U.S. Marine Maj. Gen. Paul Rock Jr., commanding general of 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, talks about KAMANDAG 3 in Subic Bay, Philippines, October 17, 2019. As treaty allies, U.S.-Philippine and U.S.- Japanese military collaboration has served as a cornerstone for stability in the Indo-Pacific region for decades, and the U.S. has a continuing interest in strengthening our longstanding alliances, reinforcing our maritime security efforts, and addressing our shared extremist threat. KAMANDAG 3 is a Philippine-led, bilateral exercise with participation from Japan. 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 Cpl. Luc Boatman)
Transcript
KAMANDAG supports 3UMF’s mission in the Indo-Pacific. Because 3UMF is America’s forward deployed, and forward base force in the Western Pacific. And one of our key allies is the Republic of the Philippines. We have, we do hundreds of exercises with them every year, the US military does. KAMADAG is one of the two biggest exercises we do, and we practice a host of skillsets, and work on interoperability, and the ability to respond to crisis together. KAMADAG 3 supports 3UMF’s readiness for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions, just by the opportunity to practice the skillsets with a partner that we frequently work with for NAJDR. 3UMF has responded to a number of humanitarian assistance disaster relief crises in the Republic of Philippines, and practicing with them, helping them develop and practice their capabilities helps everybody. KAMADAG 3 improves our partnership with the Republic of Philippines and Japan, in a number of ways. It’s a two week exercise, and we got an opportunity to do a lot of things. Capability development, combining our operability events across the spectrum of everything. Form military working dogs, to basic life support, to amphibious operations. It’s a great opportunity to build and develop professional competence and relationships with allies. If you ask yourself why you should care about KAMADAG 3, in a way, you know, what’s the typical American’s interest in KAMADAG 3? I would just, I would simply say, this is what we do in the Western Pacific. One of America’s great and enduring strengths here is our network of allies and partners. And our ability to work with our allies and partners, to train, to improve both of our capabilities, to be ready for anything, you know, that is what we do, and it is one of the great virtues of being forward base and forward deploy. KAMADAG 3 has been a great opportunity for the Marine and Navy team to train with a partner who is developing their own amphibious capability. There simply aren’t that many countries on the planet that have this kind of capability. The ships, the vehicles, the training, all of that. And it’s great for us to have the opportunity to work with them. We have been working with the Philippine military, Philippine Marine Corps for a number of years. And as they have brought out this capability and it’s great to have a partner to train with. We’ll both get better. So this is my first KAMADAG, and I honestly, didn’t exactly know what to expect. And I have been continually impressed by the ability of our Marines to work with, and figure out ways to get things done, overcoming language barriers, cultures’ barriers, you know, training equipment, whatever, whatever it might be, with both our Philippine partners and the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. We have different systems, different cultures, whole nine yards, and, but, you know, we figure out a way to make it happen, and make everybody better. So it’s been a good experience.
Awesome…