Photo By Sarah Zaler | Marines with 3rd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company depart their location with soldiers...... read more read more
WAINWRIGHT, Alberta – Amid seemingly endless rows of olive drab tents, two Marines took a much-deserved break outside their temporary home after a long week of training here May 19.
Cumulus clouds hung in the cornflower-blue sky over Camp Wainwright like giant tufts of crisp cotton – a welcomed change from the torrential downpours troops endured earlier in the week.
Relaxing in his physical fitness uniform, one Marine leaned on the bumper of a Humvee and chatted with the other, whose smile was as bright as the fresh sunburn covering his face.
The Marines with 3rd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, a reserve unit from Bell Gardens, California, just completed the first iteration of Maple Resolve 17 where they are sharpening individual skills, enhancing unit readiness and gaining invaluable experience in interoperability.
Maple Resolve 17 is the Canadian Army’s premier brigade-level validation exercise taking place 14-29 May at Camp Wainwright. As part of the exercise, the U.S. military is providing a wide array of combat and support elements, including sustainment, psychological operations, aviation and medical units.
ANGLICO units have a unique mission because they are organized to liaison with different branches of the U.S. and foreign militaries in the planning, coordination, and execution of artillery operations in support of joint, allied and special operations forces.
Marine Staff Sgt. Yen Liu’s sunburnt face illustrates the effects of five days in the field. The Supporting Arms Liaison Team F chief from Los Angeles led his team on a mission to provide call for fire support with Idaho National Guard’s 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team and 2 Royal Canadian Regiment.
The Canadians have their own fire support teams and artillery, so Liu said the goal was integration and learning how to effectively operate with allied forces in case of future deployments or conflicts where they would have to work together.
“We have that familiarity and that understanding, which will allow us to be more operable together and more cohesive as a fighting unit,” said Liu.
A second firepower control team from 3rd ANGLICO attached to 1 RCR, so both the Allied coalition force and the opposing force could simulate surface-to-surface fire support.
Marine Maj. Kyle Tannehill, the SALT F leader, said they would operate in a similar fashion when the second iteration kicks off after a two-day pause in the exercise, and he reinforced the benefits of participating in joint training.
“It’s a good opportunity to get out, work with a coalition force and learn their procedures,” said Tannehill, who calls San Diego home. “Their calls for fire or artillery are a little bit different. So that’s a good learning opportunity for us, understanding how other countries do it.”
The Marines faced some challenges during the exercise because they were with mechanized units, which isn’t normally a way ANGLICO operates. Most of their operations, like shooting lasers to get target data, can typically be done from a static observation post. Here, the Canadians used Light Armoured Vehicles, and the Americans used Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Abrams tanks during their missions. Because they don’t practice moving in mechanized units, Liu said it is a good learning opportunity for the Marines.
“For us here, it’s a little bit different because now we’re mounted and we’re mobile,” said Liu. “In addition to that, we’re doing mostly calls for fire of artillery in this exercise. Fortunately, it’s all notional, but at the same time we still have to utilize the proper formats, learn the Canadians’ formats, and integrate ourselves within the units we’re attached to.”
Due to the robust communications ability ANGLICO brings, they chose to follow their counterparts in Humvees so they wouldn’t be limited to the organic equipment of the LAVs. Tannehill said the Humvees were unable to keep up with the LAVs and the teams had to downsize the load to what was mission critical. It’s a lesson they’ve carried forward.
“It helps us in the future if we’re attached to another country that operates in a mechanized environment,” said Tannehill. “There’s a lot of understanding and learning that occurs in that sense.
The Marines also provided intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities for the unmanned aerial vehicle feeds. Liu said the Canadians have that capability but encountered some issues.
“One critical piece of the pie that we provided was our ability to capture the video downlink from the UAVs,” said Liu. “So basically whatever the UAVs were seeing, we were able to see.”
Liu said the unexpected role was important because it enabled the Canadians to get the information needed for reconnaissance, named areas of interest or possible targets to conduct calls for fire while out in the battle space.
Having deployed three times in his 14 years as a reservist, Liu is familiar with how exercises like Maple Resolve 17 employ the same skill sets needed on an overseas tour. He said the experience here is comparable to recent examples of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan where ANGLICO units attached to British or other foreign countries’ artillery support. Since they are designed to embed with the unit they are supporting, it is important to learn how to integrate and train with other forces.
On his most recent deployment to Afghanistan Liu served as the firepower control team chief with the Georgian liaison team, and he said the integration process included learning the Georgians’ techniques and their language. It also involved teaching the Georgian forces the benefits of properly utilized fire support assets instead of only engaging the enemy as an infantry unit.
“In a real deployment, that’s something you would do – is to find the place, the best fit for yourself – advise and assist as far as providing those fire support assets,” said Liu. “The fact that we can provide that fire support, that call for fire, while they’re being engaged in the battle space for this exercise, allowed them to not have to worry about coordinating and controlling the fires but more so engaging the enemies with their direct fire weapons or their organic weapon systems.”
Tannehill said joint training like Maple Resolve 17 is beneficial because anytime troops embed with another force they learn how their allies operate, how they live and how they fight wars. That experience strengthened the unit’s ability to provide fire support in the future.
“That’s ultimately what our mission is,” said Tannehill. “So, just having an understanding of how they fight a war enhances our ability to assist them.”
| Date Taken: | 05.20.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.20.2017 20:36 |
| Story ID: | 234606 |
| Location: | WAINWRIGHT, AB, CA |
| Hometown: | LOS ANGELES, CA, US |
| Hometown: | SAN DIEGO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 171 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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