Photo By Cpl. Abigail Godinez | A U.S. Marine with 3rd Maintenance Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 35, 3rd Marine...... read more read more
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CHINHAE, Republic of Korea– U.S. Marines with various units across III Marine Expeditionary Force participated in a Maritime Prepositioning Force offload during Freedom Banner 25 at Chinhae Naval Base, South Korea, Feb. 12-22, 2025.
Freedom Banner is an annual maritime prepositioning force exercise that allows multiple units across III MEF to practice the quick and effective offload of equipment and supplies, off of pre-staged vessels to forward units in the region.
“It's good practice because it allows us to see how quickly we can take this equipment and marry it to their units to make a capability for the joint force, to employ against our adversaries,” said Lt. Col. James Workman, the officer in charge of the Arrival and Assembly Operations Group, 3rd Marine Logistics Group.
This iteration of Freedom Banner allowed routine maintenance of the equipment stored aboard the United States Naval Ship Dahl (T-AKR 312) to be conducted. This equipment will be used in support of upcoming exercises such as Freedom Shield 25 and Korean Marine Exercise Program 25.1.
As units from all across III MEF begin to arrive to the Korean Peninsula for upcoming exercises, Freedom Banner becomes crucial for III Marine Expeditionary Force Support Battalion’s mission.
III MSB provides and coordinates direct combat services support, security, and administrative services to III MEF, 3d Marine Expeditionary Brigade and III MEF Information Group Command Elements to enable III MEF to win in competition and conflict.
During the MPF Offload, each component of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force had their own equipment allocated for their mission. III MSB supported the offload as the command element’s Arrival and Assembly Operations Element. Marines with III MSB arrived to download command element’s equipment.
“The MPF offload was synchronized with what we were doing beforehand with our Marine Corps Combat Readiness Evaluation on Warrior Base,” said Maj. Matthew Evers, the Operations Officer of III MSB, “in that we ensure those capabilities are integrated with what we were going to be doing on Camp Mujuk, to support Freedom Shield.”
As the command element’s AAOE, III MSB coordinated with III MEF to validate what the logistics and life support requirements for Freedom Shield would look like. Marines from III MSB worked directly with 3rd Marine Logistics Group, who supported Freedom Banner 25 as the Arrival Assembly Operations Group, which allowed for proper planning and execution for III MSB to determine what equipment would need to be offloaded.
“Most of the equipment we are offloading is communication equipment, engineering equipment, motor vehicles such as JLTVs, LVSRs, generators, tool kits, etc.” stated Lt. Col. Workman. “So this equipment provides a lot of capabilities that the MAGTF would need to operate, both in combat and in peacetime.”
In order to provide combat service to the Freedom Shield command post exercise, III MSB Marines pulled equipment off of the USNS Dahl such as field feeding equipment, tentage, and utilities equipment. This equipment allowed III MSB to establish an expeditionary field site, an intelligence operations center and an expeditionary feeding site. III MSB also unloaded material handling and motor transportation equipment, such as forklifts and 7-tons, to be able to provide transportation of personnel and equipment around Camp Mujuk.
“Those are the capabilities that we need from the equipment unloaded during the MPF Offload that will help us here at Camp Mujuk,” clarified Maj. Evers. “Because it allows us to conduct concurrent operations, I think it’s vital that we make use of this equipment. While we are providing combat service and logistical support here at Camp Mujuk, we’re still providing support in Okinawa.”
With over half a thousand U.S. Marines, Sailors and Republic of Korea Marines preparing to come through Camp Mujuk, the life support services that III MSB provides throughout the base not only allows for training in the region, but will create better integration within the ROK-U.S. Alliance.
“The nature of the MPF Offload demonstrates our ability to rapidly bring the Marine Corps and joint capabilities together to support follow-on missions,” Maj. Evers concluded. “This is just one of the ways that the Marine Corps demonstrates readiness to our allies.”
| Date Taken: | 02.12.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.11.2025 01:52 |
| Story ID: | 492322 |
| Location: | GYEONGSANGNAMDO [KYONGSANGNAM-DO], KR |
| Web Views: | 43 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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