Service members from the Philippines and the United States conduct a small arms live fire activity during exercise KAMANDAG 3 at Fort Magsaysay, Philippines, Oct. 13-14, 2019. KAMANDAG helps participating forces maintain a high level of readiness and responsiveness, and enhances combined military-to-military relations, interoperability, and multinational coordination. KAMANDAG is an acronym for the Filipino phrase “Kaagapay Ng Mga Manirigma Ng Dagat,” which translates to “Cooperation of the Warriors of the Sea,” highlighting the partnership between the U.S. and Philippine militaries. (U.S. Marine Corps video by Sgt. Ryan Siddell)
Transcript
Out here, we have the Philippine Marine Core Force Recon as well as the Special Operations Platoon. And of course working side-by-side with the counterparts from the US Marine Corp in preparation for the M.O.U.B. which is Military Operations in Urban Terrain as well as the close quarter combats in the next coming days.
What we’re doing with the small arms fire and kinda the goal that I have here is to continue to build our friendships. We’ve already met a lot of guys that are really savvy and we’ve been able to build a strong partnership with them. Some of the benefits that I’ve noticed, is increased reliance on capabilities. So as I continue to train my marines, alongside the Filipinos, I’ve been able to learn things from their lieutenants, from their Captain, as well as my marines have been able to learn some things from the Filipinos as well. For me being out here, comin’ on is a huge success. I can see the whole training workup come to fruition, developing NCOs, developing those guys on their second, third deployment in order to train the next crop of guys that are going to come in after this deployment. So this allows us to do the same thing, while learning something from our friends and partners and allies here in the Philippines.
This is one of the best learning experience that we can hope to have. Just sharing stories, combat or otherwise, it just really gives us a better perspective of how life is on the other side of the globe. People would pay big money to participate or do what we do out here. So, you know, and to simplify things, I guess, I could say that we’re just really damn proud to be, you know, working with one of the most elite forces in the world.