Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

The Korean and U.S. Marine Corps held a combined training reminiscent of actual combat for two weeks and took their combined mission capability to a higher level in case of emergency.

The First Division executed combined arms for combined landing operation and live fire exercise with the U.S. Marine Corps at Suseong and Sanseo Shooting Range from July 21 to August 1.

Two hundred Korean Marines, 200 American Marines and four Apache helicopters from the U.S. as well as 100 Korea-U.S. landing vehicles, streetcars and engineering equipment were sent to this training.

From squad/platoon-level tactical training to battalion-level combined arms and live fire exercises, the training was organized by four stages.

First, with ROK Marine Corps command as a the leader, battalion-level joint staff including the U.S. Light Armored Reconnaissance (LAR) command was organized to discuss general training contents and relevant mutual tactics.

The Marines went through the training by branch for landing operation and combined arms exercise, then successfully closed out the training schedule with a combined arms live fire exercise between the landing operations on August 1, the last day of the training.

“The combined arms exercise between the Korean and U.S. Marines paved the way for establishing a defense readiness posture by improving mutual operating ability. I’ve gained confidence to achieve missions more efficiently when Korea and the U.S. Marine Corps get together,” said Lieutenant Colonel Kwon Tae-gyun, who commands TF-22, during the training.

By Byeong-No, Yun < trylover@dema.mil.kr >

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