The amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) and the Kearsarge Amphibious Readiness Group (KSGARG), Amphibious Squadron (PHIBRON) 4 and the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), returned to Norfolk, May 15, following the completion of its PHIBRON-MEU Integrated Training (PMINT) exercise.

Participants in PMINT included more than 1,800 Sailors from Kearsarge, the amphibious dock landing ship USS Oak Hill (LSD 51), the amphibious transport dock ship USS Arlington (LPD 24), and 1,400 Marines from the 26th MEU.

The purpose of PMINT is to get the KSGARG familiar with coordinating efforts to effectively and efficiently accomplish a mission, according to Cmdr. Gregory Chapman, Kearsarge operations officer.

"This is our first opportunity to practice as a full team," said Chapman. "The Navy and the Marine Corps work together, embarked onboard the ship, to determine what all the relationships are. (We) coordinate staff functions, plan and get to know one another, so we know what each other's skill sets are and can properly support our mission as the amphibious ready group, other than just being a set of ships at sea."

"This allows us to work out some of the kinks and interoperability issues," said Marine Corps Capt. Troy Edward Mitchell, 26th MEU assistant operations officer. "When we go to ARG/MEU exercise, we'll be done with the initial task of learning the ship and can really employ assets ashore in a more timely fashion."

Sailors and Marines conducted major exercises during PMINT, including a surface raid, an air assault and a visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) mission.

Chapman said that although the weather challenged the execution of the exercise, the ARG was able to showcase its flexibility by coordinating and carrying out alternative plans of action, allowing the Marines to complete 47 of their 50 training objectives.

"Everybody wanted to make it a success," said Chapman. "We exposed some areas that needed to be fixed. But from an overall perspective of integration, everybody reacted well. The teamwork that we established, the flexibility that we gained after only a week and the efficiency that we were able to accomplish in that short period of time was a testament to the teamwork and professionalism of all the personnel embarked."

Chapman said the coming months will see more Navy/Marine integration with fleet synthetic training group commanders (FST-GC), ARG/MEU exercise and composite training unit exercise (COMPTUEX).

"I'm excited about it," said Chapman. "We have a team that wants to do the work, and I expect that we'll do well. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy, and it doesn't mean that there won't be hiccups and bumps along the way. But I think that with the team that we've got, we'll have no problem getting through ARG/MEU exercise and COMPTUEX."

The KSGARG is scheduled to deploy later this year.

For more news from USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), visit www.navy.mil/.