 Navies from six continents in more than 30 nations are participating in the most widely attended international exercise ever held in the U.S. Fifth Fleet area of responsibility. International Mine Countermeasures Exercise 12 is the first of what is intended to be a reoccurring partnership event. The exercise consists of two distinct phases. The first was a symposium where senior leaders from participating countries exchanged ideas and viewed the latest in mine hunting, sweeping and neutralization technologies provided by a panel of industry representatives and presenters. In the second phase, ships, crews and observers get underway to train together to prepare for tactical execution. As the first of our minesweepers heads to sea to conduct operations in IMCMX-12, you see behind me other key forces in the International Mine Countermeasure Task Force that's been formed to conduct this exercise. The USS Ponce, the Afloat Forward Staging Base, is the command ship and the MCM support ship for Task Group North. The ship has been configured with improved communications and other improved capabilities to fully support the minesweepers, the Sea Dragon helicopters, the divers and the underwater vehicles that will conduct a full range of operations. Other minesweepers will go out, deploy and form the two task groups of the three demonstrating distributed geographic operations as well as the full range of integrated MCM ops. The exercise will finish with leaders, liaison officers and observers gathering to discuss lessons learned during the two phases to further foster interoperability among participants. From Naval Support Activity Bahrain, I'm Petty Officer Blake Midnight.