 Javelin Thrust 2011 is the largest total force exercise the Marine Corps does. Across several West Coast states, more than 5,000 Marines, both active and reserve, are testing their ability to act as a Marine Air Ground Task Force or MAGTAF. This operation absolutely puts everybody together and you can hone in those skills so that when you do deploy, you're ready and you're fully capable, full on capable. A MAGTAF is how the Corps deploys, combining air, ground and logistics assets into one package. What Javelin Thrust is exercising is the Marine Corps' middleweight and most flexible MAGTAF, its Marine Expeditionary Brigade or MEV. We're not tied to a standard organization where we're going to force things into a deployment and a mission that have no role. We would only take those things that are absolutely needed and things that aren't needed are left behind. At this exercise, 4th Marine Division is providing air, ground and logistics assets. Command and Control is coming from the Camp Pendleton, California-based FirstMEB Command Element. FirstMEB trains to be a force in readiness. The call comes, they go. Nobody in the world can do what we're doing. Nobody. We can move quickly. We can start getting forces in a position, either to be a presence or start being engaged in a particular crisis. And I think we can hold until bigger decisions are made and larger forces have to move. As the nation watches a decade of combat operations in two theaters wind down, Marine Corps leadership sees the need to lean towards this middleweight posture. The MEV is really the right scalable-sized force that we need to be prepared for crisis and contingency response. That response capability is what Javelin Thrust is exercising. FirstMEB's Command Element simulated what it would take to quickly set up a combat operations center in a remote location and establish command and control over a magtath. It doesn't do who we're trying to help any good if it takes us months and months to get somewhere to help somebody. People need help in a hurry when it's a crisis. For FirstMEB, Javelin Thrust is third in a series of four yearly training exercises, each building off the last. General Speese says through this training he's confident in his MEV's abilities. And I would argue that coming out of this, we're in good shape to go anywhere and do anything. Javelin Thrust continues through July 29th. From Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, Bridgeport, California, I'm Staff Sergeant Brian Buckmore.