FORT BONIFACIO, MANILA, Philippines – Elements of the I and III Marine Expeditionary Forces (MEF) concluded the three weeks of the latest iteration of Marine Aviation Support Activity bilateral training with the Armed Forces of the Philippines on June 21, 2024. Training encompassed air, sea, and land domains from Palawan to Batan, rehearsing emerging aviation concepts across the Philippine archipelago.
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BARIRA, Philippines – Born and raised in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, Jonathan Dumadaug would return 34 years later, but now in the uniform of an elite fighting force, the United States Marine Corps.Dumadaug first felt inspired to join the Marine Corps by his uncle, a Philippine Marine who once fought against the Moro-Islamic Liberation Front rebels in Camp Abubakar in 2000. The impact that civil unrest in the region had on his upbringing drove Dumadaug to find a bigger sense of purpose.“I can’t just sit here and be comfortable when threats over the world are getting bolder,” said Dumadaug. “I'd rather be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a battlefield.”
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Marine Aviation Support Activity (MASA) 24, an annual Philippine-U.S. military exercise focused on mutual defense, strengthening relationships, and rehearsing emerging aviation concepts, is scheduled to take place in the Philippines from June 3-21, 2024.Philippine and U.S. service members will conduct a range of interoperability training events consistent with the Mutual Defense Treaty, Visiting Forces Agreement, and the supplemental Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. These mutual agreements support continued long-term modernization efforts, increased maritime security, and improved humanitarian assistance capabilities in response to natural disasters in the Philippines.
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FORT BONIFACIO, MANILA, Philippines – Elements of I and III Marine Expeditionary Forces (MEF) concluded the latest iteration of the Archipelagic Coastal Defense Continuum (ACDC) bilateral training with units from across the Philippine Marine Corps, including the Philippine Coastal Defense Regiment on May 31, 2024. The training took place from the diverse landscapes of Paredes in the north to the mountainous jungles of Barira in the southern Philippines.
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FORT BONIFACIO, MANILA, Philippines – The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the U.S. Marine Corps will conduct bilateral training and subject matter expert exchanges under the Archipelagic Coastal Defense Continuum from May 12 to June 7 throughout Northern Luzon, Palawan, and Mindanao to support the modernization efforts of the Armed Forces of the Philippines through shared expertise and cooperation.
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20 miles off the coast of Manila, Philippines, lies a small, rocky bluff that divides the entrance to the city’s bay into two channels. The island of Caballo, which translates to “Horse Island” in Spanish, was once a defense fortification post prior to World War II, before heavy bombardment left it diminished as a relic known only to history. Today, Caballo is off limits to visitors, save for a small detachment of Philippine Navy Sailors and the remains of batteries and structures peppering the wharf. 2024 opened a new chapter in the history of Caballo, continuing the partnership between the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, and Armed Forces of the Philippines.
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San Antonio, Zambales, Philippines (April 20, 2023) -- What does the future fight with a peer adversary look like? This question has been long deliberated by warfighting strategists with varying predictions, but one factor remains constant; to be detected, is to be targeted and killed. Sensing Expeditionary Advanced Bases are one of the ways the Marine Corps is addressing this common denominator on the next battlefield.
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