Photo By Sgt. Gabriel Groseclose-Durand | U.S. Marines with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine...... read more read more
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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Barbados Defence Force hosted U.S. Marines alongside other U.S. military personnel and troops from 24 other nations for the 39th iteration of U.S. Southern Command sponsored multi-domain, multi-lateral exercise TRADEWINDS, which is designed to promote regional security cooperation.
TRADEWINDS 24 (TW24), spanned the entirety of the island nation of Barbados in the sea, air, on land, and even in cyber space. Allies and partners worked in tandem to build upon capabilities, improve readiness, and strengthen relationships.
Marines from Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, integrated with ground forces from partner and allied nations to hone their combat skills, from May 3 through May 16, 2024.
“During tradewinds 24 we executed a variety of basic infantry skills as well as field skills. As the company commander I was able to take away joint planning and interoperability [between] partner nations and allies,” said Captain David Kraft, company commander, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division. “As the commander of an infantry company success is improving the lethality and survivability of all the Marines and participants, and I believe this was a success based off the skills brought to the table and training we were able to execute.”
The Marines of Alpha Company were able to exchange tactics, techniques and procedures and approach a variety of scenarios using techniques shared by Allies and partners in their integrated squads.
“We’re integrated with Jamaica and Barbados and we have France and the Coast Guard teaching us out here. It’s difficult at first, just like it is internally, when I get new guys in my squad, it takes a little bit to get everyone working together, but it feels like we’re getting the groove of things,” said one Alpha company squad leader, Cpl Brandon Doucette. “It’s important because if anything ever does happen, we’ve seen how they operate, and they’ve seen us, and we’ve already developed a good friendship.”
The exchange of knowledge and expertise was invaluable. Many of the common experiences in one nation were rare for another, giving the exercise participants a diverse variety of skills to learn and hone.
“It has been great because we’ve learned a lot from the other nations, so it was great for me, a great experience. We got to share a lot, in Curaçao we do a lot of vehicle checkpoints, that was our main training to the other countries. And we learn a bunch, yesterday we were patrolling and taking contact. We got new experiences new, I’m very excited for the new types of training we’re going to get,” said a Curaçaoan Marine, who wished to remain anonymous for personal security.
While the infantry Marines of Company A trained alongside their counterparts on the ground in Barbados, their fellow Marines from 6th Communications Battalion trained in defensive cyber operations with partners in Miami, Santiago, Chile and Mexico City. This cyber training helped strengthen and hone partner nation cyber capabilities and helps strengthen cyber defenses across the region.
"This was the first iteration of Tradewinds and Resolute Sentinel Cyber Track combining efforts over multiple country sites consisting of around 250 students total. This resulted in cyber range operations over 14 range events for the Defensive Cyber Operations team to include host/network enumeration, incident response, cyber threat emulation, and various other cyberspace warfare objectives to help bolster the cyberspace capabilities of our partners,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Travis Nichols, a Defensive Cyberspace Weapons Officer with 6th Communications Battalion. “All the Marines, whether they were blue team instructors down range in Chile or Mexico, or the Marines in Doral, Florida providing cyber intelligence and red cell (cyber adversarial) support for the POI, were absolutely instrumental to the overall conduct of the exercise. This marks the second year conducting cyberspace security cooperation exercises with the USSOUTHCOM partners, and it was great to see the growth from the previous iteration.”
U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Len Anderson, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, South, sees such training as a practice that must be sustained to ensure mutual security and prosperity.
“Opportunities to train shoulder-to-shoulder with our Caribbean partners are invaluable. We are building vital relationships and strengthening bonds here at Tradewinds that will pay dividends towards responding to any crisis or emergency that we face, and to maintaining peace in the Western Hemisphere. Sgt Maj Mota and I had the opportunity to see some of our Marines training alongside troops from Barbados, France, Jamaica, Mexico, The Netherlands, The Bahamas, Canada, Suriname, Turks & Caicos, Belize and Antigua, and it was great to see these young professionals from across the region strengthen and encourage each other,” said Anderson. “We are particularly grateful to the Barbados Defence Force and the wonderful people of Barbados for hosting such world-class training on their beautiful island, and we look forward to next year.”
U.S. Southern Command deters aggression, defeats threats, rapidly responds to crises, and builds regional capacity, working with our Allies, partner nations, and U.S. government (USG) team members to enhance security and defend the U.S. homeland and our national interests.
MARFORSOUTH is the Service component of U.S. Southern Command, responsible for all U.S. Marine activity in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. MARFORSOUTH provides contingency planning, operations, and security cooperation plans to deter aggression, defeat threats, rapidly respond to crises, and build regional capacity, working with our allies, partner nations, and U.S. government team members to enhance security and help defend the U.S. homeland and our national interests. (U.S. Marine Corps story by Sgt. Gabriel Durand)
| Date Taken: | 05.23.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 05.24.2024 10:09 |
| Story ID: | 472147 |
| Location: | BB |
| Web Views: | 298 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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