Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group Departs Subic Bay after completing PHIBLEX 33

From the 7th Fleet Website (Oct 12): Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group Departs Subic Bay after completing PHIBLEX 33

SOUTH CHINA SEA --
        
The Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group (BHR ESG), with embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, departed the Philippines following Philippine Amphibious Landing Exercise (PHIBLEX) 33, Oct. 12.  

Launched from ships of the BHR ESG, U.S. Marines trained shoulder-to-shoulder with their Philippine Marine Corps counterparts, conducting amphibious landings, live-fire exercises and airborne insertions across Luzon, the country’s largest island. For PHIBLEX 33, 1,386 personnel from five military services learned how to work better together through a series of training events.
  
PHIBLEX is an annual exercise held between the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to increase interoperability in order to jointly respond to natural disasters or regional contingencies.  

“Our PHIBLEX presented a wonderful opportunity to maximize integration not only among the members of the Philippine and the United States Armed forces,” said Philippine Marine Corps Brigadier General Maximo Ballesteros, exercise director during the closing ceremonies in Manila: “it further provided an opportunity for closer integration among Filipinos American and other partner nationalities of goodwill.”  

U.S. Marine Corps Brigadier General John Jansen, co-director of the exercise, stressed how much U.S. and Philippine forces learned from each other.  

“Our training together as Marines makes us all better Marines, and more capable as an interoperable force that provides the capability that we might apply to our treaty obligations in the future, whether it be in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, assistance in internal security, or in other times of crisis as determined by our two great nations,” said Brig Gen. Jansen.  

Not only was the 31st MEU involved in bilateral training, they were also involved in several outreaches to the local community. Building on a longstanding tradition of humanitarian assistance in the Philippines, Navy medical professionals assigned to Marine Logistics Group 3, conducted public health training to more than 1,000 Filipino students and teachers, while practicing mass casualty response with their counterparts in the Philippine Navy.  

Sailors of the BHR ESG and Philippine Navy also exchanged expertise on beach master operations, anti-submarine warfare, beach survey operations, command and control, shipboard operations, and strengthening the two navies’ ability to operate together.  

“Seeing our two forces work side-by-side in so many mission areas exemplified the spirit of this exercise,” said Rear Adm. Marc H. Dalton, commander, Expeditionary Strike Group 7. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to train here and recognize how we grow together by exercising together.”  

ESG units include flagship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), USS Green Bay (LPD 20), USS Germantown (LSD 42), Amphibious Squadron (PHIBRON) 11, Naval Beach Unit (NBU) 7, Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25, and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. The 31st MEU consists of Battalion Landing Team (BLT) 2/4, Combat Logistics Battalion (CLB) 31, and Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 262 Reinforced. 

http://www.c7f.navy.mil/Media/News/Display/Article/970800/bonhomme-richard-expeditionary-strike-group-departs-subic-bay-after-completing/