 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Marines Showcase Integration Capabilities through Crisis Readiness, by Sgt William Hester, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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