Bold Alligator

By Mike Heilman

Royal Netherlands HNLMS Johan de Witt and the USS Arlington are anchored off the coast of Fort Story Virginia during Operation Bold Alligator. 19 countries and 17 ships participated in the 2014 operation. (Mike Heilman)In the fall of 2014, NATO launched a major amphibious exercise called Bold Alligator off the coast of the eastern United States. The exercise involved some 8,000 Soldiers and Sailors from more than 19 countries, including 17 ships, and two submarines. The Bold Alligator exercise series, which was first conducted in 2011, showcased the advantages of “sea basing” using the Navy and Marine Corps’ full range of amphibious operations. 

During the last 13 years of fighting in land-based warfare throughout the Middle East, the Navy and Marine Corps team worked hard to revitalize, refine, and strengthen its fundamental amphibious capabilities, and reinforce the Navy and Marine Corps roles as fighters from the sea. Bold Alligator 2014 took on an array of humanitarian, crisis response, and contingency operations in new and unusual ways. 

An HSC-5 “World Famous Nightdippers” SH-60S Helicopter flying over Fort Story Virginia on an early morning sortie to the Royal Netherlands HNLMS Johan de Witt during operation Bold Alligator 2014. (Mike Heilman)Brigadier General David Coffman, Deputy Commander Marine Corps Forces South explains Bold Alligator: “Our theme is rapid response for today’s crisis. There are three things that we are trying to impart. The first is presence; you have to be forward and operate from the sea. This is a model of sea basing where we take the force to the area of crisis and operate at a self-contained and self-supporting sea base. The second theme is partners that are anchored on a coalition to help us. The last theme is readiness. The United States has worldwide interest and must be able to respond globally and across a range of crisis and contingencies. We designed the exercise quite a bit differently from many in the past.”

Commodore Robert Kramer, Commander Netherlands Maritime Force commanded a task force of Coalition and United States forces during the Bold Alligator exercise. Commodore Kramer explained the purpose and Two SH-60S from the United States Navy HSC-5 “World Famous Nightdippers” land on the flight deck of the Royal Netherlands HNLMS Johan de Witt during operation Bold Alligator 2014. (Mike Heilman)importance of Bold Alligator “The importance of this exercise really is about the large scale of operations of three amphibious task groups operating together. It is very international. It is very important as European countries to join in and make sure we can work together and form a strong coalition.”  

Commodore Kramer and his coalition staff were operating from the Royal Netherlands HNLMS Johan de Witt during the exercise. The Johan de Witt is a Landing Platform Dock (LPD) amphibious warfare ship. The amphibious transport moves troops and equipment by sea for a variety of expeditionary warfare missions. The Johan de Witt contains a helicopter deck for landing large rotary aircraft. There is also a hanger bay for storage or maintenance of aircraft. It also has a well dock for large landing craft and other amphibious assault vehicles. Attached to the dock is a large storage area for additional vehicles and cargo that support the expeditionary force.

The FRISC (Fast Raiding Interception Security Craft) of the Royal Netherlands Navy with Royal Netherlands Marines operating near the HNLMS Johan de Witt during Operation Bold Alligator. (Mike Heilman)The Johan de Witt was operating with the United States Navy’s USS Arlington. The Arlington is a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock. Like her sister ships, USS New York and Somerset, she is named in commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S.  Steel taken from the Pentagon after the attacks is displayed aboard in the ship’s museum. While she is about 20 percent longer than the de Witt, she is only 10 percent wider. The ship has a crew of 425 Sailors and Marines but can embark with an additional 800 troops. 

Commander of the USS Arlington, Jeff Baker, explains the ship’s mission “What we do as an amphibious force is take troops and their equipment to the beach, that is about as simple as it gets.  That mission could be a combat mission or humanitarian assistance or disaster relief. We run the full range of military operations from peacetime crisis to wartime conflict. Our warfare capabilities are we support the troops, we get them ashore, and we sustain them. We also control all the aircraft involved in the amphibious operations from the landing and surface craft to the rotary aircraft. We can land anything in Navy and Marine Corp. inventory of the rotary aircraft on our flight deck.”

The flight deck of the Arlington is much larger than that of the Johan de Witt and allows for up to four MH-60s to land at once. The Arlington can support a variety of rotary winged aircraft including the MH-53E Super Stallion, MV-22 Osprey, CH-46 Sea Knights and AH-1 Sea Cobra.  The 21,000 square- foot flight deck can support three MV-22 Ospreys at one time.  The USS Arlington had four CH-53E from HMH-464 Heavy Helicopter Squadron detached to the ship during the Bold Alligator exercise. The CH-53E is designed to carry troops and equipment ship-to-shore during amphibious operations.

Managing all the air assets movement for the entire amphibious task force during operation Bold Alligator fell under the control of Tactical Air Control Squadron Two Two (TACRON 22).  TACRON 22 Commander, Jim Zoulias, explains their role “Tactical Air Control Squadron is the name of our unit and essentially what we do is provide Air, Command, and Control for the amphibious forces afloat for the Navy and Marine Corps team. We get our roots in World War II when Marines landing ashore had air support coming from sea and land. They needed somebody to coordinate that air and that is where we got our genus. “

Commander Zoulias explained more on the unit’s mission. “When you talk about our mission and what air control means, the three main components of our mission are: first, tactical control of aircraft; those are air traffic controllers. Second, plans and support, that is, that which goes into making the flight schedule for the amphibious ready group. The third component is our expeditionary capability that supports Marines ashore. This group supports air operations ashore by controlling aircraft in and out of landing zones.” Zoulias summed up the unit’s role “If it moves in the air around the amphibious ready group, Fix wing, rotary wing, UAV, we have something to do with the planning, air space control and communications of those assets.”

TACRON 22 is manned for two detachments of about 35 members each. One detachment is always deployed or getting ready to deploy.  When the unit is deployed, it will be based on one of the Assault ships in amphibious task force. There are two East Coast squadrons and two West Coast.   Zoulias explains who is part of the squadron: “All of the members are winged aviators, rather they are pilots or Naval Flight Officers (NFO).  We get folks from all communities in our wardroom. We have helicopter pilots, E-6 pilots and NFOs, E-2 pilots and VFA fighter guys. We also have two Marine Corps aviators assigned to our unit, one Cobra helicopter pilot and an F/A-18 pilot.”

The squadron prides itself on the professionalism and experience of the group. The unit’s Executive Officer, Jose Garza, explains how the training in Bold Alligator leads to real world missions “I was on board the Essex, and we were heading down to the Philippines to do an exercise. A day prior to us getting into Subic Bay there was a big mudslide in the Philippines, so we got reassigned. We moved to the other side of the island and provided water and food with the Marine MH-53s that were there. Doing that support on a day’s notice is what we do as one of our core missions. You never know when a disaster is going to happen, but we are ready for that mission.”

Brigadier General Coffman summed the 2014 Bold Alligator exercise “Like anything in life, you have to practice. We are practicing our trade, practicing naval amphibious operations. You have to experiment with new technologies or new ways of doing business. Like in any business, you have to evolve with the times, evolve with the challenges and evolve with the threats.”