TAN TAN, Morocco  — Marines here at exercise African Lion are currently testing a new environmentally-friendly energy system which will enable deployed troops to purify water, light their tents and power their equipment through solar energy and leverage technology.

“Basically, you can take water from any source, even waste water, put in it in the SLMCO (water purifier), shoot it through the reverse osmosis process and put it right in your Camelback and drink it,” said Capt. Adorjan Ferenczy, the engineer analyst for the Expeditionary Forward Operating Base program, or ExFOB.

Ferenczy explained that the system can also provide LED lights for a medium-sized general purpose tent and power outlets for small electrical items.

A mechanical engineer by trade, Ferenczy, 31, came into the Marine Corps in 2005 after working for a major vehicle manufacturer in his home town of Detroit for several years.

According to Ferenczy, the Commandant of the Marine Corps directed the Marine Corps Energy Assessment Team to go to Afghanistan in September 2009 to conduct an assessment of the energy used by deployed Marine units and report back with findings. 

“The Commandant has said, ‘Let’s not only lighten the load, but let’s reduce risk to Marines downrange by reducing our reliance,” said Brig. Gen. Robert Hedelund, the commanding general of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab and vice chief of Naval Research in a March 2010 interview.

If implemented, the ExFOB concept will significantly reduce troops’ reliance on drinking water and generator fuel, which are transported from larger bases in Afghanistan to troops operating at remote sites by truck convoy.

These convoys are frequent targets for insurgents, so the premise is simple: reducing the number of convoys through the use of alternate energy sources for troops’ daily sustenance will directly reduce the number of U.S. casualties in overseas contingency operations.

This need to find sustainable energy solutions has been echoed by leaders throughout the U.S. Department of Defense, and all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces are currently evaluating alternate energy capabilities.

“The Marine Corps has taken the lead on exploring the use of these energy sources for tactical, small-unit use,” said Maj. Sean M. Sadlier, a logistics analyst with the U.S. Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy Office.

Sadlier, a logistics officer with 15 years in the Corps, came here with his team in mid-May to test the ExFOB equipment in the harsh climate of southern Morocco.

The ExFOB team here is comprised of Marine Corps officers, staff non-commissioned officers, government service employees and contractors from Marine Corps Systems Command, the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, Marine Corps Installations and Logistics office, Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy Office and the Marine Corps Power Surety Task Force. 

Here in southern Morocco, the ExFOB team of experts is conducting a week-long assessment of their prospective piece of gear.

The test is being done in conjunction with about a thousand troops participating in African Lion 2010, a month-long theater security cooperation exercise led by Marine Forces Africa, with the preponderance of troops coming from Marine Forces Reserve units across the United States. 

When the ExFOB team returns to their respective offices in Northern Virginia later this month, they will make their recommendations to the Executive Integrated Processing Team, which consists of high-ranking Marine Corps general officers and senior U.S. government service employees. 

“If they determine that the juice is worth the squeeze, they approve the project and the concept becomes a reality,” said Ferenczy.

The ExFOB is currently in the extended user-evaluation phase.  At this year’s African Lion, troops from Marine Wing Support Squadron 273, based out of Beaufort, S.C., assisted the ExFOB team in assembling and evaluating their system on a Spartan logistics support area (LSA). 

It took 16 Marines three hours to assemble the unit, which the ExFOB team is actually using for billeting during their stay here.

“They did a fine job considering they hadn’t seen the ExFOB before they took it out of the box,” said Gunnery Sgt. Michael Polson, the MWSS-273 Utilities Platoon staff non-commissioned officer-in-charge.

The LSA where the Marines erected the ExFOB resembles a large, unpaved parking lot, and is about 800 meters by 400 meters.

The Marines and U.S. civilians living there are covered daily in the ubiquitous dirt and grit which the wind blows up from the surface that the Marines graded, leveled and compacted with heavy equipment shipped over from the States. 

The Marines of MWSS-273 and their Navy SEABEE counterparts have lived, worked and sweated together for several weeks now, developing the logistics support area.

In this unique landscape, the Cap Draa Desert runs straight into the Atlantic Ocean.  The climate is therefore ideal for testing the ExFOB, as the system is subject to the sand, dust and wide flux of temperatures that are found in the desert, as well as the strong winds that blow in from the Atlantic. 

Additionally, the severe overcast weather May 18 to 20 challenged the solar-powered generation system, which is the main power source for the system.

“I think it’s doing really well,” said Sadlier.  “Our plan is to start out small and increase the power load to see how it performs.  So far, it’s holding up pretty well and producing more energy than is being used.” 

The product will go through a second phase of testing this summer at Enhanced Mojave Viper in Twentynine Palms, Calif. with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. 

Sadlier said that the entire end-user evaluation, decision-making, and procurement process is expected to take about a year from this point.

If the ExFOB system is procured and fielded in 2011, small units in Afghanistan can mount the SLMCO water purifier unit to their vehicles, drive out to a water source such as a river or stream on a security patrol, purify a hundred gallons of water and bring it back to base.

They can also use the system on their remote positions to have a well-lit, medium-sized, weatherproof tent with electric outlets to power their computers, tactical radios, electric razors, IPODs and other small electronics items.

Sadlier added that the ExFOB will also be more tactically sound than traditional generators, as the solar panels silently transform sunlight to electricity, whereas traditional generators are noisy and can give away the position of a command operations center on an expeditionary base.

So in the end, the ExFOB is intended to not only cut down on consumption of fossil fuels and help protect the environment, it will also make overseas contingency operations safer for Marines; and a little more comfortable.

“This stuff isn’t new; it’s already being used by humanitarian relief agencies in austere environments.  It’s just new to the Marine Corps,” said Sadlier.  “The Commandant wants to focus on (Marine Corps) companies and platoons using this equipment at combat outposts and forward operating bases.  We need to make sure that it works; and that it works in the kind of environment where our Marines are going to operate.”

 

CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, Japan  — Marines with 9th Engineer Support Battalion, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force, drew weapons and said their goodbyes before heading to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom May 9.

The Marines gathered at the 9th ESB armory to collect their respective weapons, perform function checks and prepare to go to war.

“I am very excited. We are going to go do good things for the Marine Corps and Afghanistan,” said Lance Cpl. Cody Charpentier, a logistics vehicle system operator with 9th ESB. “Providing freedom and improving the standard of living in Afghanistan will be very rewarding.”

“Training builds character, and to be deployed with the people I work with is a good thing,” said Charpentier, deploying for the first time. “I know the Marine to the left and right of me and trust them with my life.”

The battalion will be more than 440 Marines strong in Afghanistan with the addition of this group of more than 140 Marines, 1st Sgt. Walda Collins, company first sergeant for headquarters and service company, 9th ESB.

“Morale is high among these Marines,” Collins said.

For 9th ESB, deploying has become routine, she added.

Collins said this is her third deployment to a combat zone, and it is a positive thing to go and perform these operations in Afghanistan.

There are some hardships, she said.

“I have two sons I am leaving behind so it is bittersweet in the end,” said Collins.

Candice Harris shares Collin’s feelings.

Harris is the wife of Sgt. Algerod Harris, a bulk fuel specialist who is deploying with 9th ESB.

“I feel sad, but not worried,” said Harris. This will be the second deployment she has experienced with her husband.

“The first deployment was easier because I went to live with my parents,” Harris said. “This time I will be out of my environment with just me and our daughter.”

She added she plans to focus on work and occupy her time by going to church and exercising to cope with being without her Marine.

“God bless and see you when we get back,” said Collins. 

 

AGADIR, Morocco  — Brig. Gen. James Lariviere, the commanding general of the New Orleans-based 4th Marine Division, traveled here May 16 to visit U.S. service members participating in African Lion 2010.

About 700 Marines and sailors from Marine Forces Reserve, as well as several hundred Navy SEABEEs and U.S. Army and Air National Guardsmen are participating in this month-long joint and combined theater security cooperation exercise. 

“This is an important exercise at both the tactical and strategic levels,” said Lariviere.  “At the tactical level, there has been an exchange of tactics, techniques and procedures between individual Marines and the Moroccan soldiers.   At the strategic level, this exercise has further strengthened the bond of friendship between the United States and Morocco; a friendship that goes back to the early days of our republic.”

Lariviere had the opportunity to see a command post staff exercise between Moroccan and U.S. officers and staff noncommissioned officers on a modern Moroccan military base.  

He also visited junior troops from both countries engaged in a peace keeping exercise in a hot and dusty training area resembling Twentynine Palms, Calif.  Finally, Lariviere observed task force leadership conducting expeditionary headquarters operations in their make-shift command operations center.

“Reserve Marines gain a great deal from exercises like African Lion,” explained Lariviere.  “First, they gain experience dealing with foreign militaries. Second, they gain an appreciation for what it’s like to live and work in a foreign country.  Finally, they gain an understanding of how important it is to engage our allies overseas before we are called upon to work with them in a real operational environment.”

Lariviere’s personal reserve experiences are broad, having served with the 4th Marine Division in the past as the 25th Marine Regiment assistant operations officer in Fort Devens, Mass., and commanding officer of 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company in Mobile, Ala. 

As a reserve officer, Lariviere has participated in previous combined exercises and operations in Norway and Panama.

“We fight the way we train,” insisted Lariviere.  “As Reserve Marines, it’s our job to augment and reinforce the active component (Marine Corps).  It is hard to imagine a future operation, whether it be a large-scale conflict, irregular warfare or phase zero operation that would not take place in a joint and combined environment.  Reserve Marines gain valuable experience in exercises like African Lion, working with another nation’s military alongside our sister services from the United States.”

For most of the reserve Marines here, this is about a two-week deployment, with troops rotating in and out in two major waves of movement between mid-May and mid-June.

The U.S. troops’ morale here struck the general as particularly high, and he noted that for those reserve Marines who have never been outside the United States before, this opportunity has broadened their world view and whetted their appetite for more overseas deployments.

“They are excited about going someplace where they have not been before and being part of something that contributes to the security of the nation,” said Lariviere.  “I think that interesting (annual training exercises) like African Lion make service in the reserves exciting and keep young Marines affiliated with their units and coming back for more.”

Looking to the future, Lariviere is optimistic that the successes of this year’s African Lion have set the stage for further joint theater security cooperation endeavors with the Moroccans for years to come.

“African Lion is getting larger and more complex every year,” commented the general.  “Both the United States and Moroccan governments see this as an important engagement opportunity.  We already have an officer here conducting an advance reconnaissance for African Lion 2011 and we anticipate will be larger than this year’s exercise.”

In fact, a U.S. Navy SEABEE unit is currently working with Marine Wing Support Squadron 273 from Beaufort, S.C. to build storage facilities at a logistics support area in Tan Tan near Morocco’s southern coastline. 

These large “K-Span” structures will enable the proper storage of American equipment throughout the year.  This will, in turn, facilitate a less expensive and smoother movement of reserve personnel from the United States to Morocco each summer to optimize training time here.

“Exercises like African Lion are ideal from a reserve perspective for a number of reasons,” concluded Lariviere at the end of his four-day visit.  “Under the evolving concept of the operational reserve, exercises like this allow the reserve component to take real-world commitments off the plate of the active component.  We get to make a real contribution to national security while simultaneously offering (operational tempo) relief.  Exercises like African Lion fit perfectly into the way the reserves operate; the relatively short duration and wide variety of skills needed allows us to maximize our participation while at the same time providing great training….. that contributes to our recruiting and retention efforts in the reserves.”

Lariviere was commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps in 1979 and joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1991.  He took command of the 4th Marine Division on April 10.