NEO tests Army, Marine interoperability
USMC News
Story Identification Number: 200341116362
Story by Lance Cpl. Monroe F. Seigle
WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD, ISLAND OF OAHU, Hawaii(March 13, 2003) -- WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD - At any given moment, Americans in third world countries can be in dangerous situations and need to be evacuated immediately.
Evacuating them might not be easy. They could be in an area under enemy fire and have very little time to escape.
Marines from Combat Service Support Group 3, along with the Army's 524th Corps Support Bn. from Schofield Barracks, conducted noncombatant evacuation operation exercises here, March 12 - 13, to train for such a scenario.
During the NEO, role players from the Army and the Air Force set the scene. Americans in a third world country needed to be evacuated with foreign nationals.
Although the mission was to evacuate the role players, the Army and the Marines also learned how to link the NEO tracking system between the two services and establish an evacuation control center.
"Everybody was willing to work together," said 1st Lt. Eric Demsky, executive officer, Transportation Co. "We had been interested in training together for Cobra Gold, because we might have to conduct live missions together one day. We wanted to build a relationship amongst ourselves."
After establishing the evacuation control center with six stations, a receiving area, search station, administrative processing station, and an embarkation and detention section, 10 helicopters stood by to bring the role players to the newly formed ECC.
"This was a difficult mission because the role players gave us a lot of different scenarios, which involved quick thinking regarding the procedures they had to follow," said Demsky. "We were able to prepare and get an idea of what to expect for Cobra Gold, and we learned how important it is to be able to make split-second decisions."
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