SARA MUIR*
Partners from the Freely Associated States of Micronesia, the US Coast Guard Forces Micronesia/Sector Guam, and Australian Maritime Security Advisers under the Pacific Maritime Security Program concluded the 13-day Operation Irensia 2026 security exercise last week.
The law enforcement training program brought together patrol boat crews from the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands at Apra Harbor in Guam.
“Operation Irensia reflects what genuine partnership looks like in the Pacific,” said Capt. Jessica Worst, commander, US Coast Guard Forces Micronesia/Sector Guam. “The crews who trained alongside us this week returned home with sharper skills and stronger relationships with their counterparts across the region. That is a direct investment in the security of Pacific waters — led jointly by Pacific maritime forces.”
Four Pacific Island patrol boat crews participated in the second annual operation:
- The Maritime Wing aboard FSS Bethwel Henry and FSS Tosiwo Nakayama from FSM.
- The Division of Marine Law aboard PSS President H.I. Remeliik II from Palau.
- The Sea Patrol aboard RMIS Jelmae from the Marshall Islands.
Across 13 days of shoreside instruction and underway exercises, crews advanced their maritime law enforcement capability, practiced counter-narcotics boarding procedures, competed in damage control events, and conducted formation operations in Guam’s coastal waters.
The operation’s law enforcement college formed the core of the curriculum, taking crews through pre-patrol planning, intelligence and maritime domain awareness, vessel identification, boarding procedures, evidence documentation, and case package preparation. Crews practiced drug testing and narcotics identification, trained on the various bilateral maritime law enforcement agreement frameworks, and completed mock counterdrug boardings at sea in Apra Harbor. Training rotated across ship pairs to maximize repetitions and ensure every crew completed the full sequence.
The damage control olympics, held at Victor Wharf, tested crew readiness in a competitive format. All four partner vessels and U.S. Coast Guard members competed through five timed events before a formal awards ceremony — a format designed to build the muscle memory and crew cohesion that emergency response demands at sea.
“Operations such as Irensia, conducted with the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the United States Coast Guard, demonstrate our shared commitment to detecting illicit activity at sea. We are proud to partner with the United States Coast Guard to strengthen regional maritime law enforcement cooperation across Micronesia through the Pacific Maritime Security Program,” said Lisa Chadderton, Assistant Secretary of Australian Defense’s Pacific Maritime Branch.
The operation is named for the Chamorro word for heritage — a deliberate framing that situates the exercise within the shared maritime identity of Pacific Island peoples. Drug trafficking, illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing, and maritime domain awareness gaps across Micronesia’s vast ocean spaces are threats that no single nation addresses effectively alone. Operation Irensia builds the interoperability, shared procedures, and personal relationships between crews that make coordinated responses possible.
The 2026 operation marked the second consecutive iteration for the exercise, which launched in June 2024 with 72 personnel from five nations. The 2026 iteration expanded to include more than 120 personnel from five nations, and the law enforcement curriculum was significantly expanded, adding the framework module, structured counter-drug boarding sequences, and rotational practical exercises that gave every participating crew underway experience.
“Every time we come together, these crews arrive better than the last time,” said Lt. Cmdr. Derek Wallin, US Coast Guard maritime advisor. “That’s not accidental. It’s the compounding effect of sustained partnership. What we built this week doesn’t stay in Apra Harbor. It goes home with every crew and shows up in their patrols, their boardings, their responses, and our future shared operations. That’s the whole point.”
Operation Irensia is conducted with the support of the Australian Pacific Maritime Security Program and in alignment with US commitments under the Compacts of Free Association with the FSM, Palau, and Marshall Islands. The operation is expected to continue biannually, with plans to deepen the law enforcement curriculum, introduce more enforcement training, expand the use of underway exercises in future iterations, and build on the ongoing year-round Operation Rematau.
- The writer is a lieutenant in the US Coast Guard Forces Micronesia, based on Guam.