Monday, April 23, 2001

By Fred Knapp, Stars and Stripes

They’re coming.

More than 28,000 troops from the United States, Australia and Canada are descending on Australia for a monthlong exercise on the continent’s eastern coast.

About 15,300 Americans, 12,200 Australians and 750 Canadians will take part in Tandem Thrust from May 3 to May 29 at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area near Rockhampton.

But first, their supplies are coming: tanks and trucks, Humvees, forklifts, bulldozers, road graders, excavators, fuel trucks, cranes, electrical generators, MREs, water tanks, brooms — the list goes on and on.

That’s where the Military Sealift Command comes in — came in last Monday, in fact — with the arrival of the MV Maersk Constellation in Gladstone.

The sealift command’s operations is just one part of the massive "Team Challenge" exercise that is scheduled to get under way this month in three countries. Team Challenge combines three of the Pacific’s largest exercises — Tandem Thrust in Australia, Cobra Gold in Thailand and Balikatan in the Philippines — into one huge multinational exercise that focuses on peacekeeping and humanitarian relief.

The exercise will include observers and participants from several countries, including Singapore and Malaysia. China also was invited to send observers, a step lauded by U.S. military officials as a sign of warming relations between that country and the United States.

But that was before the Chinese detained the U.S. EP-3E spy plane and its crew earlier this month.

The individual host countries decided who to invite, Maj. Sean Gibson, a spokesman for the Pacific Command in Hawaii, said Wednesday. Thailand had invited the Chinese to Cobra Gold, Gibson said, but there had been no response yet. Australia and the Philippines had not invited Chinese observers.

Troops from U.S. bases around the Pacific are gearing up for Team Challenge, which runs through next month. Many already have deployed or will deploy in the next week, military officials said.

Each component of the exercise includes dozens of units, ships and aircraft. On paper, there are more than 30,000 U.S. troops involved, but some will participate in more than one portion.

The U.S. 7th Fleet announced Friday that eight of the command’s ships will participate in Team Challenge. They are: USS Kitty Hawk, USS Blue Ridge, USS Chancellorsville, USS Vincennes, USS Gary, USS Essex, USS Juneau and USS Germantown.

The names of units haven’t been released, but participants include elements of nearly a dozen different Marine units from Okinawa.

For the sealift command, a big part of the exercise is getting the supplies to each country.

Stevedores began unloading items in Gladstone last week that Marines will eventually drive 90 miles north to the exercise area. The Constellation was followed to Gladstone by the SS Cape Isabel, another supply ship.

Together, they were bringing supplies from points as far as Alaska, Hawaii and Okinawa, said Cmdr. Steve Musser, commander of a Military Sealift Command reserve unit based in Moreno Valley, Calif. Musser’s Naval Reserve unit is one of six stateside reserve units assigned to the Military Sealift Command Far East based in Yokohama.

"Our job is to get the ship and get to the right place at the right time," said Dub Allen, spokesman for the MSC Far East.

After that, the Army’s Military Transportation Movement Command is responsible for getting the cargo offloaded and arranging for them to be moved, Allen said.

The two ships have been under way for about four weeks, Musser said. Additional supplies also were being brought to Brisbane aboard the MV 1st Lt. Jack Lummus, a supply ship that is usually pre-positioned in the Guam-Saipan area, Allen said.

Tandem Thrust will include both actual field training and computer-simulated command post exercises for troops from Okinawa, mainland Japan and Hawaii.

But while troops prepare for the exercise, "it’s not really an exercise for us," said Musser, adding that there is no difference between exercises and what they would do in the event of an emergency.

"We need to get the ships here on time and get them offloaded," Musser said.

Or as Allen put it, referring to the MSC Far East motto, "We deliver the fight."

Back to April's stories
Page Two news roundup
Stories from March, 2001
Stories from February, 2001
Stories from January, 2001
Stories from December, 2000
Stories from November, 2000
Stories from October, 2000
Stories from August and September, 2000
Stories from June and July, 2000
Home