TINIAN, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands -- Lt. Gen. Kenneth J. Glueck Jr., III Marine Expeditionary Force commanding general, and Maj. Gen. William D. Beydler, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing commanding general, visited Tinian May 29, during Exercise Geiger Fury 2012.
The commanding generals stopped by Tinian to observe the work Marine Aircraft Group 12 Marines and sailors accomplished in less than a month.
“I think there are some great lessons to learn here, not only for the expeditionary force, but for the aircombat element,” said Glueck. “The ability to deploy 36 jets out here and operate out of Andersen, come to Tinian and set up an expeditionary air field, set up expeditionary fueling, expeditionary arming pits, conduct and increase the number of sorties we’re doing on a regular basis, this is just all great training we would use if we had to go into any operational plans we might have to execute in the future.”
With a surge week scheduled, Marines and sailors have already proven their tenacity to go above and beyond their required duties and continue to strive forward. Marines will work toward maximizing sortie generation during this week increasing the operational tempo. The surge will test the Marines' readiness and ability to operate well under pressure.
“The training we’re getting here is going to generate combatreadiness that we can use elsewhere in the Pacific, as required,” said Beydler. “The bottom line is we have ... F/A-18s from Iwakuni deployed to Guam and now they’re flying to Tinian. We have all the capabilities which enable the air planes to fly out of an austere environment.”
Marines have performed their jobs with little to no support from what they have been accustomed to back in Iwakuni.
“This isn’t terribly austere, but a lot of the requirements were not here before we came,” said Beydler. “If we didn’t bring it, or didn’t make it, for the most part we're not using it here. We have Marines in an expeditionary environment flying simulatedcombat sorties, generating individual and collective readiness, to which we can apply elsewhere in the Pacific as required.”
“The bottom line is,” continued Beydler. “After this exercise, we’ll have a hot wash, a review of everything that went well and what did not, both from an exercise stand point and also how we flew and operated tactically. From that, we’ll take the lessons learned into the development of the next exercise.”
Even with such a success with the exercise so far, all the achievements have not come easily.
“We lost a little bit of lift coming out here, so some of our capabilities, in full strength, were not able to make it,” said Beydler. “It would have been nice to have a little bit more gear, but a part of what we do in a training exercise like this is we adapt to those changes, overcome and make it work.”