Discovering each other, trying to see how we do, how you do, and trying to get experience
together.
Bilateral training in today's Marine Corps is extremely important because we find ourselves
routinely in battlefields with different nations.
We get that experience of moving, integrating, going to a foreign land, and getting out of
there with all of our gear, our personnel, and our proficient men.
And as Marines and NCOs gain experience in tackling those challenges, we become better
trainers, we become better learners, and we become better warfighters.
The French foreign legend is a part of the French Army.
Strangers can come from all over the world, and our world is in the French foreign legend.
I'm originally from Central African Republic.
I'm from Japan, Tokyo.
My family is from the north side of Chicago.
And that's where I like to call home, because you have all these different people from different
cultures, different military backgrounds or non-military backgrounds, and they can add
their own personal touch, and that benefits the overall unit.
I think it's important for the French foreign legion to train ensemble with the Marine Corps
and also other military units because working as a military force for France, they're going
to be working with units from other nations, and they need to have the technical as well
as the cultural ability to do that.
It's been a real eye-opener to see how other militaries, and specifically the French, operate.
We'll come automatically into the head-up display.
The gear was pretty impressive, it's very new age, very electronic-driven.
It's camouflage now I can see, because it's hot.
I've really enjoyed training with the legion.
You've got to see a lot of different things I've never seen before.
You're learning so much from that weapon right there, wow.
As the days start to go on, I was like, wow, this is really interesting.
It's not becoming a job, and it started becoming something that I love.
Backblaster out-secure, rocket!
The different exercises that we conducted were focused around shooting and close quarters
battle.
We conducted a company-sized raid that was a non-combatant evacuation of a small village
with civilians, enemy, and rebels.
We simultaneously breached the town at two points.
They pushed through the village, identifying the American citizens that needed to be evacuated
and the terrorists that needed to be eliminated.
Hey, once we get across, we're moving, got it?
He's on the other side, get in the window!
Get in the window down low!
When finishing that, we linked up all four platoons, moved to the LZ, and conducted extract
via Osprey.
By far the biggest takeaway that our unit has gotten from this training is partnership
with other nations and being able to talk across languages, talk across styles, get
to that common goal.
And for us as infantrymen, it's to locate close with and destroy the enemy.
After being said, everybody does it differently, and the French foreign legion is very good
at those skills.
And you guys also know how we do it, so that's why I think it's important to exchange knowledge.
Knowledge is power.
Anybody can take anything away from you, but knowledge is one thing that they can't take.
They know what their capabilities are, and they know what our capabilities are, and put
that together and that just makes a better picture for everybody.
I guess if we don't do that, there's no way that we'll actually be progressing.
We'll just be stuck in our own ways of how we do things.
I don't think all the stuff that we can learn from each other can be learned in this in
just one week, so yes, I definitely hope we can work together again.
Fire in the hole, fire in the hole!
