Black Sea Rotational Force is a part of Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Africa and will be operating out of Mihail Kogalniceanu, Romania. During the certification exercise, SPMAGTF-CR-AF was evaluated on embassy reinforcement, non-combatant evacuation operations, foreign humanitarian assistance, tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel, and theater security cooperation, with BSRF conducting TSCs in Europe.

Gunnery Sgt. Emir Hadzic, a foreign area staff non-commissioned officer for coordination, liaison, assessment and training team Europe with Marine Corps Security Cooperation Group, said the Marines participated in four days of classroom instruction where they broke into working groups, analyzed their missions, and developed execution plans in order to properly conduct military to military training.

“These classes focus heavily on preparation for, execution and general overview of military to military programs and other theater security cooperation programs that Marines with BSRF will be tasked with,” said Hadzic. “We’re here to focus on the operational environment the Marines are going to work in and how they are going to execute tasks.”

Toward the end of the week, Marines with Lima Co. conducted a tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel exercise aboard Marine Corps Outlying Field Atlantic, N.C.

Due to the short notice nature of a TRAP mission, the Marines waited on standby to receive their mission. When the mission was given to the Marines, they embarked onto two MV-22B Ospreys, which took them to a previously unknown location to recover a role player acting as a downed pilot. After assessing the pilot for any injuries, the team escorted him to the landing zone where the Ospreys would extract them to safety.

Lance Cpl. Nicolas Mackey, a rifleman with Lima Co., said that their training was designed to be as realistic as possible.

“When it comes to TRAP missions, we aren’t sure where or when it’s going to happen,” said Mackey. “When an aircraft goes down, we’ve got to be able to recover the pilot and secure intelligence, as well as personnel and equipment.”

While conducting their certification exercise, Marines also worked with Samaritan’s Purse International Relief Organization to simulate and better understand humanitarian relief efforts in a deployed environment.

“During this certification exercise, we are playing the part of a humanitarian organization that is requesting assistance to move foreign humanitarian aid to a country that is in need,” said Daniel Stephens, an international disaster response technical advisor with the organization. “In this scenario, we approach a unit in the Marine Corps and ask for assistance in moving our goods. We’re working hand-in-hand and learning with each other.”