Marines blending in

By Corporal Simone Liebelt

1st LT Tavis McNair, left, briefs NCOs from 5th ANGLICO at Delamere Range during Exercise Southern Frontier.

Photo by SGT Mark Eaton

THEY may have the wrong camouflage uniform for the NT outback, but these US Marine Corps are blending right into Delamere.

“It’s been nice to be able to come into a similar culture, where we at least speak the same language, we all understand the same thing across the board and we got Jerry Springer, so it’s all good,” said 1st Lieutenant Tavis McNair from the 5th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, known as 5th ANGLICO.

He’s heading up an eight-man team who have deployed from Okinawa, Japan to provide ground forward air controller support to the Marine Air Wing during Exercise Southern Frontier.

Their job was to provide naval gunfire and artillery support to the Marines, who were bombing at Delamere as part of the exercise. ANGLICO is a liaison unit that provides Marine close air support, naval gunfire, and artillery fire support to a Joint or Allied manoeuvre unit.

“This exercise is non standard for us, as we usually work with a manoeuvre unit like an infantry company and work fire support into it. Out here, we’re just supporting the Marine Air Wing to help accomplish their training goals.”

As a liaison unit to foreign and joint militaries, it’s their job to support any force in the area of operations.

“If the Australian Air Force actually had jets out here, we’d fully integrate in with their training plan, so we’d provide them with whatever they needed for ground controllers,” he said.

“Or we would control Marine Airpower in support of an Australian manoeuvre force.”

.