{"id":38660,"date":"2026-08-24T06:34:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=38660"},"modified":"2026-08-24T06:34:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:34:45","slug":"decatur-native-participates-in-worlds-largest-international-maritime-warfare-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/24\/decatur-native-participates-in-worlds-largest-international-maritime-warfare-exercise\/","title":{"rendered":"Decatur native participates in world\u2019s largest international maritime warfare exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist John Osborne, Navy Office of Community Outreach<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
1st Lt. Jonathan Sweney, a Decatur native, serves with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment.(Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Patricia Elkins)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii \u2014 1st Lt. Jonathan Sweney, a native of Decatur, serves with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, assigned to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a Marine air-ground task force out of Camp Pendleton, California, participating in the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in and around the Hawaiian Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweney graduated from Bellmont High School in 2017 and earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University Fort Wayne in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The skills and values needed to succeed in the Navy are similar to those found in Decatur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrowing up, my family was big on hard work and service,\u201d Sweney said. \u201cThat instilled in me a deep desire to join the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweney joined the Navy two years ago. Today, Sweney serves as an infantry officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI joined the Marine Corps because after graduating college I wanted a change from the 9-5 office life and to do something more meaningful,\u201d Sweney said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the world\u2019s largest international maritime exercise, 31 nations, approximately 40 surface ships, five submarines, 14 national land forces, over 140 aircraft and more than 25,000 personnel will participate in RIMPAC 2026. This exercise provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring safety at sea and security on the world\u2019s oceans. RIMPAC 2026 marks the 30th exercise in a series that began in 1971.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theme of RIMPAC 2026 is \u201cPartners: Integrated and Prepared.\u201d The participating nations and forces exercise a wide range of capabilities and demonstrate the inherent flexibility of maritime forces. These capabilities range from disaster relief and maritime security operations to sea control and complex warfighting. The relevant, realistic training program includes gunnery, missile, anti-submarine and air defense exercises, as well as amphibious, counter-piracy, mine clearance operations, explosive ordnance disposal and diving and salvage operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is fitting that the world\u2019s premier maritime exercise occurs as the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary. For 250 years, the United States has built relationships with international partners based on trust, cooperation, and shared values. RIMPAC is where that trust is put into practice, strengthening the people-to-people relationships that are the bedrock of all the nations\u2019 collective security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweney fully understands how much has gone into RIMPAC and the importance of the exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRIMPAC has taken a lot of work from a lot of different people and agencies that don\u2019t usually work together, and this incredible exercise is the result of so many people working together to make things happen,\u201d Sweney said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweney serves a Navy that operates far forward, around the world and around the clock, promoting the nation\u2019s prosperity and security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cServing in the Marine Corps is only meaningful if I can train and take care of my people,\u201d Sweney said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweney is grateful to others for helping make a Navy career possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to thank my mom and dad for helping me through college and getting me started,\u201d added Sweney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hosted by Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, RIMPAC 2026 will be led by Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, Rear Adm. Richard Meyer, who will serve as Combined Task Force (CTF) commander. Chile will fill the role of deputy commander of the CTF, and Japan will fill the role of vice commander. The Republic of Korea will command the maritime component, and Canada will command the air component.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During RIMPAC, a network of capable, adaptive partners train and operate together in order to strengthen their collective forces and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific. RIMPAC 2026 contributes to the increased interoperability, resiliency and agility needed by the Joint and Combined Force to deter and defeat aggression by major powers across all domains and levels of conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist John Osborne, Navy Office of Community Outreach PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii \u2014 1st<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Decatur native participates in world\u2019s largest international maritime warfare exercise...","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[17,15],"class_list":["post-38660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","tag-community","tag-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38660"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38666,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38660\/revisions\/38666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}