ALAMEDA, California – When two Coastal Riverine Squadron One (CRS 1) boats launched from Navy Operational Support Center (NOSC) Alameda on July 15, a multi-day Naval Expeditionary Force (NEF) exercise featuring various Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) assets was fully underway.

Meanwhile, Sailors assigned to Navy Cargo Handling Battalion (NCHB) 14 were hoisting cargo containers from crane ship Keystone State to auxiliary crane ship (T-ACS 1) Grand Canyon, both moored at Alameda Point. 5th Navy Expeditionary Logistics Regiment (5th NELR) commodore Capt. Steven Lathrob described the exercise as both opportunistic and consistent with NECC operational concepts. 

“CRS 1 realized that we were going to be out here the same weekend they were. We were going to be out here swinging cranes on ships, and they were going to be on the water, so we thought it would be great if we could integrate a little bit under the NECC adaptive force package,” said Lathrob.

Lt. Cmdr. Corey Strong of CRS 1 described various integration points between his unit and NCHB 14 including watch bills, pier security, entry control points, and tactical operations center (TOC). In the TOC, Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Melissa Phillips of CRS 1 described the benefits of this exercise for drilling Selected Reserve (SELRES) Sailors. 

“We have the boats out. We have communications out. We’re getting everyone involved. We have some cross-assigned and new people in. A lot of people do not get to do this on their normal weekends,” said Phillips. “We make sure communications with the boats and the NOC are up to speed and everyone can communicate with each other.”

According to Lathrob, similar interoperability training opportunities happen in much larger exercises, but are rarely so swiftly conceived and contained within a reserve drill weekend. “Coordinating logistics movements with security is key. This was an opportunity for us, on our own, to exercise what we are starting to do on larger scale exercises,” said Lathrob. “It does happen in big plans when you do bigger exercises, but on a drill weekend with literally no marginal costs, it is very very unusual.”

In addition to the exercise primary goal of training independently and then intraoperatively within a Naval Expeditionary Force environment, Cmdr. Daniel Foster, NCHB 14 commanding officer, described other potential wins. “The success coming out of this will be the amount of lessons learned we can implement going forward. If we walk away with some qualifications for our watch standers, that is a win, and anything we can yield from this on how to operate together going forward would be an even bigger win.”

Another exercise later this year is under discussion. 

NECC is an enduring warfighting force providing sea-to-shore and inland operating environment capabilities across the full range of military operations, which is focused on delivering combat-effective expeditionary forces ready for worldwide operations now and into the future.