 Throughout the execution of Maltese Dragon, we had different supporting units to include 3rd Landing Support Battalion, MCI PAC, and various other augments, feed information through different systems that exercised Combat Logistics Regiments 3 ability to command and control their subordinate units by throwing different injects throughout the execution of the exercise. Injects are different scenarios that present a problem set that the staff has to work through and solve. Eiser is the Information Management Officer. What that is is the person who receives all the information, both from current operations and future operations. All of that information needs to flow somewhere, so it comes to me, and I help to synthesize it to present to the commanding officer so he can make informed decisions. The commander is going to be fed a lot of different types of information ranging from installations to the tactical level, and he is going to have to make informed decisions. So having one point for all that information to flow into and system set in place in order to filter through that information is going to be critical in force design 2030 in order to make sure the commander is able to make those informed decisions. Maltese Dragon began with a problem set that the staff had to thoroughly break down using the Marine Corps planning process and build up a solution and different courses of actions in order to solve that problem set. The exercise allowed the staff to work through the Marine Corps planning process to develop different courses of actions that they could execute later into Maltese Dragon. The reason this is so important is when we have to go and execute real-world missions, we're going to have to make sure we have a thorough understanding of the problem and building these reps and sets on how to break down a problem and provide legitimate solutions is going to be critical in a fast-paced environment. Maltese Dragon flow was a constant throughout the execution of Maltese Dragon and I served as the touch point for all that information. What needed to be worked through is what was relevant to the commander and making sure all the staff had the opportunity to provide relevant input and making sure it was synthesized in a way that allowed the commander to make informed decisions and have a thorough understanding of both the problem and solutions that the staff could provide to him. So the goal of Maltese Dragon was to evaluate CLR-3's staff as a LSTX or logistic staff training exercise hosted by the Marine Corps Logistics Operations Group here on 29 Palms. Additionally, we were answering service-level questions in regards to the future logistics combat element design under Force Design 2030 in order to enable the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab to take those points back and advise executive-level decisions on the force structure of the future. So in the context of the McCree or the logistic staff training exercise, I played a role as a logistics officer within the larger team, specifically the future operations of planning cell. We were being evaluated on an ability to problem frame, develop tasks, task those and communicate those tasks to subordinate units as well as communicate that plan to the watch floor, the current operations section in order to execute that plan. So one of the unique aspects of Maltese Dragon was we were testing a future operating concept, one for which most of us haven't had experience directly dealing with. So in order to solve problems related to the problem framing and to that problem, you have to rely on your experience. If you've never experienced any reading you may have done, the Marine Corps has reorganized in the past. This is not the first time we've changed our structure, which all builds your intuition. Additionally, your analytical skills, your problem-solving skills, based on your experience and your intuition, look at what you know, your known-nones, your unknowns, and even consider the things you might not know and develop a best course of that action in order to advise the commander on the risk that he's taking with that problem. So within the logistics field, the biggest problem we run into is the issue of scarcity and competing requirements, whether that's subordinate units needing things or the mission directing supplies and logistics going in two different places. So as a higher headquarters in the instance of Maltese Dragon, the bifurcated nature of the mission between installations, facilities, and tactical logistics creates scarcity, as well as prioritizing the needs of those installations and facilities, as well as the tactical units throughout the 3MF AOR. Leading up to LSTX and Maltese Dragon, the CLR 3 WarCourse team has had the abilities to come together in a COC or a Combat Operations Center exercise prior to, but what we saw over the last two weeks is the team coming together in order to plan and execute a pretty complex problem set, which leaves us going forward much more capable to deploy in 06 level headquarters in order to C2 and provide logistics throughout the first island chain. So as a future operations officer, I oversaw all of our future planning, and what that really entailed with this exercise was as we received orders from our higher headquarters, we worked through the problem framing and the planning for what we needed to carry out with our subordinate units and how those orders were going to be carried out and provided to current operations and the watch floor in order to ensure that we executed effectively. So we simulated a plans floor for future operations. That was the floor that I oversaw, and then we had a current operations section, which was also the watch floor executing the current present operations. And then as we received what we called Injects from exercise control, we had to work through those Injects and determine how we were going to respond to those and ensure that we were still carrying out our mission while responding to these Injects that could have been an enemy attack, problems within the civilian population that we were working with, things like that. This exercise brought about a better understanding of what force design 2030 could look like as far as how we are established within the first island chain and really our missions and responsibilities that we would be taking on and how they would differ from what we currently do. So as a future operations officer, I worked with my team in developing our future plans to carry out Hire's mission and the orders that they gave us. And in working with our subordinate battalions, we would develop the mission, the plans and the tasking, and the concept of operations of how we would carry out those orders that we would get throughout this exercise. In working through these new problems that are presented to us, we really have to work as a team and rely on combined experience and knowledge within Marine Corps logistics and the Marine Corps planning process in order to be able to effectively work through and determine a response to how we would conduct logistics in 2030 against a near peer adversary. This exercise took a lot of critical thinking by our team and we really had to pool our knowledge and experience in order to conduct effective problem framing to really determine what the problem is that we were trying to solve and come up with a solution. It's not the solution, it's just a solution that can be used for future study research for how we will posture ourselves for force design 2030. And we really had a great team working through this. I think we had the right people with the right experience and the right drive to want to work towards solving this problem. Maltese Dragon is a war game that's being run by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab sponsored by the Logistics Combat Element Integration Division out of CDD that is looking specifically at the tasks and capabilities capacities of the Marine Logistics Support Group Okinawa. The war game itself is being bolted on top of the LSTX exercise that CLR-3 is executing to prepare ourselves to be the most capable logistics combat element in the world. So LSTX is a Logistics Staff Training Exercise. Marine Corps Logistics Operation Groups McLoag runs these several times a year and it's an exercise that develops combat logistics regiment and or combat logistics battalion staffs. So it's a staff training exercise usually based on a scenario that prepares those units to execute the MWX. But in this case they've taken this LSTX and they've combined it in a unique fashion with the first Maltese Dragon exercise. So under force design 2030 we have been focusing on the logistics element this year. They've looked at how they combined third of Marine Logistics Group and Marine Corps installation specific to get after the commandant's vision is laid out. This exercise is going to look at how that organization is going to work together. So we have the ability to look at MLSG Okinawa and then decide do we get the force structure right. Is the initial concept that they've put together does it actually have the capabilities and capacities that are required for us to fight in the future. Our war game is going to play out and lead us to a better understanding of what is effective in the organization as decided now and what needs to be added or taken away from that organization in the future. To make sure we have the right organization the right authorities and responsibilities to be able to effectively provide logistic support to the forces in the first island chain. Much like between the end of the First World War and the Second World War there was a lot of innovation that happened in warfare. We're looking at the same type of period now. The Marine Corps after World War One before World War Two wrote several different concepts right. We worked on the amphibious landings with the tentative manual for landing operations. We did island defense battalions and developed those concepts and we developed a small wars manual. Not knowing for certain which we would need in the next battle and we end up obviously using the landing manual and developing that into all the the doctrine that we have now for how we do amphibious operations. We're in a similar period of transition. As we go from our legacy force to the future force design we have lots of concepts that will have to be fleshed out to allow us to to execute our war fighting capabilities in the future. The experimentation that we do is to help us identify additional additional areas that we need more focus that we need more study or analysis. Maybe it's someplace we need more capability or a new capability that doesn't exist today. It could be a new organization that we need. It could be additional training that we need to take on to execute that mission in the future but all these experimentations are just making us stronger and better war fighters as a Marine Corps. So as we execute LSTX and Maltese Dragon war game we're in analyzing the force structure or the concept of the MLSG in the future. It's important that we go through this war game to identify as many gaps and seams as we can now to ensure that we get the force structure right before we start moving units around and implementing. Because we're inside the weapons engagement zone of the enemy and we're we're inside the or we're on the first island chain the ability for us to to look at this through a war game before we make the changes is important to reduce the risk to the Commandant's vision. The Commandant has laid out clearly what he what he wants us to do. He's got a concept that we're working towards and each one of these exercises in war games is an iteration where we become smarter about what the capabilities and capacities required are what our Marines of the future will have to be able to do and it allows us to better prepare before we make the physical changes on Okinawa.