By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Recruit Scott Youngblood, Amphibious Squadron 8 Public Affairs

USS NEW YORK, At Sea (NNS) — A film crew from Discovery Channel got underway with amphibious transport dock ship USS New York (LPD 21) Jan. 27 to document shipboard life and training evolutions for the network’s TV series “Mighty Ships.”

Discovery Channel has featured more than 30 different ships, from freighters to luxury liners, and is now embarked with New York while participating in Certification Exercise (CERTEX) and Bold Alligator 2012. The show will depict the working relationship between the Navy and Marine Corps services.

CERTEX is the final certification for deployment for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group. Bold Alligator 2012 is the largest naval amphibious exercise in the past 10 years.

“We wanted to show how two factions of the military work seamlessly together to train and prepare for deployment,” said Chris Gargus, the film crew director of photography.

Gargus has been on several Navy vessels while filming for “Mighty Ships.”

“The enormous complexity of these fascinating vehicles coming aboard such as the ‘floating tanks’ and the massive LCACs (Landing Craft Air Cushion) and the noise they create, combined with the precision of the crew, that’s what fits the category of Mighty Ships,” said Gargus.

Even after being aboard the New York for nearly a week, it hasn’t been easy for the film crew to adjust to a shipboard lifestyle, explained Gargus.

“It’s overwhelming as a civilian coming on board a ship, trying to figure out how everything works, and who does what,” said Mark Stevenson, director and writer for this episode. “Even with two camera crews, we can only be in two places at once. Having [Sailors] help us with that is critical because otherwise we would not be able to do it.”

“Everyone has been very helpful, the efficiency of the ship’s Sailors for making things happen for the film crew has been very impressive,” continued Stevenson.

The film crew made its way through the ship’s passageways and spaces, interviewing Sailors on topics ranging from flight deck operations to Visit Board Search and Seizure procedures.

“They asked me about the different pressures during evolutions pertaining to boatswains out at sea, and directing Sailors under some of the most dangerous conditions underway,” said Boatswains Mate Chief Warrant Officer Keith Shaw. “We wanted Discovery to understand if we’re not on our ‘A’ game one hundred percent of the time, there is a potential for loss of life; we stay ready so we don’t have to get ready.”

“This episode revolves on the integration of Sailors and Marines, and how the two groups work together to complete many different tasks aboard the ship while out to sea,” said Gargus.

“We were told from the beginning there is a great rivalry between the two, everything from sports to everything else,” said Gargus. “Everyone’s got their jokes about each other. But I saw a Navy hand reach out and a Marine arm come up from a rope ladder hanging off the side of the ship and pull that man up, and at that moment, they’re both part of the same brethren, performing the same action and looking out for each other.”

New York is set to be featured in season six of “Mighty ships.” The episode is slated to air in six to eight months when New York will be well into its maiden deployment scheduled for spring 2012.

Tags: 24th marine expeditionary unit, ABOARD, Affairs, air, alligator, Amphibious, amphibious ready group, amphibious squadron, amphibious transport, amphibious transport dock, attachment, board search, capture, certex, Certification, Channel, communication specialist, conduct, Corps, cover, craft air cushion, crew, cushion, deck, deploy, deployment, director of photography, discovery channel, enormous complexity, everyone, evolution, Expeditionary, film crew, Flight, flight deck, flight ops, floating tanks, integration, JPG, ladder, landing, landing craft, LARGE, LCAC, Light, LINE, LPD, lpd 21, luxury liners, Marine, marines, MARK, mark stevenson, Mass, mil, military work, Naval, Navy, navy vessel, navy vessels, New York, News, newyork, NNS, NY, office, Operations, photo, Press, Rail, Ready, sail, sailors, Scheduled, sea, seaman recruit, search and seizure, series, service, ship, shipboard, ships, SPECIAL, Specialist, task, time, Training, Unit, USS, USS New York, USS New York LPD-21, ussnewyork

OFF THE COAST OF NORTH CAROLINA — The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and their Navy counterparts of Amphibious Squadron 8 kicked off their final training evolution today to prepare their Marines and sailors for an upcoming deployment this spring.

Certification Exercise, commonly called CERTEX, is the third at-sea exercise for the Navy-Marine team and is intended to test their ability to rapidly plan and respond to a variety of crises during the next three weeks.

Over the weekend, approximately 2,300 Marines loaded the three amphibious assault ships of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which includes the USS Iwo Jima, USS New York and USS Gunston Hall.

The Marines worked around the clock to load the essential aircraft, vehicles and equipment that constitute a Marine Air Ground Task Force, which they will put to the test while refining their skills before heading across the Atlantic into the European and Central Command areas of operation.

The 24th MEU/PHIBRON 8 team will conduct training missions in North Carolina and Virginia in the coming days, which will include a Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel, mechanized raids, long-range aviation raids, and a response to a multiple casualty situation. These missions are based on a continuous fictitious scenario that has developed throughout the MEU’s six-month work-up cycle that has the unit operating off the coast of unstable countries who requested support from the United States.

A unique addition to this final exercise will be the integration of an unmanned aerial vehicle, which will deploy with the 24th MEU. This will be the first East Coast MEU to deploy with a UAV, which they will use to gather aerial imagery.

The 24th MEU’s CERTEX is also being included in the scenario driving Bold Alligator, the largest amphibious exercise conducted off the East Coast in 10 years.

The 24th MEU will conduct some missions in support of this larger exercise, but will mostly focus on its own mission essential tasks they are required to execute prior to deploying.

Tags: 1010 wins, 24th marine expeditionary unit, 24th meu, 9 11 pentagon, aerial imagery, air, aircraft, alignright, alligator, Amphibious, amphibious assault ship, amphibious assault ships, amphibious ready group, amphibious squadron, assault, Atlantic, attachment, aviation, CAROLINA, casualty, Central, central command, certex, Certification, COAST, Command, command areas, conduct, deploy, deployment, equipment, evolution, Expeditionary, fictitious scenario, Ground, Group, gun, Gunston, Hall, integration, Jima, landing, Marine, marines, MEU, MEUâ, mission, Navy, New York, News, newyork, North, North Carolina, orth carolina, Personnel, PHIBRON, Port, Ready, Recovery, sailors, sea, ships, spring, squadron, State, support, Tactical, team, Today, Training, uav, Unit, United States, unmanned aerial vehicle, unstable countries, USS, uss gunston hall, uss iwo jima, USS New York, ussnewyork, Virginia, week, weekend, year

From U.S. Fleet Forces Command Public Affairs

NORFOLK (NNS) — Commander, United States Fleet Forces (USFF) and Commander, Marine Corps Forces Command (MARFORCOM) will lead the East Coast’s largest joint and multinational amphibious assault exercise in the past ten years officials announced Jan. 25.

Exercise Bold Alligator 2012 (BA12) will revitalize Navy and Marine Corps amphibious expeditionary tactics, techniques and procedures, and reinvigorate its culture of conducting combined Navy and Marine Corps operations from the sea.

BA12 will be a live and synthetic, scenario-driven, simulation-supported exercise designed to train Expeditionary Strike Group 2 (ESG 2), 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade (2d MEB) and Carrier Strike Group 12. Staffs will plan and execute a MEB-sized amphibious assault from a seabase in a medium land-and-maritime threat environment to improve naval amphibious core competencies.

The exercise will run Jan. 30 through Feb. 12, ashore and afloat, in and off the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina and Florida

“Amphibious forces are a critical element of maritime power projection that ought to be a high priority for support, even in a resource constrained environment, because they are a cost effective option for accomplishing a wide range of military operations,” said Adm. John C. Harvey, commander, USFF.

The units involved include the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group (CSG), Expeditionary Strike Group 2 (ESG-2), 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB), Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), Naval Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) as well as various other ships and units.

Nine countries are participating in exercise BA12, providing maritime, land and air units or observers. The countries participating with the U.S. forces are Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom.

One of the exercise’s priorities is to incorporate lessons learned over the past 10 years of challenging combat operations, overseas contingency operations, humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HA/DR), noncombatant evacuation operations (NEO) and homeland defense.

The exercise will focus on the fundamental aspects and roles of amphibious operations to improve amphibious force readiness and proficiency for executing the six core capabilities of the Maritime Strategy – forward presence, deterrence, sea control, power projection, maritime security and humanitarian assistance/disaster response.

“In today’s world, the Navy-Marine Corps team must remain capable of gaining access to an operational area, and projecting and sustaining a sizable landing force ashore,” said Lt. General Dennis Hejlik, Commander, MARFORCOM. “We have the legislated responsibilities to be able to conduct these operations, and we certainly must be ready to do so beyond the ARG-MEU level where we routinely operate today.”

The culmination of Bold Alligator 2012 will include three large-scale events within the exercise: an amphibious assault at Camp Lejeune, N.C.; an aerial assault from the sea into Fort Pickett, Va.; and an amphibious raid on Fort Story, Va.

Embedded within their participation in BA12 is the Enterprise CSG’s Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX); the Iwo Jima (ARG) and 24th MEU certification exercise (CERTEX); and Riverine Group 1 (RIVGRU 1) Maritime Security Operations Ready (MSO-R) certification by Naval Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC).

For more history and information on Bold Alligator 2012, see Harvey’s blog at http://www.usfleetforces.blogspot.com/.

For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy. Join the conversation about Bold Alligator 2012 on social media using #BA12.

For more news from U.S. Fleet Forces Command, visit http://www.navy.mil/local/clf/.

Tags: 24th marine expeditionary unit, 24th meu, 2d meb, Access, Affairs, air, alignright, ALL, alligator, Amphibious, amphibious assault, amphibious forces, amphibious ready group, area, assault, assistance, attachment, CAROLINA, certex, Certification, class, COAST, coasts, combat, Command, command public affairs, conduct, Control, conversation, core, Corps, critical element, Defense, design, disaster, driven simulation, East, Eng, EST, event, Expeditionary, fleet, Flight, flight ops, formation, fun, Group, Hall, height, high priority, history, Homeland, iron, Jima, JPG, landing, LARGE, LEVEL, marforcom, Marine, marine corps operations, marines, maritime power, maritime security, MEU, mil, min, nation, National, Naval, naval expeditionary combat command, Navy, NCO, New York, News, News, newyork, NNS, Norfolk, North, North Carolina, official, option, orth carolina, OTHER, part, Per, power, power projection, PR, Pre, Press, project, public, Ready, sea, seabase, Security, ship, ships, site, Source, strike group, support, task, team, threat, threat environment, time, title, Today, Training, Unit, United, United States, US, use, usff, USS, USS New York, Va., vessel, Virginia, virginia north, Vol, war, WHERE, width, Will, year