Civilian mariners, contractors and Marines from Combat Logistics Battalion 3 began conducting a backload of equipment used in Exercise Cobra Gold 2016 (CG-16) from Military Sealift Command (MSC) USNS 1st Lt. Jack Lummus (T-AK 3011), Feb. 29, bringing a successful close to the exercise.

The backload consisted of returning 129 pieces of equipment discharged from the Lummus, Feb. 1, in support of CG-16.

Cobra Gold is an annual multinational and joint-theater security cooperation exercise co-sponsored by the Kingdom of Thailand and the United States with more than two dozen participating partner nations, making it one of the largest military exercises in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Lummus, a part of Maritime Prepositioning Ships Squadron (MPSRON) THREE, delivers ready-to-use Marine Corps equipment and supplies on a moments notice to preplanned exercises and contingency operations. The backload ensures that CG-16 ends successfully and that the Lummus is prepared to fulfill its next mission as an MPS.

"The backload is very important," explained Staff Sgt. Daniel Beers, of Combat Logistics Battalion 3. "It is the very end of Cobra Gold, and it is important because all the way up to this part we have done everything successfully. Getting everything back on board, handing it back over to Honeywell, keeping the gear in the right order that we received it...it's very important to give it back the way we got it."

The Lummus is scheduled to deploy to the Philippines to support Exercise Balikatan following the completion of the backload. Beers explained that by reloading the gear correctly onto the Lummus, the Marines and civilians close out Cobra Gold by starting Balikatan properly.

"So what we are doing is setting it up for Balikatan," said Beers. "Yes, it was important for us to backload the gear from Cobra Gold back to the way we received it. We are trying to give it properly to the next exercise, for Balikatan. So today what we are doing is setting up the gear in each well deck, so that when the time comes for Balikatan, the receiving crew will have an easier time on the offload. It's one force helping another."

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