By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW) Zane Ecklund, USS New York Public Affairs

ATLANTIC OCEAN (NNS) — The amphibious transport dock landing ship USS New York (LPD 21) began participating and serving as the supporting platform for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) during during the commencement of African Lion 2012, April 9.

African Lion 2012, is a bi-lateral theatre and security exercise in conjunction with Royal Moroccan Armed Forces designed to promote inter-operability and coordination between nations, in addition to ensuring regional peace.

Capt. Richard Busch, operations and fire support officer for Marines embarked aboard New York, considers African Lion a great opportunity to strengthen positive relations abroad.

“This exercise is training to enhance mutual understanding of each country’s tactics, techniques, and procedures,” said Busch. “It will also reinforce a long standing relationship with the Moroccan people.”

Staff Sgt. Adrian Rondini, is excited about being able to participate in the exercise.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to work with a different force and learn some tactics, and to teach them some of our own,” said Rondini. “It’s an awesome opportunity anytime we can join efforts with other countries, and it helps build a reputation in case we have future obligations.”

While the exercise predominantly demonstrates the capabilities of the MEU, New York will play a supporting role by facilitating air and amphibious operations. Helicopters from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 261 (reinforced) airlifted munitions from the ship’s flight deck while pre-staging equipment ashore. In addition, landing craft air cushions (LCAC) from Amphibious Craft Unit (ACU) 4 have transported MEU assets from the ship’s well deck.

Quartermaster 2nd Class Amy Klemarczyk, an ACU Sailor, said she is proud of her unit’s involvement in the operation.

“Without the LCACs we wouldn’t be able to transport the MEU and get the mission done,” said Klemarczyk.

New York is part of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group with the embarked 24th MEU. New York is deployed in support of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility. USS New York is the sixth ship named for the state of New York, and the fifth amphibious transport dock ship in the San Antonio Class. Her motto is “Strength forged through sacrifice. Never forget.”

For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from Amphibious Ready Group, visit www.navy.mil/local/arg8/.

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NAPLES, Italy — An MV-22 Osprey operating from the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) crashed in a Royal Moroccan military training area southwest of Agadir, Morocco, while participating in the bilateral Exercise African Lion. Four U.S. Marine Corps personnel were on the aircraft at the time of the incident. Two personnel died as a result of their injuries sustained in the crash. The two other personnel were severely injured in the crash and are being medically evacuated for further treatment.

The MV-22 Osprey was assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 261 based at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) New River, N.C. The squadron was operating from the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) at the time of the incident.

The Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) with the embarked 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), are participating in Exercise African Lion, a bilateral exercise conducted with Royal Moroccan military forces. The annual exercise is scheduled to be conducted April 8-17, 2012, in a designated military training area southwest of Agadir, Morocco.

Exercise African Lion is a bilateral, theater security cooperation exercise led by U.S. Marine Forces Africa and is conducted annually between the U.S. military and the Kingdom of Morocco to further develop joint and combined capabilities. The exercise will focus on building capacity, capability, and interoperability in the following areas: field and aviation training, humanitarian civic assistance, amphibious landings, intelligence capacity building, and command post and peace support operations.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.

For more information on the incident, please contact HQMC, Division of Public Affairs at 703-614-4309 or ontherecord@usmc.mil.

Read more: http://www.dvidshub.net/news/86587/mv-22-osprey-crashes-during-military-exercise#.T4YyRFGUfHQ#ixzz1rmnfy0w6

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By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jamica Johnson, Amphibious Squadron 8 Public Affairs
USS IWO JIMA, At Sea (NNS) — The Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) with embarked 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) entered U.S. 6th Fleet’s Area of Responsibility (AOR) April 4.

The day is a major milestone, as it is the maiden deployment for the amphibious transport dock ship USS New York (LPD 21), as well as the long awaited return from both multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) and amphibious dock-landing ship USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44), the triad of warships that make up the Iwo Jima ARG.

While in the area, the Iwo Jima ARG is mission capable to assist in a full range of maritime security operations, provide crisis response capability, increase theater security cooperation and provide forward naval presence in the 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operation.

“Chopping into 6th Fleet is a normal progression for our deployment, said Capt. Andrew J. Loiselle, commanding officer USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44). “During our time here, we will be in support of both EUCOM and AFRICOM and will participate in exercise African Lion with Morocco. We have spent a long time during work-ups preparing for any contingency that may arise while we are in the 6th Fleet AOR. The team is ready.”

The process for becoming not just deployment ready, but becoming a commissioned U.S. vessel and learning to act as a cohesive team was a challenge for the New York, but they took it in stride.

“Both material wise and training wise with a very junior crew with not a whole lot of real world experience or anything to go on,” said Cmdr. William C. Herrmann, commanding officer of USS New York (LPD 21), “we’ve managed to go through the intermediate training phase nearly flawlessly. We’ve excelled at just about every warfare area that was given to us. We’ve accomplished every task given and that’s a testament to the desire, New York never fails and that is on the deck plates. That’s the deck plate Sailors who are making that happen.”

Along with the pressures of being a warship on its first deployment, New York has the honor of being a symbol of the American people’s strength, resilience and fortitude, while being a global force for good.

“You can’t have a story about the New York without talking about the steel that’s in the stem, and how integral that is to the ship and the way we conduct our mission,” Herrmann said. “It’s almost palpable when you step on this ship, you can feel something different about the New York. Realizing that the New York is what the New York is and that the steel in the stem represents so much to so many people.”

As with any Navy evolution, exercise or mission, safety is of the utmost importance, the Iwo Jima ARG plans to exemplify that while carrying out the Navy’s mission. “As we go over to areas of the world where they don’t necessarily like us means we have to be more vigilant,” said Herrmann. “To be more prepared for anything to happen and be on the look out to ensure this ship stays safe, that this ship accomplishes the missions it’s tasked with,” said Herrmann.

For more information, visit www.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/usnavy, or www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from Amphibious Ready Group, visit www.navy.mil/local/arg8/.

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