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MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII – The inaugural U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific-hosted U.S. Pacific Command Amphibious Leaders Symposium 2015 (PALS-15) concluded with the gathering of representatives from 23 partners and nations around the Pacific, May 20, at the Officer’s Club aboard Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
PALS-15 is designed to gather senior leaders of designated allied and partner Marine Corps, naval infantries and militaries with developing amphibious capabilities to have a meaningful dialogue and demonstrate key aspects of amphibious operations, capability development and interoperability.
During the three-day exercise, senior leaders shared their intent and ideas to provide a better understanding of their own amphibious capabilities and to set goals in areas their respective nations can improve.
“PALS is the first step in a regular dialogue that we can establish, but I’m looking for anyone who comes up with an idea that takes the next step toward honing amphibious capability development,” said MARFORPAC Commander Lt. Gen. John A. Toolan. “I want us to have an idea as to where we go next.”
The representatives observed an amphibious landing on Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, where observing partner nations saw how both the Marine Corps and Navy coordinated together to conduct an amphibious assault using three Navy ships: the USS Essex, USS Anchorage and USS Rushmore.
The three ships featured aircraft, such as MV-22 Ospreys and Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters, as well as amphibious vehicles including two Landing Craft Air Cushion hovercrafts and two deployments of Amphibious Assault Vehicles.
“PALS is a forum where we can learn how to do this better and how to be more effective and more interoperable in what we do,” said Royal New Zealand Navy Cmdr. Andrew Law, a team leader for amphibious capability development with the Headquarters New Zealand Defence Force. “Regardless of the scale of your capability, the problems and issues (we face) are common.”
Toolan highlighted the services’ flexibility of amphibious forces during the event, saying that “nobody is perfect. But that’s why you have backup plans in case something goes wrong, and these guys demonstrated that today.”
The MARFORPAC commander also spoke of three other “ships:” leadership, partnership and friendship. Toolan said he hopes to extend the exercise to different host nations and rotate countries to lead PALS each year.
“PALS is an opportunity,” said Philippine Navy Vice Adm. Alexander Lopez, Western Command Commander. “We’ve established an affinity among ourselves and we’re trying to develop ways to help each other in any crisis situation.”
| Date Taken: | 05.21.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 05.24.2015 22:37 |
| Story ID: | 164421 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 86 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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