STENNIS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Miss. – Marines from throughout the United States came to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to conduct various airborne training exercises as part of Operation Emerald Warrior at Stennis International Airport, in Kiln, May 7, 2014.
Operation Emerald Warrior is a Special Operations Command (SOCOM) sponsored event structured to assess and train in core operational tasks.
“Today, we are doing airborne operations as part of Emerald Warrior. It’s the biggest SOCOM exercise in the continental United States, approximately 1,300 people participate in this annually,” said U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Todd Peery, the inspector/instructor for 4th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO) and the officer in charge of the Marine Airborne Detachment for Emerald Warrior.
The Marines are concentrated on one aspect of the operation.
“One piece of the training is to do airborne operations out of multiple aircraft during the week. We have approximately 40 Marines that are based out of Gulfport, operating here at Stennis each day in those flight operations," he said
This specific task employed multinational and joint force assets from throughout the airborne community.
“Its very rare that we can get everyone in the airborne community together to work on their techniques, tactics and procedures,” said Peery. “It’s important just to get together whenever we can to work these things out internally.”
Airborne operations are an asset on the battlefield, he said.
“We are out here practicing to become proficient in our exiting and landing, because in combat you jump at a low altitude and land pretty fast,” said U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Jonathan Orejuela, a field radio operator with 3rd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company.