Marines

U.S. military conducts joint island exercise over Hawaii

3 Sep 2020 | Sgt. Jesus SepulvedaTorres Marine Corps Base Hawaii

As future operations focus on the interoperability between U.S. military branches and the mission to become more proficient, Marines and Airmen in Hawaii conducted a joint training exercise starting at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Sept. 3, 2020.
 U.S. Marines with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268 utilized a pair of MV-22 Osprey aircraft to transport Airmen with the 25th Air Support Operations Squadron from Wheeler Army Airfield around various locations over Oahu.
 U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Mason Thompson, an Air Force Tactical Air Control Party specialist with the 25th ASOS, said the training event took place at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Makua Military Reservation and Wheeler Army Airfield.
 “Flying there, we conducted close air support training, medical evacuation drills and Helicopter Landing Zone exercises,” said Thompson. “This training was beneficial for us to better work in a joint environment.”
He explained that during combat, it’s all a joint effort and that the branches need to work together to get the objectives completed.
 U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Joshua Issermoyer, also an Air Force Tactical Air Control Party specialist with the 25th ASOS, said the biggest challenge to overcome was the terminology.
 “The biggest learning curves for myself and Staff Sgt. Thompson were to be able to identify specific events or tasks and communicate that to the Marines,” he said. “Understanding the delineation and disparities between languages was our first hurdle and we felt confident about overcoming it.”
 U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Chaz Giles, an Osprey pilot with VMM-268, said the intent of the exercise was to complete joint interoperability between the services.
 “Each service has their own doctrine and we are adjusted to working with Marines, while the other branches understand themselves as well,” Giles said. “To work as a team, Marine aircraft were transporting and inserting Air Force Tactical Air Control Party specialists while talking to each other.”
 Giles said the training was a crawl-walk-run approach sharing language and technical terms to better improve communication.
 “On our side, terms and names for things could be different from the Air Force,” he said. “As the progress to integrate and improve our interoperability continues, the level of training will elevate and will only make everyone that much better.”


Marine Corps Base Hawaii