The advice of Horace Greeley in the 19th century -- Go west young man -- applies today to the military. The Army has been transforming from forward basing to projecting power from the continental United States. The global war on terrorism has revalidated the need for lean and lethal forces that can be deployed quickly as well as put a premium on joint warfighting. The level of readiness required to deploy combat power around the world on short notice depends on high-quality joint training that is costly and hard to find -- particularly for transporters. Exercises such as Golden Cargo, Golden Mariner, Trans Mariner, and Translots are insufficient to provide the needed opportunities; nor do these exercises offer much in the way of joint training. Part of the solution may be reevaluating the state of current exercises. One novel solution to this readiness issue combines two programs which provide realistic training for both transporters and combat forces. For some time, units have been rotated through the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin. Simultaneously, seaport emergency deployment readiness (SEDRE) exercises test the ability of specific ports to project the force. Combining SEDREs with unit movements to the NTC has become an outstanding driver for training the active and Reserve components in deployment and transportation operations. The upload phase provides real-world joint training for CONUS-based transportation units while exercising power-projection ports. The joint logistics over the shore (JLOTS) and download phases have provided an excellent simulation of reception, staging, onward movement, and integration for transportation and support units from active and Reserve components of the Army, Navy, and Coast Guard. The seaport of debarkation has been conducted as pier-side discharges at Port Hueneme and San Diego and as in-stream discharges and JLOTS operations at Camp Pendleton.


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