Over 5000 service members, four allied nations and months of planning are just a few of the pieces that come together to create Large Scale Exercise-17.
From July 24 to August 22, Marines from across II Marine Expeditionary Force partnered with forces from Canada, the United Kingdom and France to conduct LSE-17 in Twentynine Palms, California.
LSE-17 is a multinational exercise, led by 2nd Marine Division, with elements from the United Kingdom, France, Canada and II Marine Expeditionary Force, focused on integrating all capabilities of the Marine Air Ground Task Force and coalition forces.
“This is one of the only venues we have to conduct these major operations that will prepare us for combat operations against near-peer or peer enemy,” said Maj. Jody Cooley, 2nd Marine Division Future Operations Officer for LSE-17.
This is the first year a Marine Division has conducted the exercise as the command element.
“II Marine Expeditionary Force tasked 2nd Marine Division with validating whether a Marine Division can become a MAGTF Command Element, and that’s really what we’re out here to do,” said Cooley. “It really gives us an opportunity to demonstrate our capability, not only to command and control subordinate units but to integrate with coalition forces.”
Coalition forces from the 5th Canadian Mechanized Brigade, 3 Commando Brigade from the United Kingdom and 6th Light Armoured Brigade from France all traveled to California to conduct the exercise.
“That’s how we fight: one of the strongest aspects of the Marine Corps is our coalition. The fact that we can build coalitions, we can bring them together and operate next to each other from the operational level all the way to the tactical level, is a major deterrent to any of America’s adversaries,” said Cooley.
While 2nd Marine Division acts as the Command Element of the MAGTF, the other elements of the task force (Aviation Combat Element, Ground Combat Element and Logistics Combat Element) are conducting combat training operations and reporting up to the Division.
“The training scenario of LSE-17 extends from Maj. Gen. Love, our commanding general, all the way down to the youngest Marine in our Division. Every single Marine is tested through the challenges of the exercise, every Marine is going to become more professional and proficient,” said Maj. Francisco Zavala, the 2nd Marine Division Future Operations Planner. “LSE-17 helps solidify 2nd Marine Division’s status as a premier warfighting division in its readiness to answer our nations call at any time, in any clime and place.”
Date Taken: | 08.18.2017 |
Date Posted: | 08.19.2017 20:09 |
Story ID: | 245371 |
Location: | TWENTYNINE PALMS, CALIFORNIA, US |
Web Views: | 309 |
Downloads: | 2 |
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