Capt. Brandon Salter’s Marine company had the job of clearing out insurgents holed up in a village on a made-up Asia-Pacific island.

To make matters worse in the exercise on Oahu, the notional area had been battered by a typhoon.

Bravo Company — from the amphibious assault ship USS America — arrived at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows by helicopter and tilt-rotor Osprey on Thursday from several hundred miles away at sea, officials said.

On Friday, ships from the America amphibious ready group sent big hovercraft known as LCACs (landing craft, air cushion) ashore at Bellows with Humvees and Marines.

The Hawaii training, on top of many work-ups out of California, comes as the $3 billion America, commissioned in 2014, heads out on its first overseas deployment to the Western Pacific, Horn of Africa and Middle East.

More than 1,800 sailors and 2,600 Marines are part of the amphibious ready group and 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit deploying for seven months on the America, USS Pearl Harbor and USS San Diego.

With the formation comes a ship-to-shore capability that provides ready access without ports or airfields — a skill set that’s valuable in the Asia-Pacific’s largely maritime domain, particularly at the onset of a crisis such as a natural disaster.

Marine Capt. Maida Zheng, with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said Hawaii has the only Marine-managed training areas and ranges between the West Coast and Japan.

Amphibious-ready groups routinely train in and around Hawaii, which provides unique characteristics as a mid-Pacific island group to refine those skills.

“I think the advantage of coming here is we get used to training in California, so we’re used to the same areas all the time,” Salter said. “We get to come here and the Marines get to do something they’re not used to. We also have somewhat of a jungle environment here that we don’t have in California.”

On Friday two of the 92-foot LCACs from the Pearl Harbor and San Diego made beach runs at Bellows, their big twin fans droning loudly and kicking up clouds of sea spray and sand that rained down a football field’s distance away. The hovercraft can carry up to 75-ton payloads and travel more than 46 miles per hour.

Pfc. Calen Lancaster, 19, with Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, came out soaked after he rode over in a Humvee on an LCAC’s deck.

“It’s only when you first hit the water and pretty much when you first land on the beach that you get pretty wet,” Lancaster said.

Humvees with TOW missile launchers on top rolled off and were headed for the Marine Corps Base Hawaii range to shoot .50-caliber and smaller firearms. The Marine training also included live-fire and helicopter exercises at Pohakuloa Training Area on Hawaii island.

The amphibious dock landing ship Pearl Harbor and amphibious transport dock ship San Diego could be seen far off Bellows, with the America operating out of sight as the landing force operations center.

The city sent out a notice last month saying Bellows beach and the campsites there would be closed during the training, which started Thursday and ends Monday.

The America is what is known as an “aviation-centric” amphibious ship in that the aircraft carrier-like ship doesn’t have a rear well deck for amphibious vehicles like on the Pearl Harbor and San Diego. The extra space is used for aircraft, including helicopters, Ospreys and Harrier jump jets.

The new F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, a short-takeoff and vertical-landing aircraft, has been tested on the ship. The Marine Corps said it has been operating the stealth fighter in Japan for almost seven months and next year plans to make the first shipboard deployment.

The America amphibious ready group left Naval Base San Diego on July 7. The Navy said the ships are scheduled to operate in the Pacific, Middle East and Horn of Africa, conducting maritime security operations, crisis response capability, theater security cooperation and forward naval presence.