WEBVTT

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My name is 1st Lieutenant Ben Curry . I

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am a rifle platoon commander with Banjo

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Company , 3rd Littoral Combat Team .

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Balaatan means shoulder to shoulder .

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Essentially it's an opportunity for US

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forces really to work primarily with

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the Filipino armed forces . For us it's ,

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it's primarily the PMC as well as other

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people throughout the joint force .

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Both show our capabilities and build a

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strong bond with our partners in the

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region . Yeah , so yesterday was a

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fantastic opportunity to get to both

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display our own TTPs and SOPs . Learn

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about how the Filipino Marine Corps

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operates . They got about a squad size

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that is able to join us . And so our

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plan was to directly integrate them

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into our platoon , putting them with

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our assault and support elements within

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our own rifle squads , show them a

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little bit about how we operate with

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combined arms . So we used any armored

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team operating the MS , as well as two

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medium machine guns from our 100 killer

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platoon , and executed essentially what

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would be a mock seizure of key

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infrastructure on an airfield . Both

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for them , it builds confidence in our

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own abilities and then . For us it gave

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a good experience for our Marines of

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what joint operations or international

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operations look like with a partner

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force , right ? So we have subject

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matter experts across kind of the the

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entire array of the MADA , right ? So

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we have comms experts , we have guys

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from the 100 kg platoon that employ

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specialty weapons . We have , uh , Euro

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311 riflemen as well as their squad

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leaders , JFOs , the whole nine yards ,

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and so really what we're able to do is

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talk to them a little bit . About our

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capabilities going through tape houses

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going through what our rig sorcerer

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process looks like , really just

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talking about , hey , this is , if we

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were to go about an operation like this

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in real life , how would we go about it ?

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How do we break it down into measurable

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chunks ? How do we most , uh ,

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efficiently maximize our forces ? So it

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was , it was good to be able to see

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what they had to offer . They

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definitely run a little bit different

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based on the size of their force and

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the weapons that they employ , but they

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fit pretty seamlessly into , into our

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operation . I'd say probably the most

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important part of this entire exercise

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being maritime key terrain seizure

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operations is is showing face on the

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island and building a repertoire with

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the people who are actually living here

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day by day . So getting to work on my

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side with my direct counterpart , the

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commander of their detachment , is

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extremely valuable and for my marines

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to see their counterparts as individual

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riflemen is invaluable , right ? They

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need to understand what the people here

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have to offer and what's important to

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them so that if they ever . a future

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fight , they have , they have a buy-in

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and understanding of what they will be

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needed to do for them . I think the

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most valuable point is building that

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strong bond beforehand , setting the

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foundation for , for future work . Uh ,

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so this is my second Balaatan . I was

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here in 2025 . It's been an ongoing

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thing for , for the past couple of

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years , and I know , especially for the

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littoral combat team and the Marine

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littoral regiment as a whole , this is

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kind of the pinnacle of our , our

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workup , right ? So we . We train for

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basically an entire year to come out

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here and do our actual job in the first

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island chain , so it's extremely

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important that we're able to

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demonstrate our capabilities both with

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the Nemesis and anti-ship missile

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capabilities as well as bring the

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entire joint , like the entire LCT and

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MLR as a whole and all the different

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sensing assets LLB LCT lab , put them

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all together into a combined force that

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gives some confidence to the Filipinos

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that we're by their side for anything

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that comes along . For me personally .

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This is the first time that a company

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has been displaced in EABs across 3

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different islands , and so we were

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fortunate to be one of the platoons .

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Got to go out and set up an EAB on our

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own island , conduct operations in

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coordination with the rest of our

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company . The Philippines and the

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United States have a longstanding .

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Relationship going back well into the

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20th century and I think this is just a

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reinforcement of that in a modern

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context , right ? We're back focusing

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on the Pacific and really the Marine

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Corps is weighing their forces here and

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putting a significant bid that we're

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going to be standing by the Filipino

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partner force throughout anything that

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happens so . I think that this exercise

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every single year both displays to them

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and to us that we can integrate well

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that we'll be by each other's side no

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matter what and helps to to enhance our

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capabilities as a whole so I think that

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ironclad alliance is something that

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that still stands strong , reigns true ,

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and only only builds as each Baatan

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comes along .