The men and women of the 22nd Naval Construction Regiment (22 NCR) played a critical command and control role in the success of Exercise African Lion 2017 (AL17).

AL 17 is the U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe (MARFOREUR) and U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Africa's (MARFORAF) largest annual training event. AL17 was sponsored by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) with support from the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and the Utah and Kentucky Air National Guards. The exercise also received support from the United States Embassy, Rabat's Office of Security Cooperation and the Defense Attache Office.

Approximately 1,300 military personnel from the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Spain and Tunisia traveled to various regions of the Kingdom of Morocco to take part in AL17.

22 NCR relieved Commander, Task Force (CTF) 68 as AL17's command and control (C2) element, April 22, and remained in this capacity through the remainder of the two-week exercise.

The C2 mission is 22 NCR's core competency and they train continuously to keep their skills sharp. 22 NCR joined AL17 with a group of well trained and experienced personnel ready to tackle the enormous challenges the exercise presented.

According to 22 NCR's Commander, Capt. Lore Aguayo, the Regiment has trained extensively for C2 of expeditionary units, however, AL17 not only included joint integration of U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Marine Corps units, but also included C2 of multi-national units as well.

"The addition of multi-national units made AL17 more challenging than previous exercises," Aguayo said. "I was extremely pleased with our staff's execution of C2 throughout AL17."

AL17 was also the first time 22 NCR conducted a relief-in-place with CTF 68.

"Our goal was to make the transition from CTF 68 to 22 NCR as the C2 element seamless for the U.S. and multinational units," Aguayo said. "It went very well, but that's not to say there weren't lessons learned along the way. We would like have more exercise opportunities with CTF 68 in the future, implement the lessons learned, and work even better together."

According to 22 NCR's Chief Staff Officer for AL17, Cmdr. Charles Kubic, the hardest part of planning for AL17 was looking at the branch plans to mitigate the risks involved.

"The 22 NCR team did a great job preparing for this mission, but nothing ever truly goes as planned," Kubic said. "The team did an even greater job meeting all the new challenges that arose."

At the conclusion of AL17, Aguayo was confident in 22 NCR's C2 ability.

"We knew this exercise would be challenging, but the staff flexed when it needed to, made the proper course corrections and I'm confident that we can perform C2 when any need arises," Aguayo said.

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