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The top U.S. general responsible for all American servicemembers in the Middle East conducted a site visit at the Joint Training Center located just outside Amman, Jordan, during Exercise Eager Lion 2016, May 22.
U.S. Army General Joseph L. Votel, commander, U.S. Central Command, visited with coalition forces with the Eager Lion Combined Joint Task Force led by Jordanian Armed Forces Brig. Gen. Majed Al-Zuhair, and U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Carl E. Mundy III, also the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade commanding general, out of Naval Support Activity, Bahrain.
“Eager Lion is a great opportunity to work together in a training environment to develop and build up and strengthen coalition efforts,” Votel said. “What I liked most was seeing the integration of U.S. and Jordanian forces – officers and NCOs, working side by side – solving tactical and operation problems together.”
Eager Lion 16, one of U.S. Central Command’s premiere exercises, in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, About 3,000 U.S. military personnel – representing USCENTCOM headquarters and its components – are currently supporting the exercise, mirrored by an equal number of soldiers with the Jordanian Armed Forces.
Votel was given a tour of the CFLCC headquarters by Mundy and his staff, where he witnessed a staff of more than 300 U.S. and Jordanian servicemembers working in the Deployable Joint Command and Control center. Also called the DJC2, the massive, portable networking system provides Al-Zuhair and Mundy the capability to govern the operators in the field via a fully, functional command operations center.
“As Eager Lion provides a great opportunity for Marines and Sailors from 5th MEB and Commander Task Force - Five One to work with our Jordanian partners, it also an opportunity for 5th MEB and Marine Forces Central Command to let the CENTCOM commander know that he has a Combined Joint Task Force that is manned and equipped to deploy in the ‘Area of Responsibility,’” said U.S. Marine Corps Maj. David Denial, a 5th MEB operations officer. “General Votel was able to see 5th MEB and CTF-51 Marines and Sailors in action and understand they are using the Deployable Joint Command Center (DJC2) and are ready to respond to a crisis when needed.”
Eager Lion 2016 consisted of a 10-day series of simulated scenarios to facilitate a coordinated partnered military response to conventional and unconventional threats. The scenarios developed will include border security, command and control, cyber defense and battle space management.
The exercise is slated to conclude May 24 with a combined live-fire exercise, during which two B-52 aircraft – out of Barksdale Air Force Base, La. – are scheduled to fly 14,000 miles round-trip to exercise air-intercept training with Jordanian fighter aircraft and conduct a live, conventional-weapons drop in coordination with U.S. and Jordanian mechanized armored vehicles, heavy artillery and ground forces.
“While there is not an official Joint Task Force certification process,” Denial added, “each service component is responsible to tell the CENTCOM commander that they can provide the core of a JTF ready to deploy – MARCENT and 5th MEB can now do that.”
| Date Taken: | 05.22.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 05.24.2016 05:40 |
| Story ID: | 198869 |
| Location: | AMMAN, JO |
| Web Views: | 171 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, CENTCOM top general visits 5th MEB at Eager Lion 2016, by MSgt William Price, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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