Marines and Sailors from the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit participated in three multilateral exercises across the South China Sea to build partnerships and enhance relationships, beginning Oct. 2.The three exercises will allow the Boxer ARG and embarked 11th MEU to demonstrate the United States’ commitment to ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific by working with allied and partner nations in this important region of the world.“Throughout our deployment, our Navy and Marines Corps team has trained together in different areas of the world, building partnerships with allies and partners in the Middle East, and now here in the Western Pacific,” said Col. Fridrik Fridriksson, commanding officer, 11th MEU. “Any

The words “They came in peace” are etched in the Beirut Memorial stone wall, along with the names of 273 service members that lost their lives in Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 23, 1983, including three who died during a rescue mission in Grenada.On March 24, 1983, members assigned to the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit answered the call for a peacekeeping mission to Beirut. The morning of Oct. 23, 1983, a truck full of compressed gas-enhanced explosives was driven into the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines Headquarters building by a terrorist. Two-hundred and forty-one Marines, Sailors and Soldiers were killed by the impact of the explosion and the building debris.The bombing in Lebanon was the largest loss of life for Marines in a single action since the

The Armed Forces of the Philippines, Japan Self-Defense Force, and U.S. Armed Forces united to conduct an amphibious landing exercise at Katungkulan Beach, Marine Barracks Gregorio Lim during Exercise KAMANDAG 3 on Oct. 12, 2019.The ship-to-shore maneuver, which was the culminating event of two weeks of combined training focused on assault amphibious vehicle interoperability, marked the first time the AFP conducted a multilateral amphibious landing with its own AAVs. The drill’s success validated the multinational forces’ ability to conduct complex, synchronized amphibious operations, and it reaffirmed the partnerships between the Philippines, Japan and the United States.“It’s a major challenge taking three different elements with different

Members of the local and U.S. communities celebrated the 49th annual Naha Great Tug-of-War Festival from Oct. 12 to 14, 2019 at Naha, Okinawa, Japan.The three-day festival is held on the second weekend in October every year. The largest event features a tug-of-war which uses a 200-meter-long rope made of rice straw and weighs 43 tons, a Guinness World Record. “We are here building community relations. We have a bunch of Single Marine Program volunteers and service members participating in the event. At the end of the event they give you a piece of the rope, which is a pretty cool souvenir because not many people get to travel the world and experience such a unique event.” U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Trevor Evan, a combat engineer with Marine