“You wouldn't have known that we just met four weeks prior. The other half of my staff was fully integrated with Colonel Good and 7th Marines.” The Marines from 1st Marine Division, based in California, and 2nd MAW, based in North Carolina, integrated their staffs and units for intense planning and a variety of missions. “We fully integrated with General Turner,, with half of my staff. One of the main purposes for this training and an initial challenge was the integration of air and ground Marines from two separate coasts. The MAGTF War Exercise provided an exhausting five-day game-like scenario where Marines reacted to a creative and living opponent while pushing the limits of aircraft, technologies and personnel involved. The exercise itself is force-on-force-so no live ammunition-and then the ACE supported both sides”, said Finneran. “We had 1st Marine Division going against one of their own subordinate elements, 7th Marine Regiment, who's stationed here at Twentynine Palms. The continuous flights, live fire exercises, and casualty evacuation drills carried out during the first four weeks were all practice for the final, force-on-force, MAGTF War Exercise in which the ACE had to integrate with and support both the exercise force and the adversary force. “For the Marines who have not gotten a chance to go overseas on deployment, this more than replicated that for them,” said Finneran. To do this, the Marines of MAG-29 created forward aerial refueling points, resupply convoys and expeditionary landing sites throughout the entire training area to be able to maneuver Marines of 1st Marine Division closer to their objectives. This required a non-stop rotation for continuous flights and professional support to the ground units involved. consistently maintaining and flying multiple aircraft to support a wide array of missions throughout the six week period. Marine Air Group 29 operated from the Strategic Expeditionary Landing Facility at Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif. “In this case we were pretty much able to bring all six functions of Marine aviation…certainly our offensive air support in the form of our Vipers, Venoms and Harriers…and our assault support capability via our CH-53s and our MV-22s.” The combination of air support through various weapons systems, the heavy lift transport, and the forward aerial refueling allows commanders to extend the battlespace in support of Marines on the ground who would otherwise have to carry heavy loads slowly across difficult terrain and still fight when they reach the objective. Within SLTE 3-21, the ACE was focused on providing the maximum amount of support possible within a training environment which allowed ground units to maneuver through arduous desert terrain and assault objectives that would otherwise be out of their reach. These functions of Marine Corps aviation provided by the Marines of MAG-29 are offensive air support, anti-air warfare, assault support, air reconnaissance, electronic warfare and the control of aircraft and missiles. Finneran, the commanding officer of MAG-29 and the ACE commander during SLTE 3-21. “We got the opportunity to bring all the elements within 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing together under one ACE headquarters, provide support to simultaneous exercises and really test our mettle across the six functions of aviation,” Said Colonel Robert B. Finneran, the commanding officer of MAG-29 “It's our opportunity to integrate all elements of the MAGTF in a combined arms environment.” Colonel Robert B. As the aviation combat element, MAG-29 led the 1,260 Marines, sailors and soldiers that made up the ACE and successfully completed over 2,600 flight hours in support of 1st Marine Division. Within SLTE 3-21 were the Weapons and Tactics Instructor course, Integrated Training Exercise, Adversary Force Exercise, Mountain Training Exercise and the final force-on-force event, the Marine Air-Ground Task Force War Exercise. recently completed Service Level Training Exercise 3-21, a series of exercises from March 28 to May 11 designed to integrate East coast and West coast Marines for realistic and difficult scenarios in a deployment-like environment. Marines from Marine Air Group 29 based out of Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C.
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