Photo By Cpl. Joseph Karwick | Brig. Gen. David Coffman, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces South, speaks about...... read more read more
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PRICE BARRACKS, Belize – Phase II of exercise Tradewinds 2015, which began June 15, ended with a closing ceremony involving 14 participating nations here June 24, 2015.
The exercise was hosted by the Belize Defence Force to expand each nation’s ability to plan and execute multinational operations, counter transnational organized crime and provide better regional security throughout the Caribbean and Central America.
The participating nations included Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Multiple U.S. military organizations supported TW 15, to include U.S. Southern Command, U.S. Marine Corps Forces South, Marine Forces Reserve, the Louisiana National Guard, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
“TW 15 is a U.S. Southern Command sponsored exercise with the partner nations in the Caribbean,” said Lt. Col David Hudak, commanding officer of Special Purpose-Marine Air Ground Task Force, SOUTHCOM. “It’s a three part exercise with phase I being more of a planning exercise for humanitarian and disaster relief, phase II is a field training exercise with different training tracks ranging from maritime and dive, marksmanship, law enforcement and riverine training, and phase III is a key leaders after action that we use to see what worked what didn’t work and decide what we can do better next time.”
The training was organized into focus areas such as human rights awareness, command and control, marksmanship, jungle warfare, military support to law enforcement, riverine training and maritime and dive skills. Each training track taught their students the basics in that subject, practiced executing in that field and conducted a culminating exercise to reinforce what the students learned and give them a chance to test their new skills.
“It’s important for the partner nations to work together because in today’s environment no country does it alone,” said Hudak. “The countries face similar challenges and if they are working together the better they can be in combating those challenges and the major challenges in this region are the trafficking of drugs weapons and human trafficking.”
With phase II of TW 15 conducted in Belize, the BDF has had the opportunity to put the most soldiers through the different training tracks.
“The BDF is most beneficial because we have the opportunity to put the most soldiers in this training and in the event of needed to deploy we have the most troops with this training,” said General David Jones, commanding general of the Belize Defence Force. “Also with phase II of TW 15 being conducted here, we have the ability to show the partner nations what we in the BDF do really well, and that is jungle warfare, we have the jungle warfare training center here in Belize, our instructors are excellent and our end game is to have more partner nations come here and participate in our jungle training exercises.”
With so many training tracks conducted at once, the U.S. Marine Corps helped by providing their logistical prowess.
“This is a SOUTHCOM sponsored exercise,” said Hudak. “The SPMAGTF-SC has provided the logistical backbone, in assistance to the BDF, to ensure that all the training tracks were able to successfully operate during phase II of TW 15. We also bring with us several unique capabilities such as engineers, aviation capabilities, military information support operations and much more.”
Upon completion of the tracks, it was evident the training was paying off, with each partner nation ready for more, ready to learn and eager to participate.
“I recently came from doing special duties, and I have only been in the military for a little over a year, it is something I always wanted to do,” said Pvt. Victor Adana, infantryman with the BDF. “My favorite part was the close quarters battle training. A lot of it I had done before but never with so many other countries. In the beginning we all had so many ways of doing things and as the training went on we all seemed to adapt to one universal way, and that is something I’ll never forget.”
Warrant Officer Terry Curtis with the 2nd Royal Canadian Regiment was one of the CQB instructors during TW 15. He stated that each country is going to take a lot from the amount of training that has been done from day one to day four. There are a few things that the partner nations already knew, and that they were fine tuning their skills so they could all be on the same level.
“There are always more things to learn,” said Jones. “Global threats always increase in their complexity, and being selfish I wish we could do TW in Belize again, but that is not the way it works. It will happen again in another country, and the BDF will be happy to attend to learn even more.”
While in Belize the partner nations worked together to better understand each other’s roles and procedures elevating the level of understanding between the countries. TW 15 is a combined, joint U.S. Southern Command-sponsored exercise and an opportunity for the participating partner nations to come together to enhance regional security.
| Date Taken: | 06.24.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 06.24.2015 18:38 |
| Story ID: | 168000 |
| Location: | PRICE BARRACKS, BZ |
| Web Views: | 133 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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