 So good afternoon. My name is Major Corey Cusack. I am the third landing support battalion operations officer and for the role of Atlanta Dragon 22 I'm the landing force support party OIC. The mission for third LSB in conjunction with CLR 37 is to conduct a selective piercide offload of the USNS Loomis during the NPF exercise Atlanta Dragon. The advantages that we have to gain for this is to actually follow through and conduct training that we plan over the last two years due to covid's negative impacts. A lot of training events have been heavily planned and then when it comes time for execution they've been largely descoped or canceled altogether. So a couple years ago third LSB sought the opportunity to align themselves with the CLR 37 and this teeped event so that we could execute in this training event. All right so what the Marines gained from this training was like I said before an opportunity to actually conduct a large-scale training exercise from planning to completion so that was big not only for the staff but then turning to the Marines focus first on the landing support Marines. They normally they're doing their job almost every single day back in Okinawa but what we're often offloading is gray hole ships or a black bottom commercial ships or smaller lcu type ships and we do that on a regular basis. The landing support Marines here had the opportunity to do something that a large majority of them have never done before which is to offload a very large vessel in MPF ship and then transitioning what else the other Marines got out of this was the motor transport Marines so we conducted a selective piercide offload pulling equipment off of the ship the LS Marines conduct the throughput of that equipment staging it position it building up a capeset to then transition from acting as an LFSP to acting as an LCE where our motor transport Marines were able to use that equipment forward during the FTX execution MAGTAP operations phase specifically the motor transport Marines were able to take 17 tactical vehicles that they offloaded from the ship and conduct a long haul convoy from Blenheim Command Florida up through Georgia to Marine Corps Air Station Buford and then all the way up to Camp Lejeune North Carolina and back to Florida 1600 miles so what did the Marines get out of this they got a great training event for the landing support Marines and then the motor transport Marines were able to do something that we couldn't necessarily do on Okinawa and that's conduct 1600 mile long haul tactical convoy during an MPF operation there's task organized units to conduct that organization with a semblance of command and control at the head of that C2 structure is going to be your AOG or your arrival and assembly operations group that's the overall headquarters to command and control the MPF ship offload that headquarters for Landed Dragon 22 was CLR 37 third LSB was tasked to provide support as the landing force support party now that is a subordinate unit that is under the OPCON of the AOG and our main responsibility is to provide throughput at the port operations group the beat up beach operations group and the arrival departure airfield control group as well as provide the movement and control center the LSSP it's it's key organization is to really conduct that throughput of personnel equipment and supplies off of the ship under the cognizance in the C2 of the AOG so we are in our role as the LFSP during the actual offload itself and then when we transition to hey the offload is complete and it's time to take that gear that we have assembled into a combat capability for the commander to then go forth and use that capability we take our LFSP hat off and we put our LCE our logistics combat element hat on so we transition from being more headquartered under the task organization and structure of conducting an MPF ship offload to falling under a typical MAG TAF structure of the command element the air combat element logistics combat element the ground combat element and third LSB will act as the LCE the logistics combat element taking that equipment and taking it forward for this case for an exercise to which we then subsequently conducted the motor T long haul convoy the direction that third LSB is going with this training under its belt is first and foremost number one building a foundation of what it is to conduct MPF operations this is our first rep and set to get comfortable and good and gain and maintain proficiency in landing support operations and prepositioning operations from here I think it really sets conditions for us to move to the next level as the Marine Corps becomes more comfortable with conducting it not necessarily a full MPF ship offload but the selective pier side ship offloads which are conducted at length of dragon that then allows us to be a more ready forced to be able and more capable to conduct a an in stream as well as a subsequent pier side offload at upcoming exercises in the three math AO third LSB is going to build off of the training and everything that we've learned at a land to dragon 22 with the MPF pier side selective offload here and we hope to act as the LFSP and the port operations group when there's MPF operation conducted at Resolute Dragon in Indo Pecom AOR I think Marines join the Marine Corps to do their MOS to go out and get an opportunity to do something Atlanta Dragon 22 provided all the Marines and sailors that came out here for this exercise an opportunity to do just that and more they were able to do not only their MOS landing support and motor T being the preponderance and the offload of the ship is really the main thing that we got after while we're out here but they were also able to do subsequent training with that gear that we all floated from the MPF ship long haul convoy railhead operations group training unit level training land nav confidence course COC operations and I just like to conclude with Marines that we knew that we're going to do great things didn't did even better than we assume that they would and Marines who you didn't necessarily know that their their capabilities even PFC's lands corpals would blow us out of the water with their expectations our unit specifically 30 LSB is a more ready force we are now trained up in conducting MPF operations it's built us a foundation and we're a better force more able to conduct those in the future so my role in Atlanta Dragon I was the mag tab offload liaison officer so I was that critical link in between the arrival and assembly operations group and the offload preparation party on the ship so it's the marine air ground task force so what that is is basically it's the mess size level it's the each individual element within the mag tab so you have the ground combat element the command element logistics combat element and that's all makes up the mag tab with like the way it was executed so we had the different elements that came in we had the navy element that was falling under with the mag tab and then we had the naval cargo handling with telling that came in and offload the light ridge so the goal for the MPF offload for Atlantic Dragon is we were experimenting with the ABL concept so we were going through and doing a selective offload so in a traditional MPF offload you are removing all the items off the ship dispersing them to the individual elements of the mag tab and for Atlantic Dragon we were experimenting with selective pieces that we wanted to use to build a cape set so for example for us we build a farp so that was our end goal is we selectively pulled equipment off the ship and built that capability vices offloading everything off the ship we're focused on 51 items for the actual selective offload that we're looking at those items were pulled out of the ship they were processed by the LFSP they were used those for further on training during Atlantic Dragon for our field portion so the overall performance of the marines was outstanding these marines were excited this is something that they have or never have got to do before going through with the execution with the OPP traveling out to the ship with a small vessel they got to climb the aft wrap ladder onto the ship they said it was just amazing the marines did extremely well they went through each of the processes for breaking down not only checking the equipment on ship they went through and identified all those items for selective offload maintain the 51 item and pushing it out here to the LFSP and through their processing it went extremely well so we're looking to the future for the fort design 2030 we're looking for those EABO concepts stuff that we've done in the past not necessarily what we're going to be doing for the future so these small things right here these exercises is what's going to build up to that time so during Atlantic Dragon uh first role the big played would be we provided a technical assistance and advisory team which is folks to do QA and obviously help with the conduct of the offload of the ship and arrival assembly operations really just experience people to to kind of help guide and mentor and provide some you know historicals of best best principles best practices for offloading equipment and getting it through the through the staging areas through the arrival assembly association lots and all that the second thing that we did and this is kind of unique for for Atlantic Dragon I think will be the way going forward is we we've been testing our big forward concept so for Atlantic Dragon some of the things that we tested was first an an ashore based prepositioning node so the magna have not just drawing equipment from the ship but drawing it from an ashore site and then using that to build a to you know generate their capes sets the second second bit to that was you know once the arrival assembly process was completed we used members of the TAT to create a big forward team to provide maintenance support for the magtaf so that whether that was expediting parts which we did you know assisting with maintenance support with some of our maintenance Marine Corps maintenance contractors that were able to help troubleshoot vehicles forward of the the arrival and assembly areas and and support the long-range convoy lot of the planning that we did leading up to this you know we started working with three math probably about six months ago they reached out to us we had the NPC hosted here at BIC a lot of the folks from from the command team from planners and and and executors came to that NPC and we we got a lot of really good you know work done there and then we just continued we started having a weekly sync and I think you know going forward like that's an after action that we have it's just how incredible it was like keeping those lines of communications open and how successful the planning was as a result of that so when we got here or when the magtaf arrived here there was folks that I'd only known through teams chat or through talking on the conference call and but it was we were ready to work ready to go and everybody kind of knew what needed to be done because of all those discussions and work that we'd had prior to I think that was one of the major successes and then as we offloaded and we started to do to work through the you know the play of the problem drawing the ashore base gear seeing the the LS Marines out there just getting it done the motor team Marines just getting it done those Marines were really well rehearsed and so it made things go just super smooth yeah so I think I think NPF operations whether they're a shore base or a float base are incredibly important because it's a it's not a capability that's used often but when you need to use it you need to know how to do it and and it's it's complex there's a there's a lot of complexities to offloading that ship and marshaling the equipment but the Marines getting to to do these rehearsals annually or semi-annually I think that really allows them to understand what's available to them in the program helps commanders understand the timelines associated with you know drawing NPF gear and how how that affects their their ultimate mission downrange and then it also just gives the Marines a great opportunity to get out and do some some training with top-notch equipment we provide the technical assistance and advisory team on their role is to help offload that ship help provide the QAs during the jltis for the beginning of you know drawing the equipment and the arrival and assembly phase but we also provide a lot of technical expertise and knowledge just folks that are that are pretty well-seasoned and very familiar with NPF operations so we can help with the planning we can help with throughput operations timelines we provide technical assistance with the i prime nodes and make sure that everybody's up and running with with i prime and the tracking is you know done correctly and efficiently as possible the second bit that we we did specifically for this exercise was we established in a short prepositioning note and this is a bit of a test test run for blund island but knowing that the future you know we're going to have a shore-based prepositioning as well as a float-based prepositioning so having that a shore-based prepositioning gave us a rep in establishing that node and it gave the magtaf a rep in in drawing from that node and had it having those capabilities available to them for their capeset generation and then the third thing that that we did was a bit of a big forward test which was the support that we provide once the arrival and assembly operations are complete in the case of Atlantic Dragon we did a test of a maintenance a forward maintenance point to support the long-range convoy that the magtaf was doing so we sent maintenance contractors and government reps and uniform reps well forward of the arrival and assembly areas the AOEs and we're able to provide you know parts expedited parts we airdropped parts we were able to to participate in an airdrop of some class nine equipment really just to support the magtaf with some technical expertise on the maintenance side of things as well so our maintenance contractors were able to provide some additional troubleshooting and help help the convoy get on the road quicker so we'll be participating in Resolute Dragon we're looking forward to that exercise and some of the concepts that the MLGs look into advance we fully support that and we want to be a great partner along with that and we also want to test some things some additional bit forward things there specifically in the maintenance support and you know how we do that forward how we do that from a float focusing specifically on a float for that exercise and how do those maintenance contractors how do they tie in with the TAT and being able to either expedite parts from the ship or provide additional maintenance support in the arrival and assembly area or do we you know swap out vehicles to assist the magtaf in getting their maintenance production faster so those are all kind of things that we're looking at is how how we can support the magtaf obviously it's you know what the magtaf wants but working with the same the same units and the same folks that have participated in this I think we'll be able to do a whole lot of interesting things during Resolute Dragon