About 850 Marines headed to the remote Australian outback to test the capabilities of a training range as the U.S. prepares to deploy a battalion-landing team-sized unit there next year. Exercise Koolendong 2013 kicked off on Tuesday at Bradshaw Field Training Area outside Darwin, Australia. The two-week long exercise will be conducted with about 1,000 Australian and U.S. troops. It is designed to assess the capabilities of the training field to accommodate live-fire training for a battalion-sized unit, according to a Marine Corps news release. Included are about 700 members of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, based out of Japan,…
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[HTML1] Take a look at what Marines are doing around the globe in our newly updated Status of Forces map! Highlights include: Marines in Darwin, Australia conducting squad-attack exercises at a place called “Kangaroo Flats” Some lucky Marines doing coalition exercises with French partners in kayaks in the Mediterranean Urban crisis contingency training with local counterparts at Mihail Kogalniceanu Military Base, Romania. Major moves: About 160 reserve troops from Camp Lejeune’s R4OG (Retrograde and Redeployment in Support of Reset and Reconstitution Operations Group) deployed to Afghanistan this month, replacing an R4OG from Camp Pendleton. About 200 Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air…
[HTML1] Status of Forces (as of April 19) Active duty: 194,370 Selected Reserve: 39,705 Reservists on active duty: 2,477 It’s been awhile since we did a blog update on the status of forces around the Marine Corps, but we’re going to start in again on making this a weekly feature. The positions above are as of April 19. Of note, the 26th Marine Expeditionary Units and 15th MEU are moving through their areas of operations, with the 26th MEU’s Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group near the Gulf of Aden, at the eastern tip of Africa, and the 15th MEU’s Peleliu ARG…
The second group of Marines to rotate through Australia arrived in Darwin Sunday night for the start of their six-month tour. U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich greeted about 200 Marines with Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, after their Boeing 737 landed, according to a Marine Corps news release. The members of 3/3 are based out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Bleich said he met with Darwin government officials last week, and they were enthusiastic about the Marines coming back to town. When members of Fox Company, 2/3, were in Darwin last year, it was estimated that they boosted the local economy…
This year’s deployment of a Marine infantry company, the first in what will become a larger rotation of units to Australia, has garnered lots of attention Down Under and throughout South Asia as officials and analysts lauded or questioned the larger strategic reasons, namely China’s rising influence and expanding military, for the new quasi-permanent U.S. military presence. Gen. Jim Amos, visiting the Australian Army’s Robertson Barracks that’s been the main garrison for the deployed Marines with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, praised the benefits of these renewed U.S-Aussie ties and dismissed any notions the deployments were an attempt to…
Deployments to Afghanistan may be ramping down, but this year is seeing a flurry of joint exercises with some allies here at home as Marines host Canadian, British and New Zealand troops for some good ol’ combat training in the coastal areas and deserts of the Southwest U.S. “Javelin Thrust,” a large-scale exercise with Marine Forces Reserve and 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade, kicks off in late June with more than 5,000 Marines, many of them reservists from 32 states massing at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif. They will joined by a contingent of Canadian troops who…
The recent arrival of a company of Hawaii-based Marines in Darwin, Australia, stirred up some unfavorable sentiments on the continent and around the region. Now comes former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who apparently is quite unhappy about seeing any more Marines Down Under. Fraser, who led the nation-continent for eight years until 1983, complained that “over 20 years now we have given the impression of doing that which America wants. We seem to believe that our security can be best assured if we do what we can to win brownie points with the U.S. This is a mistaken assumption.”…
