Last year 1st Lieutenant John Porter was deployed to Sicily and spent several weeks in central Africa practicing embassy rescues and training park rangers to defend the elephant herd against poachers who sell the ivory to fund terrorist groups like Boko Haram.

John is currently deployed in Spain as a platoon commander with the Third Battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Africa. His platoon is in training and a state of readiness for missions into northern and central Africa. Embassy rescue and asset and personnel recovery are their primary objectives.

The attached photo from the units Facebook page.


The caption on the photo

Crisis Response Marines always alert
1st Lt. John B. Porter, a platoon commander with Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Africa, prepares to board an MV-22B Osprey during a Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel mission exercise aboard Morón Air Base, Spain, August 3. SPMAGTF-CR-AF’s crisis response force capability requires Marines to be ready to respond within six hours of an alert in support of U.S. Africa Command. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Vitaliy Rusavskiy/Released)

Below are a couple of items that have been written that describe his current mission as a rapid deployment force crisis response team.


www.marforeur.marines....alert.aspx

The following is link to a press release posted on the U.S. Africa Command Web page.

www.africom.mil/newsro...ss-in-rota


Although Operational Security is high and he cannot say when and where he goes places or what he does when he gets there we use some common phrases in our correspondence to give me hints and then confirms what he can when he gets back to a base with internet

Totally AWESOME!
Truly a proud professional
Thanks for the update!



Suz

He's doing us all proud.
great to hear how things are going.

Thanks for the update, Dawgdad! Glad he is enjoying his tours of duty. God Speed.

Yikes, image too large..
Thank your son for serving DD

Well done that man.
In my old units, anytime someone made it into the paper it cost the media star a carton of beer.
You might like to start that tradition.
Thanks for posting.

Pass on my salutations to your young fella DD for taking on this role...definitely not an easy one mate...usually it's only the best that deploy on these ops.

Yer right Pete...it's a carton mate. Appearance on TV was the expensive one, but name in the paper, or name mentioned on TV was only a 6-pack.