Marines and sailors of BLT 2/6, 26th MEU embark in a landing
craft air cushioned as part of COMPTUEX, a MEU predeployment
certification exercise at MCB Camp Lejeune, N.C., July 24.
CPL PATRICK M. JOHNSON-CAMPBELL
on both the leaders and the equipment of
the MEU, but it was nothing they couldn’t
handle, according to Colonel Mark J. Desens, commanding officer of the 26th MEU.
“We continuously seek opportunities to
train aggressively, with leaders controlling the pace and complexity of how we
train so that we don’t get people hurt or
equipment needlessly damaged along the
way,” said Desens.
Despite the fact that the two exercises
were merged into one, Desens stressed
that it was “business as usual” for the war-
riors of the MEU, and that the unit coped
quite handily with the added stresses.
“In what we want to achieve, COMPTUEX was no busier than the norm. It
was a chance to exercise all of the missions we have trained for from the sea
and to further strengthen our relationship
with our Navy counterparts,” he said.
In addition to the logistical movements
and skills necessary to operate as a fully
functional expeditionary unit, the MEU
practiced a wide spectrum of combat and
humanitarian operations with which it
may be tasked during deployment.
Among the missions completed during
the exercise were multiple amphibious
and helicopter-borne raids; a simulated
embassy reinforcement and noncombatant evacuation operation; a humanitarian
assistance operation; several mass casu-
alty scenarios, and a host of other skills
unique to a MEU that can be practiced
only at sea. More importantly, the Marines conducted the exercise on board the
ships of the Iwo Jima ESG, which will be
their home for six months of deployment.
“You can’t simulate the environment of
living and operating from the sea—you
have to actually do it. We have safely, yet
aggressively, exercised each of our units
in ship-to-shore movements, employed
our assets in a tactical environment and
returned to shipping so that we are ready
for follow-on missions. We have exercised
live-fire operations, to include naval gun-
fire and aviation and the shifting of control of those fires from the ship to the
[Battalion Landing Team Fire Support Coordination Center] ashore,” said Desens.
Cpl Aaron Rock
Combat Correspondent, 26th MEU
Marine Reservists Use Skills
To Help Peruvians
■ During July, leathernecks from Marine
Wing Support Squadron 472 (-) out of
Naval Air Station, Joint Reserve Base
Willow Grove, Pa.; Detachment “Alpha,”
MWSS-472 out of Wyoming, Pa.; and
Det“Bravo”outof Chicopee,Mass.,neared
completion of a schoolhouse in San Jose
and a medical clinic in Yanamilla, located
in the Ayacucho region of Peru. Their ef-
CPL KATHLEEN RUSCIO
LCpl Kristopher Osborne (yellow helmet) and Maj
James Glass of MWSS-472 work to construct a med-icalclinicin Yanamilla,Peru,June25. Theproject was
a part of New Horizons-Peru, an annual humanitarian mission sponsored by U.S. Southern Command.
