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GLOBE Serving Camp Lejeune and surrounding areas since 1944
THURSDAY APRIL 19, 20 2012
WWW.CAMPLEJEUNEGLOBE.COM
VOLUME 74 EDITION 16 MOROCCO
STAFF SGT. ROBERT FISHER
24th Marine Expeditionary Unit
M
arines and sailors of Company A, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, landed on the shores of the Kingdom of Morocco, April 10, to participate in Exercise African Lion 12. Company A discussed Marine infantry weapon systems, amphibious assaults, and American culture with their Moroccan counterparts. “The Moroccans don’t have amphibious assault vehicles so they work primarily with fast boats,” said 1st Lt. Alexander George, Company A’s executive officer. “These kinds of assaults are what they’d like to do, so this training is perfect for them.” Company A is designed specifically for amphibious assaults and owns all the BLTs AAVs, which allow them to tactically move from ship to shore and engage enemy positions, if necessary. Often, an amphibious assault resembles infantry squad maneuvers, but with vehicles. Marines and Moroccans shared the tight q u a r ters of
Company A’s AAVs and stormed the beaches together during every amphibious assault drill; it was a joint exercise from the start. Executing amphibious landings alongside the Moroccans showed them what they could be capable of, said George. Morocco has a diverse culture; the Moroccans speak Arabic but also French, Spanish and English, among others. The Marines found that many Moroccan’s English is limited but despite the language barrier, the Moroccans embraced their warrior brethren as soon as the Marines hit the shore and spent a good portion of the early part of training taking pictures with Marines and sailors. Coming to America The exercise also included taking the Moroccans to the heart of America – or at least the next closest thing. The Royal Moroccan Soldiers hitched rides on AAVs to the amphibious ship USS New York, parked more than a mile off the coast. The Moroccans were very excited to board the ship. Many of them expressed their appreciation of Americans and Western culture, especially classic icons like Michael Jordan. They broke into smaller groups and Marine noncommissioned officers guided them throughout the ship, showing them the gym, living spaces, mess hall, flight deck, and bow. Throughout the trip, the Moroccans quizzed the Marines on various aspects of Western
popular culture, especially sports and music. “I spoke to one guy who said he always loved America but now he finally got to meet (an American) and come onto their ship,” said Cpl. Robert A. Dahlhausen, an Arabic cryptologic linguist who served as an interpreter for the tour. “I talked to a lot of them, and they said the tour was great. It was big, the food was good, and everything was nice considering we live on a ship.” In the mess hall, Marines and Moroccans discussed differences in local cuisine. Falafel, couscous and kufta are staples of the Moroccan diet, but the Moroccans accepted the full American tour and filled up on burgers, chicken fingers and fries – what most would consider typical American fare – and said they loved it. “They love American culture and love the opportunity to meet Americans and train with us,” said Dahlhausen. Adapting Tactics Back on shore, a group of Moroccan soldiers was selected to train with Company A’s Marines, and they spent a lot of time focused on small-unit tactics for an amphibious landing. The beach assault gave them an opportunity to try a different tactical approach to a shared threat. They paired into different AAVs, hit the water, and then turned around to assault the beach – SEE BEACH 7A
Photo by Cpl. Michael Petersheim
Marines from Company A, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct classes on different weapons with members of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces on a beach in Morocco, April 10, during Exercise African Lion 12.
Photo by Staff Sgt. Nate Hauser
Brigadier Gen. Lewis A. Craparotta (left), who served as the commanding general of 2nd Marine Division (Forward) in Afghanistan, shakes hands with Cmdr. Sean Barbabella, who deployed with the division as the division surgeon.
Sailor awarded Legion of Merit for medical excellence CPL. JEFF DREW
2nd Marine Division
“I’m the proudest dad on Earth, without a doubt,” said Vincent M. Barbabella Sr., a retired major and former Army Ranger who fought in Vietnam. “One of the proudest moments was when I pinned the rank of commander on him — he finally outranked me — but I said, ‘You have to remember, dad’s orders always outrank any military orders.’ We are all so proud of him.” Navy Cmdr. Sean Barbabella stood at attention as Brig. Gen. Lewis A. Craparotta pinned the Legion of Merit, one of the military’s highest decorations, on his uniform. A reunion of gathered service members erupted in applause and congratulations for the newly awarded surgeon. Craparotta served as the commanding general of 2nd Marine Division (Forward), in which Barbabella was the division surgeon, during the unit’s recent yearlong deployment to Afghanistan. Barbabella earned the rare presentation of the significant medal through his exceptional meritorious conduct and outstanding service as the division surgeon from August 2010 to March 2012. His goal, while deployed, was to take care of the commanding general’s troops and establish the strongest pointof-injury care for Marines, airmen, soldiers, and sailors on the ground, giving them the best chance of survival. The faster care can be provided, the better the outcome. He also orchestrated a revamping of the patient tracking system to collect more accurate data on injuries in theater. “Moving from point-of-injury, which was the primary focus, to then tracking patients, was important at the headquarters level because we could tell the commanding general at any given time where a patient was and what their care was,” said Barbabella. “Another larger scale thing we focused on was the tracking of mild traumatic brain injuries, which was a huge function. I took it in two different phases: the administrative chain, where we did the Blast Exposure Concussion Incident Report that tracked every Marine who was exposed in a blast. If they had a concussion, it was documented — if they didn’t, it was documented. Secondly, the medical chain made it mandatory for every blast exposure and concussion to be put in (a service member’s) electronic medical record so they have it down the road.” After reassessing the need for more accurate patient tracking, Barbabella focused his energy on assisting and mentoring Afghan service members as well. His work with the Afghan National Army’s 215th Corps made considerable improvements to their medical capabilities. SEE MERIT 7A
AGADIR, MOROCCO
INSIDE THE GLOBE
24th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s 'Raven' flies skies of Morocco 2ND LT. JOSHUA LARSON
24th Marine Expeditionary Unit
MUSIC IN MOTION: REWRITING THE SCORE PAGE 5A LEJEUNE SPORTS 1B INSIDE LEJEUNE 1C CLASSIFIEDS 3C CAROLINA LIVING 1D
Marines with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit demonstrated the capabilities of the MEU’s unmanned aerial system assets for members of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces, April 12, at Inezgane Airfield. The UAS demonstration was part of the Command Post Exercise portion of Exercise African Lion 12, a bi-lateral training exercise between U.S forces and Royal Moroccan Armed Forces to promote partnership and mutual understanding between each nation’s militaries. The live flight of an RG-11B Raven, the smallest of the MEU’s unmanned aerial systems with a wingspan of four feet-six inches and weight of just four pounds, highlighted the morning’s events. A team of three Marines from the 24th MEU’s ground combat element, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, assembled, prepared, launched and landed one of three Ravens before a crowd of dozens of Moroccan military members and other Marines and
soldiers taking part in African Lion. Lance Cpl. Richard Hager, an intelligence analyst with the BLT and one of the 24th MEU’s licensed operators of the Raven, flew the unmanned aircraft above the crowd for 25 minutes, allowing a few licensed UAS operators from the Royal Moroccan Air Force to man the controls for a few seconds. “One of the Moroccans I talked with is a UAS pilot for the Royal Air Force but he flies a bigger version, so we talked a lot about the size of the Raven,” Hager said. “The best part of this exercise for me is that this is the first time I’ve flown the Raven by myself – alone and unafraid – outside of a school environment. And it was fun to do it in Morocco with Moroccan military.” While Hager busied himself with control of the unmanned system, Staff Sgt. David Wilcox, the BLT intelligence chief, talked several Moroccans through assembly of the other two planes as their peers and friends took advantage of photo opportunities with both the aircraft and the Americans. “They were surprised at how easy it was to put together,” Wilcox said. “They enjoyed
having three Ravens here so they could watch one fly and could still handle the other two and take pictures.” Wilcox also talked to a group of Moroccans about using the Raven during real-world operations in Iraq in 2009. “There was a lot of good information sharing going on,” he said. The Raven’s primary mission is aerial reconnaissance using cameras mounted in its nose. The images can be recorded, photographed, or fed to a live-feed monitor on the ground to provide instant visual feedback to Marines, who might otherwise be blind to hostile activity around them. Cpl. Kursten French, a scout sniper radio operator with the BLT, helped with the set-up of the Raven and recounted his experiences with it during a 2010 Afghanistan deployment with 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment. “They were great for identifying targets that we normally wouldn’t have found,” French said. SEE RAVEN 4A