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FORT HOOD, Texas - Students from the Infantry Officer Course
(IOC) at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., completed a
"Proof-of-Concept" 1,100 mile, long-range operation from Twentynine
Palms, Calif., to Fort Hood, Texas, via MV-22 Ospreys, on Dec. 15,
2013.
The Marines fast-roped into a mock city to secure the
embassy and rescue key U.S. personnel. The Marine Corps is the only
military branch with the proven capability to missions of this
magnitude, whether for humanitarian, rescue, combat operations or
other special-forces type missions.
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Students from the Infantry Officer Course (IOC) at Marine Corps
Base Quantico, Va., completed a "Proof-of-Concept" 1,100 mile,
long-range operation from Twentynine Palms, Calif., to Fort Hood,
Texas, via MV-22 Ospreys, on Dec. 15, 2013. The Marines fast-roped
into a mock city to secure the embassy and rescue key U.S.
personnel. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Tyler Main)
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“What's different about this mission and where the Marine
Corps stands today is, primarily, in the past we would
receive the mission and six hours later the first aircraft
lifts or the first action is taken to go ashore.” Maj. Scott
Cuomo, Director of IOC, said. “Now, the moment the warning
order is dropped or any type of indication that there is a
significant threat, we can lift these aircraft and be two
hours closer to our objective area.”
Cuomo said many
new technologies contribute to the Marine Corps expedient
deployment capability including a tablet that receives
images and video from nearby aircraft to update Marines in
the air, and the long-range capability of the MV-22 Osprey.
“The
[MV-22 Osprey] allows us to go over 1,000 miles and we can
go even further than that,” Cuomo said.
The Marine
Corps has recently used the Ospreys capabilities in
humanitarian and disaster relief missions as well to assist
the Philippine people after the devastation of Typhoon
Haiyan.
It's these rapid-response type missions that
Cuomo claims are the Marine Corps primary role as a force in
readiness. Since being exposed to their first mission of
this sort, the students under his charge are confident in
the Marine Corps ability to take on these operations.
“If this class is any indication of what Marines can do
with Ospreys then there's no reason that the Marine Corps at
large couldn't train to this standard and execute these
missions,” 2nd Lt. Ben Hooker, IOC student, said.
“The Marine Air Ground Task Force is part of the naval
service and is ready to be America's crisis response force,”
Cuomo added.
Cuomo said that America will see the
fruits of the Marine Corps labor in advancing the
technologies, reach and capabilities required to complete
missions like the 1,100 mile raid in Texas and the relief in
the Philippines.
“What we have now and what we'll
have going forward is a force that's more lethal, that can
go further, that can get there faster and that can be more
precise than it's ever been before to provide whatever the
American people need us to provide.”
By USMC Sgt. Tyler Main
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2014
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