On 29 September 2012, 98 Marines boarded a plane in Southern California bound for the "Lewis and Clark" located 9,547 miles away in the Indian Ocean. She loaded sustainment stocks just 40 days before at Blount Island Command in Jacksonville, Florida and ammunition stocks at Charleston, South Carolina. She completed her transit of 33 days and arrived on station one day prior to embarking Marines and sailing the additional 450 nautical miles to the exercise location in Gan, Maldives. Upon arrival, the exercise force offloaded its personnel and equipment, including four High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWVs), using a contracted commercial barge to move personnel and equipment approximately one mile from ship to shore. Over the course of the ten-day exercise, the Marines ashore and afloat received 100% of their sustainment from stocks loaded aboard the USNS "Lewis and Clark". This marked the first time an entire exercise force, its equipment (including rolling stock) and its sustainment were supplied from a Military Sealift Command (MSC) vessel of any kind. The lessons learned during this inaugural operational employment of the T-AKE validated the operational viability of this type vessel to support ground forces ashore and will be further refined in future exercises.