 Marines conducted a humanitarian assistance exercise Friday, April 18th in Yuma, Arizona's Kiwanis Park as part of the Buy Annual Weapons and Tactics Instructors Course hosted by Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1 aboard Marine Corps Air Station Yuma. Infantry Marines with 3rd Battalion's 6th Marine Regiment at a Marine Corps-based Camp Lejeune in North Carolina worked with role players to make the exercise as authentic as possible. During this operation we're simulating a foreign humanitarian aid mission. So the Marines here have secured a landing zone and we are waiting for CH-53s and MB-22s to bring in humanitarian aid such as food, water, and medical assistance. The infantry Marines here today have set up a perimeter around the outside of the LZ and they're here to keep the peace so that the local citizens don't start a riot or cross the barrier but they can also keep that order as they come in and receive that humanitarian aid. Some of the challenges that the Marines here face with the local population are they have to actually interact with people on a daily basis. They have questions so they have to be aware and sensitive to their needs and their desires and they have to make sure that they're presenting themselves in a friendly environment not to be taken as hostile and to kind of turn the population against us. We want to make sure that we're winning those hearts and minds and giving the people or the local population what they need because if we can give them what they need that's going to help them give us the information we need and allow us to continue to operate in this area. Reporting from Marine Corps Air Station, I'm Lance Corporal Travis Groshanik.