DOING BATTLE

AMERICAN and Japanese military personnel on deployment in Australia are getting lessons in urban and bush warfare but also creepy crawlies during a trilateral training exercise.

Exercise Southern Jackaroo is in its sixth year in Australia with Townsville playing host for just the second time.

Members of the Townsvillebased 3rd Brigade with supporting elements have been training alongside 39 members of the United States Army, 230 US Marines and 130 Japanese Ground Self Defence Force personnel across the Townsville Field Training Area.

The exercise is designed to assist the development of interoperability between the three nation’s militaries and directly contribute to security in the Asia- Pacific region.

US Marines 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, Joker Company squad leader Sergeant Luke Frasier said while they were learning new skills from the Australians they were equally sharing their own hints in very foreign terrain.

“This is a drier environment, a lot thicker brush and the heat is difficult to play with at first, but you get used to it,” he said.

“( Australia) is a beautiful place. It has a lot of places to see … other than all the little critters that are trying to get to us at night.”

US Army 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment Assistant Operations Officer Captain Jake Darsey said the training always needed to be as close to real combat as possible to prepare soldiers for modern conflict.

“It’s the perfect atmosphere for the infantry,” he said.

“It all builds towards interoperability for the Indo- Asia Pacific … so in the event we do work together in the future we already have a baseline understanding of how everyone operates.”

Headquarters 3rd Brigade Battle Captain Lachlan Joseph said the exercise was made up of “discreet tasks” including combat team defence, combat team attack and urban warfare.

“It’s a great opportunity to show our coalition partners and partner forces we are like- ly to operate with some of the training that we do,” he said.

“I know the Japanese defence forces enjoy the opportunity to work in a much larger training area and we obviously have a surplus … of land and ground.”

Lieutenant Colonel Yuichi-