Command Verifies Its First Amphibious Combat Vehicle Tool Kits

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. --

Blount Island Command received and verified its first Amphibious Combat Vehicle battalion tool kits Sept. 28-29 at Marine Corps Support Facility Blount Island. The handoff is part of the command's preparations to forward position the vehicles afloat and ashore.

The initial kits will support Blount Island Command's ACV maintenance work. Once the transportability study is complete, the command plans to load ACVs and accompanying tool kits aboard maritime prepositioning ships. That step would add the vehicles to the Marine Corps' global positioning network.

Designed to carry Marines from ship to shore and provide mobility inland, the eight-wheeled ACV is replacing the tracked Assault Amphibious Vehicle.

By positioning the vehicles forward, the Marine Corps aims to shorten force closure - the time needed to bring Marines and equipment together for operations. Blount Island Command, a subordinate of Marine Corps Logistics Command, is verifying and accounting for the tools needed to maintain them.

The installation provides maintenance and staging space, plus a 1,000-foot slipway where Blount Island Command loads equipment aboard maritime prepositioning ships operated by Military Sealift Command.

Leaders from Blount Island Command's operations, materiel production and forward-positioning teams oversaw the handoff. Trailers delivered the kits in large wooden crates outside an expeditionary clamshell structure Sept. 28.

The next morning, the sounds of drills, hammers and pry bars filled the structure as Marine Corps civilians and contractors opened the crates. A large fan moved relatively cool morning air through the work area while materiel specialists checked tools, quantities and part numbers against packing lists.

Thurman Bobbett, a retired Marine major who heads maintenance at Blount Island Command, said the team used ACV technical manuals to check which tools arrived and where they belonged. That accounting matters when Marines rely on the kits during contingency operations, he said.

"The Marines are going to assume they have what they need to do field-level repair, maintenance and service," Bobbett said. "We're ensuring they know what tools they have and where to find them."

Inside the clamshell, George Phillips, a logistics management specialist with the Marine Corps' Advanced Amphibious Assault program office in Quantico, Virginia, worked alongside contract materiel specialists to reconcile inventory discrepancies. Phillips said the broader effort pairs each tool with a maintenance task and checks for duplicates in existing sets.

Phillips has worked on the ACV program since 2019, coordinating among the manufacturer, acquisition program and fleet. Before coming to Blount Island, he assisted tool kit integration at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Georgia, then Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

"We're here getting the tool kits out ahead of the delivery of the vehicles to Blount Island," Phillips said. "Everything is working smoothly and we're right on track."