US, Greek marines kick off exercise Alexander the Great

January 10, 2019

Approximately 300 US Marines and an equal number Greek military personnel have arrived in the port city of Volos, Greece, to start exercise Alexander the Great 2019.

Marines assigned to Battalion Landing Team, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU, fire M240B machine guns during a battle sight zeroing range on the flight deck of USS Arlington (LPD 24) in the Mediterranean Sea. Photo: US Navy

ATG19 is a bi-lateral security cooperation training exercise involving primarily Hellenic Marines from the 32nd Marine Brigade and US Marines from 22 MEU and the USS Arlington.

The purpose of this exercise is to conduct battalion-level command and control and company-level combined arms training in order to increase interoperability between the US Marine Corps and Greece Armed Forces, reassure allied and partner nations, improve readiness, and reinforce relationships.

USS Arlington is operating in the Mediterranean Sea as part of the Kearsarge amphibious ready group which arrived in the US 6th Fleet area of operation on December 25, 2018, after getting underway from Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia on December 17.