Operations by expeditionary forces over the past four years formed the theme of a unique gathering at NATO’s headquarters at Naples – all under the snappy title of Alligator.

Hosted by Naval Striking and Support Forces Southern Europe (STRIKFORSOUTH or SFS), the annual ‘Alligator’ conference brought together more than 90 participants from 11 NATO nations as well as Australia.

In his opening remarks, Rear Admiral Paul Boissier, the SFS Naval Deputy Commander, challenged them to “capture the lessons identified and learned from recent expeditionary operations, and to seriously analyse some of the more important issues, with a view to proposing solutions designed to improve our collective capabilities.”

The Australian delegation started the ball rolling with an account of their experiences as the lead nation in the International Force mission in East Timor.

They were followed by the Netherlands, talking on the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Next in the spotlight was Operation Iraqi Freedom, with the UK giving a presentation on Operation Telic with further briefs by the United States, Australia, Spain and Italy, before moving on to the current Operation Enduring Freedom.

This included an illuminating Special Operations overview and an operations brief from the US Marine Corps.

West Africa provided the next area of focus, with briefings on the UN Mission in Liberia from France and the Netherlands.

Closing briefs provided information on exercise and training opportunities in Africa and a look at the way ahead for expeditionary capabilities by the USMC Combat Development Centre, which Admiral Boissier described as “very inspiring”.

Lessons were also learned from the more distant past, with an historical view of the World War II combined-joint amphibious operation at Anzio, with linkage to the battles along the Southern Italian Front.

This culminated with an actual battlefield tour to the Rapido River and Monte Cassino abbey.

This year’s conference was regarded as the most successful to date. Alligator’s origins go back to December 1970, when SFS hosted the Southern Region Amphibious Operations Working Study Group – the first of its kind in NATO and with a remit to meet annually.

Established in 1953, SFS consists of a multinational headquarters based in Naples which was designed to integrate US maritime and nuclear strike assets into NATO operations.

Lately, it provided NATO’s command and control for carrier air combat operations in the Balkans, in support of Bosnia in 1995, and the Kosovo bombing campaign in 1999 – the only NATO HQ to command such operations to date.