4th Tank Battalion trains with Moroccan counterparts during African Lion 2011 

Marines from Company E, 4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine Division, conducted multiple bilateral training events with Moroccan tank crews here as part of exercise African Lion 2011.

Tank crews from Company E, a Marine Corps reserve unit headquartered at Fort Knox, Ky., were in the field for two weeks meeting and training with Royal Moroccan Armed Forces service members.

“Our primary mission was bilateral training with the Moroccan Army,” said Capt. Jason Howard, a platoon commander with Company E and resident of Elizabethtown, Ky. “We brought some of our men together with theirs and established some pretty solid relationships.”

Through the bilateral interaction, the men of Company E discovered that although there are some differences between the equipment and tactics of the two militaries, there are also many commonalities.

“We saw some of their different weapon systems, and how they utilize them a little differently,” said Howard. “Working with them helps us have a common ground any time in the future if we have to work with them…we’ll already have familiarity.”

Sgt. Brandon Herrington, a tank commander with Company E, pointed out that every Moroccan soldier he had met was very nice, kind and informative.

“This has been a great learning experience, not just regarding culture but also for training sake,” said Herrington, of his interaction with the Moroccan soldiers during African Lion 2011. “It has allowed us to see how other militaries work.”

Exercise African Lion is an annually scheduled, bilateral U.S.-Moroccan exercise. This year’s exercise, the 8th annual iteration, brings together more than 2,000 U.S. service members from multiple locations throughout Europe and North America with more than 900 members of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces. African Lion is the largest exercise within the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility and is designed to promote interoperability and mutual understanding of each nation’s military tactics, techniques and procedures.