Description 1 - 22 April 1988 - More than 40,000 U. S. military personnel participated in Exercise Ocean Venture 88 conducted on U. S. beaches, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. The exercise was designed to demonstrate U. S. capability to protect national interest by supporting friendly neighbors in the Caribbean. Approximately 5,400 Marines from the 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and the 28th Marine Expeditionary Unit participated in the exercise. On 12 April, one Marine was injured during the offloading of a maritime prepositioning ship and died later that day.
