JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Forty-eight students from the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation completed a tour Sept. 19 at Marine Corps Support Facility Blount Island in Florida, where they learned how global prepositioning sustains readiness and joint operations.
“This gives students an overview of the joint force and combatant commands,” said Army Lt. Col. Michael Hill, director of the Command and General Staff Officer Course at WHINSEC, as students exited the USNS Sgt. William W. Seay, a cargo ship operated by the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command in support of the Marine Corps’ prepositioning programs.
The students, enrolled in the 11-month Spanish-language course at Fort Benning, Georgia, included mostly majors and lieutenant colonels, along with promotable captains. The U.S. participants on the tour bus came from the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and State Department.
Roughly half were foreign officers from Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Dominican Republic—representing both U.S. Northern Command and Southern Command areas of responsibility.
Hill noted that expeditionary operations are something most partner nations rarely practice outside peacekeeping, so exposure to Marine Corps expeditionary logistics is invaluable.
During their visit, students observed staging areas, a maintenance warehouse and Navy Point, a 26-acre complex dedicated to Navy prepositioning support operations. They also toured the USNS Seay, seeing how prepositioned gear is loaded and maintained for contingency operations.
Marine Corps Support Facility Blount Island Command serves as the hub of the Marine Corps’ prepositioning programs. Blount Island Command oversees maintenance, storage and loading of equipment bound for ashore sites and afloat squadrons. From artillery and armored vehicles to humanitarian supplies, it ensures Marines can respond rapidly and sustain operations efficiently.
The 1,200-acre facility on the St. Johns River, with a 1,000-foot slipway and direct access to the Atlantic, also underscores Florida’s role as a concentration point for military power.
“Florida is unique because you can see every service represented in one state—Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, even Space Force,” Hill said. “In just one trip, our students can get exposure they wouldn’t find anywhere else.”
Hill added that the course’s first semester provides students a joint foundation. While they may not “speak full Navy or Marine,” they learn enough of the language to understand each service’s capabilities and operate effectively together.
Beyond joint awareness, the course introduces foreign officers to U.S. logistics capabilities not common in their own militaries. At Blount Island, they saw how global prepositioning supports combat operations, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
Hill says the course strengthens long-term cooperation with the United States.
“The cooperation we build among our nations is the bottom-line reason we exist as a schoolhouse,” Hill said. “These aren’t just any officers—they’re future service chiefs, ministers of defense and chiefs of defense. We’re training the future leaders of foreign militaries here in the United States.”
WHINSEC, established in 2001, provides professional military education to more than 1,000 students annually from across the Americas. The institute emphasizes democratic values and human rights while preparing a new generation of ethical leaders to confront regional security challenges.