DVIDS – News – Japan Floor Self-Protection Power Colonel receives U.S. Armed Forces Meritorious Service Medal

CAMP COURTNEY, OKINAWA, Japan – The III Marine Expeditionary Power Commanding Basic, Lt. Gen. James W. Bierman, offered the U.S. Armed Forces Meritorious Service Medal to retired Col. Rikiya Kondo with the Japan Floor Self-Protection Power, Jan. 6, 2023.

The Meritorious Service Medal is a private award given to service members who carry out their duties in a distinguished, excellent method, which Kondo achieved whereas serving because the commanding officer of Fuji Coaching Heart, JGSDF, from September 2020 till June 2022.

“Beneath Colonel Kondo’s management, lots of of Marines and JGSDF troopers have participated in real looking coaching, bilateral Skilled Navy Schooling, and shared cultural occasions,” acknowledged U.S. Marine Corps Col. Robert Bodisch, who served because the CATC Camp Fuji commanding officer from June 2020 to Could 2022.

Shortly after being assigned to the Fuji Coaching Heart, Kondo seen that though the middle was established 20 years earlier, the troops had by no means performed coaching with the U.S. Marine Corps. Kondo took the initiative of contacting Marine management at Mixed Arms Coaching Heart Camp Fuji and requested a gathering between the JGSDF and U.S. forces. By establishing this assembly, Kondo allowed personnel from CATC Camp Fuji and planners from III MEF to start bilateral coaching integration for the primary time within the 69 years of Camp Fuji’s existence.

After the preliminary assembly, Kondo had the curiosity of the Marine Corps management and started engaged on the primary iteration of a force-on-force train between a Marine Corps infantry battalion and the JGSDF’s Opposition Power Battalion. The objective of the train was to completely combine III MEF, Marine Corps Installations Pacific, and CATC Camp Fuji’s mission targets.

Integration between the forces was formally authorized and sanctioned in 2021, when Kondo spent 5 months working straight with III MEF and 4th Marine Regiment Planners at Camp Fuji, Fuji Coaching Heart, and Camp Schwab, Okinawa. Kondo was the primary FTC commanding officer to ever go to a Marine Corps base on the island of Okinawa, indicating the U.S.-Japan alliance was strengthening drastically.

“Col. Kondo projected a persona of confidence and dedication in fulfilling all III MEF desired coaching targets within the title of selling the alliance and enhancing bilateral warfighting ways, methods, and procedures,” mentioned Bodisch.

As soon as the planning section was full, Kondo introduced that the force-on-force train can be known as “SHINKA,” which interprets to “infinitely enhancing.” A emblem was created by Marines and included the USMC eagle, Mount Fuji, and Takeda Shingen, essentially the most well-known Japanese samurai of the Kanto Plain the place Camp Fuji is situated. These components have been used to point out items of each the Marine Corps and Japanese forces’ significance within the train, in addition to Kondo’s dedication to enhancing bilateral relationships and skillsets of each forces.

The train was slated for June 2021 with Marines from 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, and JGSDF Opposition Power Battalion troopers. All through the train, commanding generals from 3d Marine Division and MCIPAC, the Commandant of Fuji Faculty, the Commandant of Intel Faculty, and the previous Chief of Employees of the JGSDF and present Nationwide Safety Advisor to the Prime Minister, noticed the coaching performed from each forces. By having senior management current on the train, Kondo was capable of showcase how Camp Fuji might be used efficiently as a bilateral coaching space.

Through the after-action portion of SHINKA 21, U.S. Marine Corps Col. Matthew Tracy, former commanding officer of 4th Marine Regiment, 3d Marine Division, spoke concerning the effectiveness of the train. “This has been essentially the most substantial and efficient coaching that any of my battalions have obtained throughout my time in command in Japan,” mentioned Tracy.

SHINKA 21 was so profitable that it has change into a reoccurring multi-domain force-on-force Train with models that rotate below 3d Marine Division, establishing a coaching relationship between Marine Corps management and the JGSDF.

“Col. Kondo is a warrior with imaginative and prescient who displayed relentless dedication to determine and domesticate bilateral coaching that rapidly and repeatedly tailored to immediately’s strategic panorama,” mentioned Bodisch. “His regular and tireless dedication to Japanese Troopers and United States Marines have made enduring impacts to the alliance’s lethality and fight readiness. He was actually one of the impactful JGSDF leaders over the previous couple of years and it was my utmost privilege to work with such a warrior.”