US/Aussie agreement for 25 years of Marine training
John Kerry and Chuck Hagel will sign an agreement with their counterparts later this week for the rotational presence of Marines who will train near Darwin, Australia for the next 25 years, according to AFP;
“Approximately 2,500 US defence force personnel will come to primarily the Northern Territory to exercise on the vast, open Commonwealth (government) military exercise grounds that we have,” Johnston told a joint press conference with Hagel.
“They will interoperate with Australia. They will do things that they want to, exercise activities that are important to them. We’ll assist them.”
Johnston said as many as 1,200 US Marines and air force personnel were already rotating into Darwin during the current dry season in Australia’s tropical north.
Of course, this all part of the “shift to the Pacific Rim” by this Administration, while there are still wars that concern us halfway around the world. Well, at least John Kerry has finally negotiated something that didn’t get thrown back in his face by an ally for a change. So we have that going for us. One in a row.
Category: Military issues
I know it will be a great training opportunity, but God help me, the first thing that popped into my mind when I read this was “LIBERTY CALL!”
Lucky dogs!
“Lucky dogs!” is right! Back in the day, I was a B-52 crewdog stationed at Andersen Air Patch on Guam. We had fairly regular TDYs to Darwin. Great people there, they loved us and we loved them.
One of the few liberty ports I ever pulled in to where the locals were actually receptive to you simply because you were an American. Great town, great people, great food and great beer. On second thought, might be a little too nice for Devil Dogs.
In November of 1971, enroute to and from my Rest and Recuperation Leave in Sydney, Australia, for my anticipated Thanksgiving Day dinner, our Pan American Airlines flight stopped to refuel in Darwin.
During the refueling stop, we didn’t get off the plane to go into the passenger terminal (or DID we? I can’t remember!), and we were specifically ordered not to take any photographs, due to security concerns.
Naturally, after being told that, you know darn well I’m going to take pictures, which I did, through the passenger window of the aircraft.
(I also did that when I was touring the Demilitarized Zone in Korea, whereupon the Military Police chewed me out and threatened to seize my camera, but they never did.)
I’ve still got all those Kodak Instamatic photographs here in my footlocker.
Anyway, in Australia, I contacted local leaders of The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints (i.e., the “Mormon” church), and they arranged for me to stay in a private home as the guest of a Latter-day Saint couple in Manly, who had immigrated from England, and since Thanksgiving Day is a uniquely American holiday, not observed in Australia, they arranged for me, along with two (02) Mormon missionaries, to have our Thanksgiving Day dinner in the Sydney home of an American family from Portland, Oregon.
I loved every minute of my visit to Australia!
But, I don’t quite see the necessity of training American military personnel on Australian soil, UNLESS – – – ,
It’s a possible additional buffer against threatening sabre rattling by the largest army in that area, the VERY nearby Muslim nation of Indonesia, which could very easily invade and overwhelm a comparatively sparsely undermanned Australian coastal defense?
I just remembered – – – ,
I did that in Israel, too.
Anytime I’m told not to take pictures, you can be darn certain I’m going to grab any opportunity to do exactly that.
John,
Stop taking pictures! 🙂
How about a ring around the South China Sea / NE Asia to contain China. Japan, South Korea, the PI, Australia, the Kingdom of Thailand and Singapore. Doubtful the mooslims in Indonesia are the concern here.
Dem Aussie girls…..