GRAYLING, MICH. – “ATTENTION IN THE FiST!” The words ring out from a booming British voice within the observation post. It’s repeated by everyone within earshot. The British soldier begins to call out grid coordinates to the Marine fire support team (FiST), informing everyone that a mortar unit will be sending live munitions to targets down range.
Marines with the 1st Battalion 25th Marines, Ft. Devens, MA., are at Northern Strike as part of their annual training alongside Army, Navy, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard personnel, plus coalition partners from Britain, Poland, Canada, Latvia, and Lithuania. This exercise allows each service the opportunity to learn from each other, utilizing the wide array of facilities at Camp Grayling to conduct vital training to put their people into real world situations.
“Being able to work with the JTACs and our other coalition partners helps give us all a better understanding of each other’s operations,” said Sgt. Maj. Frederick Ott. “We are able to interact with other branches of the military and that something that we don’t normally get to do outside of a training environment and it’s a great experience.”
Throughout the training, the Marines and Joint Terminal Attack Controllers from the 148th Air Support Operations Squadron, Ft. Indiantown Gap, PA., spent the rest of the afternoon calling in air support and fire missions from Army artillery units, plus British and Marine mortar positions on the ground.
“Camp Grayling has such a large area, which gives us the chance to bring out all of our assets and conduct training that we don’t always get, because sometimes we may not have the capabilities,” said Ott.
This is the case for many units that come to Exercise Northern Strike. Camp Grayling is the largest National Guard training facility in the U.S., with many ranges and ample maneuver areas that span over 147,000 acres. Each year, Camp Grayling typically schedules training for over 10,000 military personnel from National Guard units in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, as well as regular Army and Reserve units.
“Training here in Michigan has been a great experience. It’s been nice to get together with different branches and countries, put a fire mission together, and watch it all come together,” said. Ott. “We as Marines don’t always get to do that – we usually only get to train with other Marines.”
Northern Strike ‘17 is a National Guard Bureau-sponsored exercise uniting approximately 5,000 service members from 13 states and five coalition countries during the first two weeks of August 2017 at the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center and Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, both located in northern Michigan and operated by the Michigan National Guard The newly-accredited NS 17 demonstrates the Michigan National Guard’s ability to provide accessible, readiness-building opportunities for military units from all service branches to achieve and sustain proficiency in conducting mission command, air, sea, and ground maneuver integration, together with the synchronization of fires in a joint, multinational, decisive action environment.
Date Taken: | 08.05.2017 |
Date Posted: | 08.05.2017 11:21 |
Story ID: | 243854 |
Location: | MICHIGAN, US |
Web Views: | 541 |
Downloads: | 1 |
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