Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton: Jungle Warfare Exercise 22: 7,500 Marines, Carrier Strike Group Rehearse Rapid Deployment, Joint Opera ...

Press release from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton:

Maj. Kurt Stahl

2022-02-18

OKINAWA, Japan --

More than 7,500 U.S. Marines across III Marine Expeditionary Force teamed up with the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group during Jungle Warfare Exercise 22 in the vicinity of Okinawa, Feb. 13th to 18th.

The exercise provided an opportunity to rehearse rapid deployments and joint warfighting concepts in response to a crisis threatening the security of islands and waterways. When the call came, the Marine Corps and its joint and allied partners were ready

Two infantry battalions – 2d Battalion, 7th Marines and 1st Battalion, 3d Marines – immediately loaded onto numerous MV-22B Ospreys and CH-53E Super Stallions and departed for their objectives from separate locations. One unit’s mission was to rapidly deploy to defend the island, and the other’s mission involved a 700-mile long-range insertion into the hilly double-canopy jungle to take the island back from the opposing force of Marines.

“JWX is designed to practice distributed operations in demanding jungle and maritime environments, resembling much of the terrain in the region we could be called to defend,” said Lt. Col. Philip Peacock, operations officer for 4th Marine Regiment. “We must be comfortable operating in these challenging environments.”

This press release was produced by Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The views expressed here are the author’s own.