NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain – Sergeant Jose Cabrera directed his squad over the deafening roar of the MV-22’s rotor wash as U.S. Marines exited the aircraft and advanced down the airfield. The Crisis Response Marines fell into formation alongside their Portuguese Marine allies, the Fuzileros, just to their left as they moved in to seize the objective.
U.S. Marines with Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response- Africa conducted airfield seizure operations alongside the Portuguese Marines as part of Operation Real Thaw in Seia, Portugal, Feb. 22, 2016.
“Real Thaw is a bilateral training exercise between the U.S. Marines and the Portuguese Marines, the Fuzileros,” said 1stLt. Ryan Rullman, a platoon commander with SPMAGTF-CR-AF. “We’re out here to establish relationships and increase our operating capabilities with our partner forces.”
The airfield seizure was just one part of the operation in which 200 personnel from the U.S. Air Force, Army and Marine Corps took part. This represents the largest U.S. participation in the exercise in the last five years.
During the training exercise, the U.S. and Portuguese Marines worked together to seize an airfield, first by clearing the runway and the surrounding area. Then once they successfully seized the objective, the Fuzileros were able to bring in a C-130 with additional personnel and equipment to reinforce their security posture.
“The Marines, we did very well,” said SSgt. Theodore Cothran, a platoon sergeant with SPMAGTF-CR-AF. “We rehearsed everything and everything went as planned. Some friction points came up but our Marines adapted very well to the situation and we were able to execute this mission very well.”
After the training mission, the Marines were able to interact with their Portuguese counterparts on a personal level. They compared weapons systems with the Fuzileros and shared stories of their different experiences in their respective Marine Corps’.
“Junior Marines definitely [gained] a lot of different cultural experiences out of it,” said Rullman. “They kind of adapt to working with language barriers and things like that, which just increases capabilities for our guys.”
“It was a great opportunity to work with the Portuguese Marines and I look forward to working with them in the future,” said Cothran.
U.S. Marines with SPMAGTF-CR-AF are continuously conducting bilateral training with partner nations to sustain and improve core mission essential tasks and build interoperability to prepare for real world operations on the African continent.
“We’re going to be operating as part of Special Purpose MAGTF in various countries and we’re going to be using our NATO allies in support of our operations,” said Rullman. “The more that we work with our partner forces, the more we can work out the kinks and establish standard operating procedures for when we actually conduct missions.”
| Date Taken: |
02.22.2016 |
| Date Posted: |
03.04.2016 09:31 |
| Story ID: |
191094 |
| Location: |
SEIA, PT |
| Web Views: |
172 |
| Downloads: |
0 |
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This work, US Marines partner with Portuguese Fuzileros for Operation Real Thaw, by GySgt Tia Nagle, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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