CAMP MUJUK, South Korea (Aug. 30, 2024) — Maintenance Marines across elements of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit conducted a coordinated maintenance surge across the entire unit to improve readiness on various types of vehicles and ground equipment Aug. 12-30 following their arrival at Marine Corps Camp Mujuk and other installations in South Korea.

The maintenance exercise, or MAINTEX, was a dedicated period of focused and deliberate maintenance, posing both an opportunity and a challenge to the 15th MEU as the unit prepares to participate in exercise Ssang Yong 24 with the Republic of Korea Marine Corps.

MAINTEX was primarily focused on preventive maintenance checks and services, corrective maintenance, modifications, and calibrations, said U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Andy Lark, S-4 logistics section officer in charge, 15th MEU.

Maintenance was conducted on vehicles such as Amphibious Combat Vehicles and Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, as well as assets like materiel handling equipment, generators, environmental control units, communications equipment, and weapon systems.

The opportunity for MAINTEX presented itself as elements of the 15th MEU arrived in South Korea and disembarked personnel, vehicles, and equipment ashore from the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) and the amphibious dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49), said Lark.

“On ship, we have space limitations, and the MEU has to share that space with the Navy when we’re embarked,” said Lark. “At Camp Mujuk and all of our locations across South Korea, we have been able to use existing maintenance facilities and motor pools to conduct more maintenance across the MEU far faster.”

MAINTEX has been carried out by the 15th MEU Command Element, Battalion Landing Team 1/5, and Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 225 (Reinforced), and especially Combat Logistics Battalion 15, said U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Jon TenBrock, operations officer, CLB-15.

“CLB-15 has spearheaded daily maintenance actions and managed equipment throughput, ensuring swift progress through the maintenance cycle and rapid return of assets to the ready line,” said TenBrock.

“MAINTEX afforded additional space and time for CLB-15’s Marines to conduct intermediate-level echelon maintenance in support of the entire 15th MEU,” said TenBrock. “This is because CLB-15 maintains more specialized tools and equipment with a higher degree of training to perform more in-depth maintenance than other units may be capable of performing on their own.”

The main challenge faced by maintainers at the 15th MEU has been deconflicting the scheduled maintenance while actively supporting 15th MEU’s nearly three weeks of integrated training with the ROK Marines in August, said Lark.

The integrated training between South Korea and the U.S. strengthens the ROK-U.S. Alliance through bilateral, joint training, contributing toward combined capability in defense of the Korean Peninsula.

“We have to schedule things deliberately because we don’t want to have the engine pulled out of a truck that is supposed to be delivering ammo, or a weapon system in pieces that isn’t ready for live-fire training with the ROK Marines,” said Lark. “Another challenge has been ensuring that we quickly source and deliver the parts everyone needs if we didn’t have them with us on ship already.”

The conclusion of MAINTEX coincided with the planned reembark of the 15th MEU’s Marine Air-Ground Task Force aboard Boxer and Harpers Ferry to participate in exercise Ssang Yong 24. The successful surge in maintenance activity has resulted in a higher state of materiel readiness to continue operations in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations.

“MAINTEX took a lot of coordination and effort, but all of this will help build capability through materiel readiness for the MEU for the rest of our deployment,” said Lark.