Exercise Bold Alligator 14 provided an opportunity for the Navy-Marine Corps team to place service members aboard the cargo and ammunition ship USNS Medgar Evers, not only to assist with resupply operations, but to test their ability to perform maintenance on equipment away from staging areas on land, Oct. 27 through Nov. 10.
Bold Alligator 14, the largest Navy-Marine Corps exercise held on the East Coast, is a joint, crisis response training event intended to refine and sharpen expeditionary capabilities. For distribution and supply specialists aboard the Medgar Evers, the exercise was designed to assess new ways to carry out their primary mission: provide supplies and maintenance support to operating forces.
The ship’s logistical capabilities could allow units in a forward deployed environment to rapidly resupply with warfighting necessities without having to reach outside their area of operations.
The Marines aboard the ship can repair any type of drive trains, engine, truck or Humvee that needs to be repaired, as well as send out a detachment to a beach to bring parts and repair any equipment there.
The second day out to sea, the ship successfully transferred fuel to the USS New York and provided 354 pieces of cargo by helicopter to the USS Fort Henry. On Nov. 4, the Marines also helped transport additional supplies to the USS Oak Hill.
Having the cargo and its maintainers along with the distribution and supply Marines at sea improved the efficiency and timeliness of reinforcing forward units. When they were not servicing the forward units, the Marines worked with their civilian counterparts, learning how they operate and exploring ways to better cooperate in the future.
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Press release, Image: US Marines