4th ANGLICO meets opportunity in African Lion 2019

Marine Forces Reserve (MARFORRES)
Story by Cpl. Tessa Watts

Date: 04.01.2019
Posted: 04.07.2019 09:10
News ID: 317195

Exercise African Lion 2019 was held from March 25-April 3, 2019 in several locations across Morocco, and in Tunisia. African Lion 2019 is a multinational, joint-force exercise that improves the interoperability and mutual understanding of tactics, techniques and procedures of nations such as the United States, Morocco, and Tunisia, along with the other five participating nations this year: Canada, France, Spain, Senegal, and the United Kingdom.
Every year, Marines with 4th ANGLICO join other servicemembers from all other U.S. military branches to participate in the exercise. The purpose of the exercise is to advance relations and tactics between the U.S. and other allied and partner nations.
“The exercise is important because we always want to maintain those good relationships with our partner nations,” said Capt. Steven Valentin, a joint tactical attack controller with 4th ANGLICO.
Not only are multinational partnerships strengthened during the exercise, but all participating members benefited from invaluable training that is unique to the exercise.
“We get to train with forces we normally don’t train with, overcoming different things such as language barriers, different policies, and standard operating procedures,” said Cpl. Alexander Andrade, a radio operator with 4th ANGLICO.
Variations in how participants operate during the exercise are prime opportunities for nations to come together and create methods to overcome those obstacles.
“During this exercise, we get to sync up and be on the same page,” Valentin said. “We see how the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces operate, we show them how we operate, and then we operate together. It’s helping each nation gain confidence in each other’s support.”
Exercise African lion 2019 ensures that the U.S., Morocco, and our partner nations to know how to work together in order to mitigate any differences that prevent seamless integration.
“Seeing different points of view on how different nations and different U.S. branches operate is something that we’re not used to, but because we experience it now during this exercise, we’ll know how to react in a real-life situation,” Mena said.
Hands-on training is indispensable and the training encompassed in this exercise was important for the Marines to experience, in case a situation arises that requires those interoperable skills.
“African Lion is good training,” Mena said. “Now I know what I need to look for and what I need to prepare for in different environments. Doing this cross-training makes me a more efficient Marine.”