Acting Navy Secretary Visits Blount Island, Observes How It Equips Marines Worldwide

Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao visited the industrial waterfront at Marine Corps Support Facility at Blount Island, Florida, Nov. 4, to see how it equips Marines worldwide. 
 
Marine Corps Col. David Merles, support facility commander, and Michael Erhardt, installation department director, briefed Cao from the weather deck of the USNS Dahl. They discussed how the installation’s slipway infrastructure, maintenance warehouses, staging areas and waterfront access support the Marine Corps’ global positioning network. 
 
“Expanding America’s maritime industrial base requires skilled people, space for business expansion and access to the waterfront, “Cao said. “Here at Blount Island, you can see how those capabilities come together to prepare and position equipment for Marines around the world.”
 
Merles also leads Blount Island Command, part of Marine Corps Logistics Command. Its workforce prepares service-managed, ready-for-issue equipment and supplies for positioning aboard ships and at sites ashore, closer to where Marines operate. 
 
“Marines overseas count on the people working here, “Merles said.” My job is to give this team the facilities, space and support to keep equipment ready and moving. Our industrial waterfront gives them the capacity to meet today’s requirements and respond when called.”
 
Merles pointed to the installation’s sand ramp as an example of how that capacity also supports deployed units moving their own equipment. In May, the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit needed to offload an armored recovery vehicle during its Caribbean deployment supporting U.S. Southern Command. 

The vehicle’s weight required a beach landing, but tidal conditions prevented an offload elsewhere. The Marines requested access to Blount Island’s protected slipway. A Navy landing craft utility from the amphibious transport dock USS Fort Lauderdale traveled up the St. Johns River and landed at the sand ramp, allowing the vehicle to roll ashore for onward movement. 

 ”The Marines needed a way to offload equipment, and our waterfront gave them a flexible option,” Merles said. “Our team coordinated the landing so they could bring the vehicle ashore and keep moving on schedule. Preserving that capacity gives the fleet options when conditions limit where it can operate.”
 
Earlier in the deployment, the unit urgently needed replacement windows for its armored vehicles. Blount Island Command immediately approved the request. Marine Corps contractors packaged replacement panels from the prepositioning stocks for shipment to meet the Marines’ force-protection requirement. 
 
The waterfront also supports Navy training. During a separate exercise in late May, sailors assigned to the 2nd Navy Expeditionary Logistics Regiment practiced crane lifts, line handling and equipment staging alongside Blount Island’s workforce. The exercise used USNS Red Cloud and Navy causeway ferries for ship-to-shore equipment transfers. 
 
Navy veterans working as contracted watercraft masters, engineers and crew members guided sailors through vessel movements and crane lifts, applying experience developed during their military service. 

 
Benjamin Kohlmann, assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs, and Marjorie Lutz, assistant deputy commandant of the Marine Corps for installations and logistics, accompanied Cao. 

Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Kevin Collins, commander of Marine Corps Logistics Command, joined Merles in welcoming the acting secretary aboard the USNS Dahl. 
 
After lunch aboard the ship, Cao traveled to Navy Point, where William Fish, the Navy positioning director, briefed him on assets there. Cao then toured the installation’s shoreline along the St. Johns River by utility boat. 
 
“Our strength at sea depends on the capacity we maintain ashore,” Cao said. “Preserving working waterfronts like this helps us sustain forces forward and enables a quick response when the nation calls. Industrial capacity is essential to a ready fleet that will deter a credible threat.”