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Beneath a melancholy sky, mother nature threatens to unleash a volley of aqueous projectiles upon the Urasoe district as U.S. Marines and Sailors from Combat Logistics Regiment 37, Combat Logistics Regiment 3, Combat Logistics Regiment 35, 9th Engineer Support Battalion, 3rd Medical Battalion and 3rd Dental Battalion gathered to compete together during a field meet in celebration the 3rd Marine Logistic Group’s 67th Anniversary on Camp Kinser, Okinawa, Japan, April 25, 2025.
The Marines and Sailors of 3rd MLG were not daunted by the potential arrival of an unrelenting tempest, for celebrating the 3rd MLG’s 67th trip around the sun was a pursuit they would not be deterred from seeing through to completion.
“The field meet is an opportunity to get the commands together and get the Marines out here to build unit cohesion and camaraderie,” said 1st Sgt. Crystalee Muñoz, company first sergeant of Headquarters Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 37, 3rd MLG, “Coming together and doing what Marines do: growth through competition.”
The 3rd MLG field meet served not only as a commemoration of the unit’s anniversary and a tribute to the legacy of the Marines and Sailors who came before, but also as a strategic opportunity to foster unit cohesion, strengthen section relationships, and boost morale through organized athletic competitions, team-building activities, and shared celebration. The event also allowed for Marines and Sailors from various walks of 3rd MLG to get together outside of their jobs, laying the foundation for island-wide unity of the Marines as the presence of Marine logistics in Okinawa is dispersed across many installations.
“Seeing my NCOs go out there and trying their hardest for the sake of the unit and spreading positivity and unity,” said Lance Cpl. Michael Leiva, an admin clerk with 3rd MLG. “It means a lot to me because I want to be a part of that. I want to be able to do that next year, and hope that one day people can look at me from the sideline, and they say, I want to do that too.”
Events during the field meet ran the gamut of endurance and tactical proficiency, including weighted pullups, pugil stick fighting, CrossFit relay, obstacle course race, High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle pull, M16A2 disassembly and reassembly, and culminated with a timed plank competition.
“Unit cohesion is important to the day-to-day mission because if we’re all able to bond well and get along and we’re able to come together for the sake of the mission, we can accomplish so much," said Leiva. "As a leader if you can’t identify what’s wrong with your Marines, it kills unit cohesion, and in turn, it’s going to mess up the work.”
Human beings are like pencils: one pencil alone is easily breakable, however, a bundle of pencils are much more difficult to break. Because of this propensity to find strength in numbers, encouraging unity amongst a team by developing cohesion amongst the ranks is paramount. In their first field meet in 11 years, the Marines and Sailors of 3rd MLG fostered unit cohesion through bonding and friendly competition, an aspect important to workplace synergy and the success of future missions.
“This is probably one of the largest groups of Marines coming together on the island as 3rd MLG is one of the largest (major subordinate commands) in the MEF,” said Sgt. Dimitri Laurent, staff judge advocate legal noncommissioned officer of 3rd MLG. “All this, and this is only half of all 3rd MLG. It’s really special and humbling to see this large force in person.”
A key aspect that made the 3rd MLG field meet special was that despite many Marines and Sailors of 3rd MLG not being able to attend due operational obligations, a large quantity of Marines from across the unit that do not see each other during their routine work days were able to celebrate together in true Marine Corps fashion.
“These events honor our fellow Marines and Sailors of the past, showing that we still care about the legacy that they left us,” said Laurent. “It shows that we still hold that esprit de corps that they fostered, that first flame that they brought into the core, it shows that we’re still protecting it, and it’s still raging on.”
The 3rd MLG is the logistics element of III Marine Expeditionary Force, having provided logistical excellence in routine training and operations, combat environments and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief events since 1958.
| Date Taken: | 04.25.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.08.2025 20:47 |
| Story ID: | 497349 |
| Location: | CAMP KINSER, OKINAWA, JP |
| Web Views: | 10 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 3rd Marine Logistics Group Hosts Unit-Wide Field Meet Celebrating 67th Anniversary, by LCpl Eric Allen, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
