31st MEU debarks for Cobra Gold ‘06

[USMCRET6391]

SAMEASAN, Thailand (May 15, 2006) -- Marines and sailors with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) recently conducted a tactical debarkation of personnel and supporting equipment from the Sasebo Forward Deployed Amphibious Ready Group onto the beach May 15-17 for bilateral training with the Royal Thai Marine Corps in Exercise Cobra Gold 2006.

The debarkation was spread across three amphibious ships of the ARG: the USS Essex, USS Juneau and USS Harpers Ferry.

According to Cpl. Ryan Martin, a landing support specialist with MEU Service Support Group 31, all of the offloading was coordinated through the MEU's Landing Support Detachment and the ships’ embarkation officers and combat cargo detachments. Through combined management, they designated where and in what order all of the equipment and vehicles would be taken off the ships.

“There was a lot of coordination we had to do,” said Martin, a Redding, Calif., native. “When we got to the beach, we had to figure out the game plan on our own because we were the first people to arrive at the beach, which was tough, but we got it done.”

During the initial offload there were three landing crafts, air cushion and two landing crafts utility making approximately 20 trips from ship-to-shore offloading more than 300 Marines and sailors, 22 humvees and 11 seven-ton trucks. Rotary-wing aircraft, CH-46E Sea Knights and CH-53E Super Stallions, were also used to transport personnel ashore.

"The arrivals are usually a nightmare for us, but the offload went very smoothly," said Lance Cpl. Thomas Schade, another MSSG landing support specialist, and a Rockford, Ill., native.

The MEU and the ARG will complete a series of training events with the Royal Thai Marine Corps to include limited-scale raids, night vision goggle training, medical training and execution of a noncombatant evacuation operation.

Cobra Gold is a regularly scheduled joint multi-national exercise and is the latest in the continuing series of U.S.-Thai military exercises designed to ensure regional peace and strengthen the ability of the Royal Thai Armed Forces to defend Thailand or respond to regional contingencies.