By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Raymond D. Diaz III,
Commander, Amphibious Squadron 11 Public Affairs
GWANGYANG HANG, Republic of Korea (NNS) -- Marine Corps
tanks were loaded onto Whidbey Island-class amphibious dock landing ship USS
Ashland (LSD 48) during a port visit in Gwangyang Hang, South Korea, April 1.
Ashland pulled into Gwangyang Hang for an on-load of six
M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks.
"The reason for the port visit was to on-load M1A1
Abrams main battle tanks to support exercise Ssang Yong," said Cmdr. Doug
Patterson, commanding officer of Ashland.
Marine Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy, deputy commanding general of
3rd Marine Expeditionary Forces and commanding general of 3rd Marine
Expeditionary Brigade (MEB), also came aboard to witness the event.
"The commanding general of 3d Marine Expeditionary
Brigade came to observe how we were doing this because, as far as anybody can
tell, it hadn't been done before," said Patterson. "He wanted to come
and see how we were going to go about this and how we would load tanks by crane
through the cargo hatch of an LSD."
The event took place in one of the largest container ports
in South Korea, Gwangyang Hang.
"This shows the versatility of expeditionary warfare
and that a landing ship, 'L' class, can go into a civilian merchant terminal,
on-load military gear from a railhead or some other type of transportation,
load it, get back underway, and then land that material at some designated
landing spot by means of conventional or hover craft," said Patterson.
The M1A1 tanks will be conducting landing operations with
landing craft air cushions (LCACs) in conjunction with Exercise Ssang Yong.
Ashland is assigned to Expeditionary Strike Group Seven and
is participating in Exercise Ssang Yong, an annual combined exercise conducted
by Navy and Marine forces with the Republic of Korea to strengthen
interoperability across the range of military operations.
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