Shaffer
04-22-03, 08:18 AM
The largest military training operation currently going on in the country is taking place in Yuma this month.
Invented by Col. Douglas F. Ashton, commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 26 at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., Exercise Diamond Thrust ’03 combines not just Ashton's air group, but elements of three other groups as well.
In addition, 250 infantry Marines from the 2nd Marine Division's 6th Marine Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., are participating.
All told, about 1,350 mostly East Coast Marines are operating out of Marine Corps Air Station Yuma this month.
"This year when the war kicked off, we were the only intact Marine Aircraft Group in the entire Marine Corps that was left (pretty much) untouched," Ashton said.
So Ashton asked his commanding general if he could expand Exercise Diamond Thrust — something he had thought up and tried for the first time just last spring — to include more groups and take it on the road.
http://yumasun.com/artman/publish/articles/story_5028.shtml
Invented by Col. Douglas F. Ashton, commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 26 at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., Exercise Diamond Thrust ’03 combines not just Ashton's air group, but elements of three other groups as well.
In addition, 250 infantry Marines from the 2nd Marine Division's 6th Marine Regiment out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., are participating.
All told, about 1,350 mostly East Coast Marines are operating out of Marine Corps Air Station Yuma this month.
"This year when the war kicked off, we were the only intact Marine Aircraft Group in the entire Marine Corps that was left (pretty much) untouched," Ashton said.
So Ashton asked his commanding general if he could expand Exercise Diamond Thrust — something he had thought up and tried for the first time just last spring — to include more groups and take it on the road.
http://yumasun.com/artman/publish/articles/story_5028.shtml