Readiness

Sgt. Oscar Saldivar, a civil affairs specialist with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force - Southern Command, waits for the evacuation control center to open during a certification exercise at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, April 23, 2020. The CERTEX is the culmination exercise that will test the training and readiness of the Marines and Sailors of the SPMAGTF-SC for certification to deploy. Once certified, the SPMAGTF-SC will be ready to conduct crisis response, theater security cooperation training and general engineering projects alongside partner nation militaries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Saldivar is a native of Norwalk, California. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Benjamin D. Larsen)