Photo By Cpl. Mark Stroud | Republic of Korea Marines and U.S. Marines eat dinner during a warrior’s night May 1...... read more read more
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POHANG, South Korea - The Landing Force Support Party with the III Marine Expeditionary Force detachment at Combined Joint Logistics Over The Shore 2013 successfully completed its primary mission of facilitating and directing the offload of a maritime prepositioning force ship in the Republic of Korea April 28.
Immediately following the mission, the U.S. Marines joined their ROK Marine counterparts for bilateral training.
ROK Marine Landing Support Company, 1st Support Battalion, 1st Marine Division, hosted the LFSP for two days of training and knowledge-sharing April 28 and 30 at the ROK 1st Marine Division base near Pohang, Republic of Korea.
The LFSP was deployed to South Korea to participate in CJLOTS, a bilateral and joint maritime prepositioning force exercise. The MPF exercise demonstrated and improved the ROK and U.S. ability to generate and sustain force readiness and expeditionary operations.
The ROK Marine Corps and Navy conducted the biennial exercise April 19–28 with III MEF, U.S. Navy Expeditionary Strike Group 3, Army forces with U.S. Forces Korea and U.S. Coast Guard Port Unit 313.
“The ROK Marines have a landing support battalion, and they wanted to do some integrated training between their Marines and our Marines to cover landing support techniques and procedures,” said Capt. Robert M. Holt, the officer in charge of the LFSP. “We were able to cover some valuable skills in the amount of time we had.”
The ROK and U.S. Marines discussed capabilities, training and experience across a wide range of landing support missions, including air delivery and helicopter support team missions. The Marines also participated in military skills training such as heavy-equipment operation and mine clearance.
“We would like to follow in the U.S. Marines’ footsteps,” said ROK Marine Capt. Hoang Ji Young, the company commander of LS Co. “They have a good reputation, and we would like to one day have the same reputation, that is why it is important for us to work and interact together.”
The training and knowledge-sharing improved interoperability between the partner nations’ forces.
“They do some things differently than we do, and it is good for the Marines to see another perspective of how to accomplish the mission,” said Holt. “You could say they are our sister company, and when we can train with them we definitely learn from it.”
The Marines concluded their cooperative training with a warriors’ night that included sports competitions, ROK Marine Corps martial arts demonstrations, and a traditional Korean musical performance and dinner May 1 at the base.
“The warriors’ night with the ROK Marines benefited two different, yet similar, services by bringing us together for a night of camaraderie and celebrating mission accomplishment,” said Gunnery Sgt. Derrick L. Watson, the LFSP staff noncommissioned officer in charge. “Every aspect of our warriors’ night was very enjoyable, especially the sporting competitions and martial arts and cultural demonstrations.”
Marines from both nations benefited from the less formal environment.
“The Marines had the opportunity to open up, relax and talk about things other than work,” said Watson. “It allowed them to sit back and discuss not just the mission but their culture and way of life.”
The company commanders from both countries expressed interest in continuing to train together.
“Hopefully we can get back here again and do some more training with them,” said Holt. “It was a good time for everyone involved.”
| Date Taken: | 05.01.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.16.2013 21:43 |
| Story ID: | 107081 |
| Location: | POHANG, GYEONGSANGBUGDO [KYONGSANGBUK-DO], KR |
| Web Views: | 108 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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