Gordon I. Peterson, a former naval aviator, flew more than 500 combat missions in Vietnam. 

They came from the sea and by air. With the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Battle Group (CVBG) and the USS Wasp Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) at center stage, more than 15,000 U.S. joint-service personnel conducted Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX) 00-1 in the waters off Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida for three weeks in December. The exercise--billed by the U.S. Second Fleet as "graduate level" joint-warfare training--was a capstone event in the readiness certification of the Navy and Marine Corps units scheduled for forward-deployed operations in the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf this spring. 

Graduate-Level Joint Training 

JTFEX 00-1 closely approximated the emerging threats and operational conditions the U.S. armed forces regularly encounter during forward-deployed operations around the world. The exercise scenario and geography superimposed over the southeastern United States bore an unmistakable resemblance to the Persian Gulf region. "This joint task force exercise will train operational units from all services in a battlefield environment that is designed to prepare them for some of the challenges the military faces today," said Vice Adm. William J. Fallon--commander of the U.S. Second Fleet and of the joint task force. "It provides our battle group and amphibious ready group units valuable experience in operations with forces of other services, while giving them an opportunity to refine joint warfighting skills." 

In addition to the Dwight D. Eisenhower CVBG, Wasp ARG, and 24th MEU (SOC) (Marine Expeditionary Unit Special Operations Capable), joint special-operations forces (SOF) and elements of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army also participated. The joint forces trained in a simulated high-threat environment that involved air, naval, and ground operations. A dynamic, fast-paced schedule included "graduate-level" training in such missions as naval presence, freedom-of-navigation and maritime-interdiction operations, hostage rescue, SOF operations, mine-countermeasures operations, strike warfare, amphibious assault, and notional ground combat. "Orange" opposition forces included five Atlantic Fleet surface combatants, two submarines, support ships, and both Navy and Air Force fighter and attack squadrons. 

Combat Readiness Suffers 

The Clinton administration's continuing deferment of training at the Navy's world-class firing ranges on Puerto Rico's Vieques Island obliged Fallon to devise a complex series of training evolutions played out at multiple locations along 800 miles of the East Coast of the United States. Unavoidably, the ability to conduct realistic, multidimensional live-fire training suffered--leading to lowered combat readiness and potentially higher risk for critical Navy and Marine Corps rotational forces on the eve of their overseas deployment. 

Fallon told Sea Power that most operational specialties of the participating units were unaffected by the nonavailability of the Vieques ranges. Key live-fire areas were impacted, however, and the inability to conduct close-air support, naval surface-fire support, and other live-fire training for the Marine landing forces in a combined operation at one training location was a source of frustration. As a result, Fallon said, Navy and Marine units were "not as ready" as he would like them to be. 

Navy and Marine Corps flight crews on the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower were diverted to more restricted bombing runs at Air Force and Navy ranges on the East Coast and at Florida's Eglin Air Force Base on the Gulf Coast. The realism and scale of training operations were significantly reduced by several factors, however, including: (1) the presence of heavy commercial aviation traffic along multiple East Coast airways; (2) the density of civilian communities in close proximity to the ranges; (3) the long distances involved in reaching the Eglin range; and (4) more severe restrictions on the use of live ordnance. Extensive consultations and coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration and Air Force officials at Eglin were necessary--imposing additional administrative demands on already overworked staff planners. 

Not surprisingly, strike squadrons missed opportunities to operate some of the more advanced weapons in their inventory, and both the carrier's air wing and the ARG were unable to execute integrated operations in a manner most closely replicating actual strike-warfare and amphibious-assault tactics. 

Surface-combatant warships simulated naval fires--no rounds were fired--and the amount of air-to-ground ordnance expended during JTFEX 00-1 also was substantially reduced compared to past live-fire exercises at Vieques. Aircrews were not the only personnel affected by the more artificial strike training; ordnance handlers and the flight deck crew on Dwight D. Eisenhower were not stressed to the same degree as they would be during high tempo, cyclical flight operations. As Cdr. Will Kervahn, commanding officer of Fighter Squadron 143, noted, the Vieques ranges offer "... the closest simulation to combat conditions that we can possibly get." 

Capt. John Read, commander of Amphibious Squadron Eight on the USS Wasp, noted that Vieques is the only facility on the East Coast that allows all pieces of CVBG-ARG operations to be combined simultaneously--naval gunfire support, close-air support, and Marine artillery fire--while Marines are on the beach during the amphibious assault. Col. Richard T. Tryon, commander of the 24th MEU (SOC), explained that the Vieques facilities offer more than just the realism of live-fire training. "It's the synergism that we're able to pull together under stress and time compression while maneuvering in order to bring the greatest impact on the target as we are conducting operations," he said. 

Follow-on Training Planned 

At a 3 December Department of Defense press conference, senior Navy Department officials confirmed that follow-on training is planned for both the Dwight D. Eisenhower CVBG and the Wasp ARG following their arrival in European waters. According to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jay L. Johnson, the two groups will not be fully combat-ready when they leave Norfolk, Va., but they will receive sufficient live-fire training before they are put into combat.  "They will receive good training," Johnson said. "We have every confidence in them, but we owe them the graduation-level exercise--and they will receive that in the forward theater before we would ever commit them to combat." 

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James L. Jones Jr. expressed a similar view to Pentagon reporters. He noted that the embarked Marines receive some live-fire training at their home stations. "What we will have to do forward, in theater, is the integration piece with the amphibious ready group and the carrier battle group," he said. "Also, we have a Marine squadron embarked as part of the carrier air wing, and they will have to come up to speed with their Navy counterparts." 

The vital importance of ensuring that Navy and Marine Corps rotational forces are fully combat ready when they "chop" to U.S. combat commanders overseas was forcefully underscored during 1999. Five aircraft carrier battle groups and two amphibious ready groups were involved in various combat operations--with some units commencing strike operations immediately upon their arrival in the Adriatic Sea or Persian Gulf. 

Gunnery Sgt. Tim Jordan, assigned to the ARG's 24th MEU (SOC), said the loss of live-fire training at Vieques concerned him. "A time of war is not the time for an individual to see what's going on with live rounds," the 16-year Marine Corps veteran observed. Jordan, a light armored-reconnaissance platoon sergeant, had trained at Vieques on two occasions during past assignments. He estimated that approximately 75 percent of the young Marines in his platoon have served in the Corps for less than a year--reflecting a lack of combat experience that amplifies the importance of realistic live-fire training for U.S. rotational forces. 

Officers and aircrews on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower expressed similar views about the importance of live-fire training. Capt. H. Denby Starling II, the Dwight D. Eisenhower's commanding officer, noted that, while Navy training has improved since the Persian Gulf War, today's weapons and combat systems are more complicated than they were then. "There's no substitute for the experience of actually feeling heavy weapons come off the plane," Starling said, but he expressed confidence in the Navy's ability to manage training requirements for the battle group. 

Other Navy and Marine Corps officers participating in the JTFEX also had moved beyond the Vieques setback to make the most of the alternate exercise's training events. Capt. Richard D. Jaskot, the commander of Carrier Air Wing Seven on the Dwight D. Eisenhower, said that the Navy has always been very good at focusing on the training needed to accomplish the mission at hand. "We will be ready to do whatever the president calls on us to do," he said. 

Tryon described the JTFEX as very challenging, demanding, and realistic. Marines, he said, were keeping their powder dry and leaning forward. "We like to pride ourselves on being forward deployed, ready, and relevant in a number of missions across the full spectrum of mission profiles--in order to bring the commander in chief the capability to respond and react to various situations," he said. 

Joint Warfare From the Sea 

JTFEX 00-1, conducted under the overall direction of Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr., commander in chief of the U.S. Joint Forces Command (CINC USJFCOM), was an impressive display of the massive, long-range combat power residing in a combined CVBG-ARG task force. Senior commanders participating in the exercise were quick to point out, however, that today's combat operations invariably would involve joint military units drawn from all branches of the U.S. armed forces. The joint exercise was planned with key Joint Chiefs of Staff and USJFCOM "interest items" in mind, including operational information warfare, aerial refueling, combat identification, command and control, and joint suppression of enemy air defenses. 

Participating forces incorporated "lessons learned" from recent combat operations in Kosovo and Iraq, including: (1) the employment of the Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System; (2) the creation of "kill boxes" for enemy forces; (3) the timeliness of joint-strike operations; and (4) the importance of timely and accurate bomb-damage assessment. The exercise play will be very closely evaluated, JTFEX planners said, to identify any operational deficiencies in joint doctrine, organization, training, leader development, and material. 

Embarked joint and multinational staff officers on the command ship USS Mount Whitney--augmented with experienced Naval Reservists--played an important role in planning and orchestrating all joint operations. In the ship's darkened command and control spaces, a pronounced Army, Air Force, and NATO presence was apparent. 

Brig. Gen. Roberto Marrero Corletto, commanding general of the Army's 92nd Infantry Brigade, directed a 27-person response cell on the Mount Whitney to simulate extensive notional Army ground-combat operations ranging across North Carolina. Marrero gave the exercise high marks and stated that all Army training objectives were being achieved. "I think we have also helped the other services understand the requirements of the Army when we deploy joint forces," he added. 

Navy operational commanders praised the degree of cooperation and interoperability demonstrated between Air Force, Air National Guard, Navy, and Marine Corps aviation units participating in the exercise. In the Mount Whitney's Joint Forces Air Component Commander (JFACC) spaces, joint-service officers were focused on: (1) ensuring that there be a seamless transition in the conduct of aerial operations from the sea to the shore; and (2) the planning of the daily Air Tasking Order (ATO) directing daily air-defense and strike operations. Continuing intelligence updates were interjected in real time into operational orders from higher authority, operational plans, and exercise play to develop detailed ATOs supporting the joint campaign. No problems were immediately apparent in the JFACC's development and transmission of the ATO to all joint forces--a significant shortcoming during joint operations in the Persian Gulf War. 

A prototype computer-generated Area Air Defense Commander System offered joint commanders a multidimensional view of the exercise's battle area. Capt. Al Steichen, the director of the JFACC and a seasoned veteran of similar operations, praised the degree of joint and allied teamwork. "It's really quite amazing," he said. "You can see the different uniforms at the charts and computer terminals, and they're working shoulder to shoulder." 

On the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, Starling noted that every CVBG that now deploys will be more technologically advanced than its predecessor; he said that his own ship had impressive information-technology capabilities as the result of upgrades to its Cooperative Engagement Capability systems. Compared to his past experiences with the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Starling said, the connectivity with shore units and the USS Mount Whitney was "unbelievable." 

"With that kind of information flow back and forth, it's almost more than one can swallow--it's incredible how much information goes on and off the ship." 

Jaskot, the battle group's air wing commander, was of a similar mind. "I think this air wing and this battle group are probably better prepared than most recent ones [deployers] with the types of communication systems and infrastructure that tie together the whole network," he said. "This air wing has trained together for a long time ... and we're up on the step and moving forward." 

Today's Sailors and Marines 

Beyond the strategic and tactical achievements associated with the U.S. Joint Forces Command's first major exercise in the new fiscal year, a visitor to the ships of the Dwight D. Eisenhower CVBG and Wasp ARG gained a more fundamental appreciation of how much young Sailors and Marines contribute to the instant readiness required of today's forward-deployed Navy-Marine Corps team. 

Throughout the long weeks at sea, operations, maintenance, and training continued around the clock. On the night before the MEU(SOC) Marines boarded the Wasp's air-cushioned landing craft and transport helicopters to launch their amphibious assault at Onslow Beach, N.C., they could be observed on the ship's hangar and well decks carefully preparing their weapons, equipment, armor, and vehicles for the exhausting demands of the day to follow. Squadron maintenance personnel worked late into the night to complete last-minute repairs to a rotor blade on a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter and the ejection seat on an AV-8B Harrier V/STOL (vertical/short takeoff and landing) aircraft. 

It was no different on other ships assigned to the CVBG and the ARG. On the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, flight operations were sustained 24 hours a day--described by reporter Dave Mayfield, writing for The Virginian Pilot on 13 December 1999--as "... an operation that never is less than extraordinary." 

Technicians assigned to the "jet shop," known formally as the IM-2 Division in the ship's Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department, worked hard to ensure their replacement turbofan engines were RFI or "ready for issue." Aviation supply personnel filled an ongoing stream of requests for repair parts. Watchstanders kept their constant vigil to ensure the safety of their ship and shipmates. 

Today's Sailors and Marines reflect a rich ethnic tapestry drawn from every quarter of American society. Fortunately, improvements to their pay, compensation, and retirement programs enacted by Congress last year have begun to remedy some of the financial inequities associated with service in today's All Volunteer Force. 

Sailors and Marines welcome this year's 4.8 percent pay raise and the increased opportunity for larger advancement bonuses during the years ahead. Career personnel also strongly endorsed the restoration of retirement benefits for those individuals completing a 20-year career. As Gunnery Sgt. Jordan said, "It takes a special individual to stay in the Marine Corps. I'm not in it for the money, but with four children, the pay raise is certainly appreciated." The career Marine also stressed the importance of the restored 20-year retirement package. "If it had been cut to 40 percent [retired pay of 40 percent of active-duty base pay], I would get out--no ands, ifs, or buts," he said. 

Jordan and other Marines also praised the reemphasis of traditional Marine values reflected in the Commandant's Guidance promulgated by Jones when he assumed duty as Marine Corps commandant last summer. "I am happy to see that emphasis again," Jordan said. 

(Some final personal thoughts: Combat readiness can be compared to the work of the ship's bakers who labor overnight in the galley to prepare the bread for tomorrow's meals--it must be made fresh every day. The incessant task of forging day-to-day combat readiness falls to individual Sailors and Marines--young men and women who are underpaid and often unheralded by the general public in this day of high-technology warfare. They represent all that is right and good with the youth of this country. Their fellow Americans would do well to keep them in their thoughts and prayers when they steam into harm's way during a six-month deployment to the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf this year.)