Photo By Sgt. A. J. Van Fredenberg | I Marine Expeditionary Force conducted Joint Task Force Operational Capability...... read more read more
Subscribe
West Coast Marines and sailors successfully completed a joint exercise May 18 that provided the prerequisites to qualify as a joint task force headquarters.
I Marine Expeditionary Force participated in a joint task force operational capability assessment for the first time at Camp Pendleton, California and Yuma, Arizona, May 8-18, 2017.
The exercise took I MEF the a step closer to being certified as capable of forming a joint task force headquarters. A joint task force is a military unit that includes personnel from multiple military services under a designated commander from any service. In this particular exercise, I MEF provided their staff to lead.
“I MEF performed well throughout the OCA training progression,” said Col. Christian Wortman, operations officer, I MEF. “The Pacific Command commander will decide whether to certify the MEF as a JTF-capable headquarters, but the exercise assessment is I MEF performed at or above standard in all mission essential tasks.”
The exercise included approximately 600 military members from the U.S. Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force, and simulated the deployment of more than 40,000 U.S. forces to support a partner nation in combat operations against a peer competitor.
“The exercise was a tremendous opportunity to expose the MEF staff to wide-ranging joint capabilities and processes; to train and educate the staff to serve on a JTF staff and, while operating as a MEF, to better appreciate the considerations of our higher headquarters,” said Wortman.
“The initial planning started back in January 2016,” said Capt. Adrian Gutierrez, information management officer, I MEF, and the ground watch officer during OCA.
Gutierrez was in charge of tracking friendly and enemy force movement within the joint area of operations and assisted the senior watch officer with keeping the JTF commander informed.
“Throughout the OCA the I MEF staff was forced to serve at the operational level,” said Maj. Jacob Butz, training officer, I MEF, and the senior watch officer during OCA. “This level of command is above our normal tactical level of operational control. This provided us the opportunity to see exactly how an operational level headquarters operates, and it will ultimately assist us in future operations by allowing us to draw upon the experiences captured during the OCA.”
Butz was in charge of coordinating the watch officers in the joint operations center.
“The JOC maintains overall situational awareness for the JTF commander and actively tracks the commander’s information requirements,” said Butz.
“We will be able to deploy as a joint task force headquarters anywhere in the Pacific theater,” said Gutierrez.
Throughout the exercise many challenges were overcome as I MEF trained towards being a JTF qualified headquarters.
“Getting the right people to fill the joint manning document in a timely manner was one of the many struggles we faced,” Gutierrez said.
“The MEF staff was tested by operating at the operational level,” Butz said. “Instead of applying command and control of tactical units as we would as a Marine Air-Ground Task Force headquarters, we were more concerned with monitoring the overall operations occurring in the joint operational area. Our focus needed to shift to ensuring our component commanders were resourced appropriately, and we constantly had to remind ourselves to allow them to fight the tactical problem.”
”It is a great experience to be able to participate in an exercise of this magnitude,” said Gutierrez. “There are thousands of man hours that go into planning this type of event that many people are oblivious to, and it’s very gratifying to see everything come together with great success.”
| Date Taken: | 06.01.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.01.2017 15:58 |
| Story ID: | 236015 |
| Location: | CAMP PENDLETON, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 171 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, Marine unit takes steps toward leading joint forces, by Sgt A. J. Van Fredenberg, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT