River training exercise may become annual - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

River training exercise may become annual

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — These days, there’s not much time for large-scale training exercises.

But a nearly monthlong exercise that wrapped up Monday included more than 1,200 Marines and sailors with 4th Marine Logistics Group, operating in the skies, on land and water as part of Olympic Thrust.

Such training opportunities may become more available for reservists in the future, as the unit’s top brass looks at the possibility of making the exercise an annual event, said Lt. Col. Dan Duggan, 4th MLG plans officer.

The group has about 1,000 Marines and sailors — roughly 10 percent of the MLG — deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, said Col. Ray Johnson, 4th MLG administration and personnel officer. Another 500 Marines and sailors are waiting to deploy, he said.

“We’re heavily supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom and the normal requirements,” Duggan said.

The bicoastal exercise includes training such as bridging and helicopter support, things “that you don’t normally do on a drill weekend,” he said.

Long-range convoys as far as 250 miles challenged convoy leaders. Landing support Marines have been tested through integrated air training. On the operations side, Marines have been trying out new software systems.

A small detachment of Marines with the MLG participated in an Army munitions ordnance exercise in Nevada and California. Back East, Marines worked with C-130 Hercules aircraft to coordinate and fly a command and control package from McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., to Blackstone Army Airfield near Fort Pickett, Va.

“We’re working with reserve helicopter squadrons in order to extend and conduct precision logistics in a quick manner,” Duggan said.

The operations with CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters were conducted at Camp Lejeune, N.C., along with river crossing exercises. The exercise gave Marines within the 6th Engineer Support Battalion’s bridge companies a chance to transport more personnel and equipment than they normally would during training, said battalion executive officer Maj. Sean Riddell.

“It’s rare to have this many vehicles around,” Riddell said June 24 as he stood on the bank of the New River that winds through a portion of Camp Lejeune.

Marines in the bridge companies were busy that day ferrying Humvees, 7-tons and troops from one point of the base to another, using improved ribbon bridges. Separately, the rafts can haul vehicles across water, or they can be linked together to form a bridge.

Generally, one raft can hold a tank, two 7-tons or four Humvees.

“The longest part of the evolution is getting the vehicles on and off,” Riddell said.

The hardest part, he said, is traffic control. Large groups of vehicles staged in one area can be a big bull’s-eye for the enemy. To avoid creating a traffic jam onshore, the Marines set up a series of traffic control points.

After clearing the final checkpoint, Marines grabbed green life vests stacked in a pile near the shoreline and boarded the rafts for a 20-minute trip from French Creek to Rhodes Point. Once the troops and a couple of 7-tons loaded onto the bridge, the raft’s large metal ramps were raised from the muddy shore.

Bridge Company-Bravo commander Capt. Jerry Kleber barked orders into his radio as he watched bridge erection boats push the raft away. Local Coast Guard patrol boats stayed nearby to buffer the rafts from any civilian boaters in the area.

“It’s been going outstanding,” Kleber said. “The biggest challenge here is knowing the sandbars and channels.”

Staff Sgt. Jason Gross, a nearshore staging officer with Bridge Company-Bravo, headquartered in Folsom, Pa., was busy at the final traffic point, where vehicles were staged before heading down a dirt road ending several hundred feet away at the river’s edge.

“We’re the final checks and balances to everything here,” Gross said, as a group of Marines trotted from his checkpoint toward the river. “It’s a lot of moving pieces.”