<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2013/02/marine-corps-missions-okinawa-japan-vietnam-cambodia-next-020513w/">http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2013/02/marine-corps-missions-okinawa-japan-vietnam-cambodia-next-020513w/</a><br><br><img alt="Marine Corps Times" src="http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/images/logo_marinetimes.gif" height="30" width="95"><br><h2 class="yiv360798762yui_3_7_2_20_1360235872674_96 yiv360798762yui_3_7_2_21_1360235872674_88 yiv360798762yui_3_7_2_22_1360235872674_87 yui_3_7_2_29_1360235872674_87"
style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;display:inline;font-size:1em;font-weight:normal;line-height:1.25em;font:normal normal normal 26px/normal Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">More Marines to Japan; Vietnam, Cambodia next</h2><br style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;"><div class="yiv360798762info"
style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:10px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;display:block;font-size:11px;color:rgb(119, 119, 119);">By <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:gfuentes@militarytimes.com?subject=Question%20from%20AirForceTimes.com%20reader" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal;color:rgb(51, 51, 51);">Gidget Fuentes</a> - Staff writer<br
style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;">Posted : Tuesday Feb 5, 2013 20:26:45 EST</div><form target="_blank" id="yiv360798762hidden" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;"></form><div style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;text-align:left;line-height:1.35em;">The
Marine Corps’ shift to the Pacific will ramp up considerably this year,
with more personnel and aircraft rotating to Japan and other
destinations throughout the region.</div><div style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;text-align:left;line-height:1.35em;">As
of late January, there are two infantry battalions rotating through
Okinawa for six months at a time, with a third scheduled to start this
summer. The Corps also intends to send a contingent of electronic
warfare aircraft to its air station in mainland Japan, and <b>a group of explosives experts will undertake a humanitarian mission in Vietnam</b>. Future engagement with Cambodia is on the horizon, too.</div><div style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;text-align:left;line-height:1.35em;">The
Marine Corps’ commandant, Gen. Jim Amos, told reporters at a conference
in San Diego last week that the infantry units cycling through Okinawa
this year will conduct training in Guam, Australia and, he hopes, the
Philippines. The two battalions currently deployed are permanently based
in Hawaii and North Carolina. Plans call for another infantry unit,
likely from California, to deploy in August or September, Amos said.</div><div style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;text-align:left;line-height:1.35em;">“So
we’ll actually have three rotating,” he said. “… That is part of the
[Pacific] reorientation … to get these units into the theater.”</div><div style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;text-align:left;line-height:1.35em;">Additionally,
the service will send an unspecified number of EA-6B Prowlers to Marine
Corps Air Station Iwakuni, which already hosts rotations of F/A-18
Hornet fighter squadrons. The Prowlers are long-range aircraft equipped
with advanced electronic countermeasures capable of disabling enemy air
defenses and gathering intelligence.</div><div style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;text-align:left;line-height:1.35em;">“We
haven’t had them there, flying out of Iwakuni, in a long time,” Amos
said. “They are going to come back. So I’m pretty excited about it.”</div><div style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;text-align:left;line-height:1.35em;"><b>In
July, Marines from Camp Pendleton, Calif., many expert in handling
explosives and mines, will head to Vietnam, where thousands of
unexploded munitions remain from the Vietnam War. They’ll teach locals
how to handle and dispose of unexploded munitions, according to a Marine
Corps news release.</b></div><div style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;text-align:left;line-height:1.35em;"><b>“We
are not training in Vietnam,” Amos said, “but I would hope that someday
down the road, with relationships we build over the next year or two,
that we’ll be able to train in Vietnam, perhaps with air forces, and
operate along with them and build those relationships.”</b></div><div style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;text-align:left;line-height:1.35em;">The
Navy’s top officer, Adm. Jon Greenert, said during the same conference
that the U.S. is seeking new opportunities in Cambodia as well. <b>The
commanding general of Marine Forces Pacific, Lt. Gen. Terry Robling,
told Marine Corps Times last fall that Vietnam and Cambodia have a
strong interest in exchanges or training centered on medical and
humanitarian-response missions.</b></div><div style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:10px;margin-left:0px;border-top-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-color:initial;text-align:left;line-height:1.35em;">Missions in Malaysia, Indonesia and India also are on the horizon, Robling said at the time.<br><br><br><a href="http://news.antiwar.com/2013/02/06/asia-surge-us-marines-heading-to-vietnam-cambodia/">http://news.antiwar.com/2013/02/06/asia-surge-us-marines-heading-to-vietnam-cambodia/</a><div id="yiv360798762box">
                                
                                                                                <h4 id="yiv360798762pagesub"><span style="font-size: 18px;">Asia Surge: US Marines Heading to Vietnam, Cambodia</span></h4><h4 id="yiv360798762pagesub">US Hopes to Increase Presence Across Pacific</h4>        
                                                                                                        <div class="yiv360798762details">
                                                        by Jason Ditz,
                                                        February 06, 2013<br><br></div>
                        </div>
                                        
                
                
                
                        
                                
                                
                                        <div>Obama Administration officials have hyped their planned “Asian
pivot” for awhile, an effort to get more US combat troops deployed in
nations across the Pacific Rim in spite of the US not actually being in
any wars there. Today Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Jim Amos <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2013/02/marine-corps-missions-okinawa-japan-vietnam-cambodia-next-020513w/">revealed his branch’s plans</a>.</div>
<div><img alt="" src="http://news.antiwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Vietnam.png" align="right" height="519" hspace="10" vspace="10" width="240">The
US Marines currently have two battalions “permanently” deployed across
the Pacific Rim, mostly Okinawa and Guam. This will be increased to add a
third battalion, with an increase in troops in Okinawa, as well as
Vietnam and Cambodia.<br><br></div>
<div>The Vietnam mission is scheduled for July, and will center around
training locals in disposing of unexploded land mines still littering
the nation since the US war in that nation a generation ago, while the
Cambodia deployment will <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://news.antiwar.com/2012/11/15/dismissing-concerns-us-increases-anti-terror-aid-to-cambodia-regime/">increase US ties</a> with the regime there.<br><br></div>
<div>Amos expressed hope that the Vietnam deployment would build
relationships to the point where the Marines could establish a training
and operational relationship with the Vietnamese military, while Lt.
Gen. Terry Robling says that deployments into Malaysia, Indonesia and
even India are also “on the horizon.”</div><br><div><span><br></span></div><div><span></span></div><br><br><br><br></div></div><font size="1"><br><span class="yiv360798762yui_3_7_2_21_1360235872674_104 yiv360798762yui_3_7_2_22_1360235872674_103 yui_3_7_2_29_1360235872674_103" style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(128, 0, 0);font-weight:bold;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span class="yiv360798762yui_3_7_2_21_1360235872674_105 yiv360798762yui_3_7_2_22_1360235872674_104 yui_3_7_2_29_1360235872674_104" style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(128, 0, 0);font-weight:bold;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><font class="yiv360798762yui_3_7_2_21_1360235872674_106 yiv360798762yui_3_7_2_22_1360235872674_105 yui_3_7_2_29_1360235872674_105" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;color:rgb(128, 0, 0);" size="1">========================================<br>CHUCK SEARCY</font></font><font
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chucksearcy<br>========================================</font><br><br></font><br><br><div><br><span></span></div><br><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13.3333px; font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><br><span></span></div></div></body></html>