1st Lt. James Stenger

A team of Marines and sailors from Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Africa 14.1 will travel in April to Zakouma National Park, Chad to partner with the Chadian Ministry of Environment's Mobile Brigade, a task force whose purpose is to rapidly respond to suspected incidents of illegal activity at the park. NAVAL AIR STATION SIGONELLA, Italy - A team of Marines and sailors from Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Africa 14.1 will travel in April to Zakouma National Park, Chad to partner with the Chadian Ministry of Environment's Mobile Brigade, a task force whose purpose is to rapidly respond to suspected incidents of illegal activity at the park. The Marines will train a group of approximately 100 host-nation rangers, helping to develop their skills with a small unit tactics and patrolling package, known-distance range shooting, land navigation, and site exploitation. These skills will help prevent illegal activity, investigate incidents and pursue criminals as part of an effort to collaborate with foreign government partners to build their capacity to counter illicit trafficking. Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Africa 14.1 is the newest rotation of Marines and sailors to arrive at Naval Air Station Sigonella, Italy, to stage and prepare for theater security cooperation missions into various countries in Africa. This iteration is comprised by Marines and sailors from 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, permanently based out of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C. The Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) is the Marine Corps' principle organization for the conduct of all missions across the range of military operations. MAGTFs are balanced, combined-arms forces with organic ground, aviation and sustainment elements. Special-purpose MAGTFs are organized, trained and equipped to accomplish a specific mission for which one of the three standard MAGTF types would be inappropriate or too large to employ.

A U.S. Marine and U.S. Coastguardsmen traveled to Lomé, Togo, to demonstrate small-boat engine mechanics to a group of sailors and Gendarmerie from the Togo Navy, March 22-29.

A Marine with Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Africa 14.1 conducted small-boat engine maintenance with a group of sailors from the Ghana Navy in Takoradi, Ghana, March 10-21.