Brig. Gen. James Lariviere, the commanding general of the New Orleans-based 4th Marine Division, traveled here May 16 to visit U.S. service members participating in African Lion 2010.
About 700 Marines and sailors from Marine Forces Reserve, as well as several hundred Navy SEABEEs and U.S. Army and Air National Guardsmen are participating in this month-long joint and combined theater security cooperation exercise.
“This is an important exercise at both the tactical and strategic levels,” said Lariviere. “At the tactical level, there has been an exchange of tactics, techniques and procedures between individual Marines and the Moroccan soldiers. At the strategic level, this exercise has further strengthened the bond of friendship between the United States and Morocco; a friendship that goes back to the early days of our republic.”
Lariviere had the opportunity to see a command post staff exercise between Moroccan and U.S. officers and staff noncommissioned officers on a modern Moroccan military base.
He also visited junior troops from both countries engaged in a peace keeping exercise in a hot and dusty training area resembling Twentynine Palms, Calif. Finally, Lariviere observed task force leadership conducting expeditionary headquarters operations in their make-shift command operations center.
“Reserve Marines gain a great deal from exercises like African Lion,” explained Lariviere. “First, they gain experience dealing with foreign militaries. Second, they gain an appreciation for what it’s like to live and work in a foreign country. Finally, they gain an understanding of how important it is to engage our allies overseas before we are called upon to work with them in a real operational environment.”
Lariviere’s personal reserve experiences are broad, having served with the 4th Marine Division in the past as the 25th Marine Regiment assistant operations officer in Fort Devens, Mass., and commanding officer of 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company in Mobile, Ala.
As a reserve officer, Lariviere has participated in previous combined exercises and operations in Norway and Panama.
“We fight the way we train,” insisted Lariviere. “As Reserve Marines, it’s our job to augment and reinforce the active component (Marine Corps). It is hard to imagine a future operation, whether it be a large-scale conflict, irregular warfare or phase zero operation that would not take place in a joint and combined environment. Reserve Marines gain valuable experience in exercises like African Lion, working with another nation’s military alongside our sister services from the United States.”
For most of the reserve Marines here, this is about a two-week deployment, with troops rotating in and out in two major waves of movement between mid-May and mid-June.
The U.S. troops’ morale here struck the general as particularly high, and he noted that for those reserve Marines who have never been outside the United States before, this opportunity has broadened their world view and whetted their appetite for more overseas deployments.
“They are excited about going someplace where they have not been before and being part of something that contributes to the security of the nation,” said Lariviere. “I think that interesting (annual training exercises) like African Lion make service in the reserves exciting and keep young Marines affiliated with their units and coming back for more.”
Looking to the future, Lariviere is optimistic that the successes of this year’s African Lion have set the stage for further joint theater security cooperation endeavors with the Moroccans for years to come.
“African Lion is getting larger and more complex every year,” commented the general. “Both the United States and Moroccan governments see this as an important engagement opportunity. We already have an officer here conducting an advance reconnaissance for African Lion 2011 and we anticipate will be larger than this year’s exercise.”
In fact, a U.S. Navy SEABEE unit is currently working with Marine Wing Support Squadron 273 from Beaufort, S.C. to build storage facilities at a logistics support area in Tan Tan near Morocco’s southern coastline.
These large “K-Span” structures will enable the proper storage of American equipment throughout the year. This will, in turn, facilitate a less expensive and smoother movement of reserve personnel from the United States to Morocco each summer to optimize training time here.
“Exercises like African Lion are ideal from a reserve perspective for a number of reasons,” concluded Lariviere at the end of his four-day visit. “Under the evolving concept of the operational reserve, exercises like this allow the reserve component to take real-world commitments off the plate of the active component. We get to make a real contribution to national security while simultaneously offering (operational tempo) relief. Exercises like African Lion fit perfectly into the way the reserves operate; the relatively short duration and wide variety of skills needed allows us to maximize our participation while at the same time providing great training….. that contributes to our recruiting and retention efforts in the reserves.”
Lariviere was commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps in 1979 and joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1991. He took command of the 4th Marine Division on April 10.