The United States Marine Corps

[vor033]

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – Under the watchful eye of his instructor, the Marine from Combat Logistics Regiment 27 clutched the dark blue sphere to his chest in a death grip. Flipping the clip, pulling the pin and rearing back his arm, the Marine flung the M69 practice grenade downrange and ducked behind cover.

After a small audible pop, practice was over and the Marine rose to his feet and peered over the concrete barrier to see how true his aim was. Elsewhere on the grenade range aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C., July 23, other 2nd Marine Logistics Group Marines moved about the range, some eagerly and others apprehensively, holding their own M69 practice and deadly M67 fragmentation grenades

The grenade range not only allowed the Marines to get away from their normal duties and into the field, but gave them an opportunity to improve their confidence with a weapon that flings shrapnel out to 15 meters.

For many of the Marines, the last time they tossed practice or real fragmentation grenades was during Marine Combat Training or The Basic School. To re-familiarize the unit, the Marines tossed 500 frags at targets over the course of the day as part of the regiment's tactical training program.

"It gives the Marines confidence with military equipment and lets them know that if they have to use it – they know how," stated Staff Sgt. Dwayne N. English, the electronics key material systems manager with Communications Company, CLR-27, from St. Louis. "Just the fact that they're holding it, throwing it and hearing that explosion gives them confidence in themselves."

The 14-ounce M67 fragmentation grenade, containing a mixture of the explosives TNT and RDX called Composition B, has been successfully fielded by U.S. troops since the replacement of the M61 fragmentation grenade after the Vietnam War. Over the past several years, Marines have used hand grenades with great effect in the streets of Iraq and mountains of Afghanistan.

[vor033]

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – For many of the Marines and sailors of Headquarters and Service Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, the 40 feet up seemed way easier than the 40 feet down at Camp Lejeune’s rappel tower, Oct. 29, 2009.

But, the anxiety caused by plummeting from a 40 foot tower didn’t stop anyone from completing what Capt. Jodi Ong, the H&S Co. commander, said was a great opportunity for unit camaraderie and training that most personnel in the company rarely see.

“It provides the Marines an opportunity to do something they don’t usually get to do,” she said, adding that training evolutions like rappelling keeps Marines and sailors mentally and physically engaged for a warfighting environment.

Ong also said training events give CLR-27 personnel time to train with Marines from other units. On this occasion the Marines worked with helicopter rope suspension training (HRST) masters from various units including 2nd Recon Battalion, 2nd Marine Division.

The HRST masters assisted the trainees by demonstrating how to prepare the equipment and conduct the techniques used to safely rappel from the tower. Once on the tower, the masters carefully worked with the warfighters to ensure they made it down properly.

Pfc. Forest J. Hensley, a fiscal clerk with the 2nd MLG comptroller office, described working with Marines from other backgrounds as a very eye-opening experience.

“It’s great to get out of the office,” he said of the event. “It lets you see the entire organization.”

“It’s cool to come out here to see recon running down the walls and then use the same walls to train,” he continued. “It shows how it’s one Marine Corps. We all play our part.”

[vor033]

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. – The Marines gazed through the darkness over the top of their fighting holes with their night vision goggles in place. Waiting for the signal that the enemy was within range, the Marines prepared to close with and destroy an impending enemy attack.



“Four hundred meters,” their commanding officer yells, signaling the Marines to begin sending .50 caliber, 5.56mm and 7.62mm rounds pouring down range toward their enemy.

Once the attack was repelled, the Marines and sailors of 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, nicknamed the “Warlords,” launched a counterattack as they wrapped up Clear Hold Build 3, a combat training exercise aboard Marine Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., Aug. 25-27, 2009.


CHB-3 is the third phase of Mojave Viper training which pits Marines in a battalion-wide defense and counterattack operations against role players dressed as Taliban fighters using enemy weaponry and tactics the Marines might soon face in Afghanistan.


With Company F in the middle, Company E to the left flank and Company G to the right, 2nd Battalion Marines dug two-man fighting positions and hunkered down for the long nights ahead. “This is very important,” said Lance Cpl. Jonathan D. Jarvis, a squad leader with Company F. “Sitting in a defense is some of what we’re going to be doing in Afghanistan.”


As darkness fell on the second day, the Marines faced an enemy attack thrown against their position. The Marines repelled the oncoming attack using air and indirect fire support to hammer the enemy until they were close enough for small arms fire.


The next morning the Marines of Company F packed into amphibious assault vehicles as the Marines from Companies E and G rode in the backs of 7-ton trucks to commence a counterattack. Just as it had the night before, air attacks and indirect fire were used with devastating effect to hammer enemy positions while the Marines moved in closer to engage the enemy.
Jarvis, who went through Mojave Viper training last year before the battalion’s most recent deployment to Iraq, commented on the changes that have been made since the last time he attended the training.


“We have a lot bigger and better ranges this year at this enhanced Mojave Viper” said the rifleman. “It definitely shows that they’ve been doing their homework on Afghanistan. We trained really hard for the past eight months and I’m extremely confident that we will succeed over there.”

With CHB-3 complete, the Marines and sailors of 2nd Battalion look forward to completing Mojave Viper with their final field exercise, a three-day war which tests their endurance and ability to truly utilize the concepts of the CHB mindset.




'Warlords' of 2/2 wrap up Mojave Viper training

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. – The town of Fatwan had become a ghost town. Most of its population driven out by insurgents, the water supply destroyed and the landscape dotted with ****y traps and improvised explosive devices. As a last resort, the local government asks Marines with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, to clear the town and provide security as they work to rebuild.
This is where the Marines and sailors of 2/2, nicknamed the “Warlords,” completed the final exercise of Mojave Viper training aboard Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., Aug. 31-Sept. 3, 2009.

The exercise was a 72-hour war that tested the Marines’ ability to utilize the clear, hold, build concept taught during Mojave Viper. “I think we did a really good job executing clear, hold, build,” said Lance Cpl. Marc W. Foutch, a squad leader with Company E. “Our battalion commander had us going where we needed to go and brought all the pieces together to complete the mission.”

During the first day, the Marines secured critical areas in the town, including the police, militia and army compounds, and then manned entry and vehicle control points to ensure the locals could return to their homes safely.

Throughout the second and third days, Marines manned the CPs and patrolled around the clock, remaining ever vigilant to any suspicious activity.

“We got contact [engagements with the enemy] quite a bit,” said Foutch, a Gouldsboro, Maine, native. “A lot of platoons and squads around us were getting contact and calling us for help.”

The third and final day was aimed at rebuilding the town as Marines from 4th Civil Affairs Group, Marine Forces Reserve – who will be attached to 2/2 during a scheduled deployment to Afghanistan later this year – assessed a destroyed water treatment facility and destroyed bridge.

To make the experience as real as possible, the town of Fatwan was filled with Afghan role players, who allowed the “Warlords” to utilize culture-awareness training that will be important to the battalion’s success in Afghanistan.

Capt. Scott A. Cuomo, the commanding officer of Company F, added that the role players provided a realistic scenario by making the commanders utilize different interpreters depending on which district they were operating in, simulating the variety of languages spoken in Afghanistan.

“In a one word description – invaluable,” said Cuomo, when asked about the usefulness of the training. “Invaluable in so many ways because what we experienced in language barriers alone, we will experience oversees.”


With the final exercise of Mojave Viper behind them, the Marines prepare to return to Camp Lejeune and await their deployment to Afghanistan later this year.

[vor033]

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – Skimming over the choppy Atlantic waters off the coast of Camp Lejeune’s Onslow Beach, CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters maintained a steady elevation as Marines dropped from the rear of the aircraft during a helo-casting operation, July 23, 2009.
Helo-casting is an insertion method which has Marines jump from aircraft into bodies of water with weapons, diving gear and any additional equipment they to make it to shore to accomplish their mission.

“It’s an excellent insertion method when used properly and allows the Marines to be dropped stealthily into any body of water deep enough, whether it’s the ocean, a river or a lake,” said Staff Sgt. Anthony D. Slate, the Schools Chief for 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division.
Approximately 30 Marines participated in the training exercise during which they plunged into water approximately 500 meters from shore.

The operation served as an example of a traditional reconnaissance mission. “Its good training for a perishable skill, which recon Marines must re-qualify for on a yearly basis,” said Slate, who has helo-casted approximately 20 times. “The training marks a return to the traditional role of reconnaissance Marines – who serve as a forward observation element, or a stealthy assault element.”

The Marines conducted the helo-cast with the Dive Propulsion Device, a system that allows the Marines to go under water and approach the beach undetected and un-fatigued, Slate said. The system had only been helo-casted once before, and that was by the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 1st Reconnaissance Battalion.

Master Sgt. Rob Achee, the battalion training chief for 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, was one of the Marines to pilot the Dive Propulsion Device after helo-casting it. “We’re developing standard operating procedures for helo-casting the DPD out at sea,” Achee said. “Helo-casting in itself is a potentially dangerous operation, but with the dive propulsion device you must be cautious because you’re depending on the equipment to get you to the shore and back to the extraction site.”

The Reconnaissance Marines understand the risks associated with this training exercise as well as the dangers they face in their role as the forward tip of the Marine Corps’ expeditionary spear.

“We dry run everything that we might be called upon to do in combat, so when you have to go on a mission and insert using this technique, you have experience doing it and you’re confident in your gear and in your abilities,” said Cpl. Andrew M. Simich, a reconnaissance Marine with the battalion. ”The more you do it in training, the more comfortable you’ll be while out on an operation.”

No matter how many times Simich jumps out of helicopters, or plunges into the cold ocean to swim ashore, it still takes some getting used to.
“I honestly think its a little scary jumping out of the Helicopter and into the water like that,” said Simich, who was on his 4th helo-casting exercise. “Every time I get into the bird it’s exciting, but you still get that nervous feeling just before you jump.”

From noon until just before sunset Marines boarded helicopters, abruptly disembarked into the ocean and swam to shore, only to do it again – hoping to make the most out the training.

[vor033]

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – Remove your waist strap, undo your chest strap, and disconnect your reserve static line, 1,500 feet before you hit the water. Once in the water, pull the quick-ejector straps on your legs, arch your back, and slide out of the harness. Get yourself and your parachute into the boat and drive to the shore to complete your mission.

These are some of the steps that Marines from 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, and 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company, 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, II Marine Expeditionary Force, remembered when practicing military free-fall and low-level static-line water jumps into Onslow Bay off the coast of Camp Lejeune, N.C., July 21, 2009.

There were 24 static-line jumpers who jumped from an altitude of 2,000 feet in four six-man teams, and six free-fall jumpers who leapt from an altitude of 10,000 feet, from a CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter.

This training gives the Marines the knowledge they need to utilize the versatility of a helicopter insertion along a hostile shore. “The reason that we do water jumps is because it’s another type of insertion technique we need to be familiar with,” said Staff Sgt. Anthony D. Slate II, the school’s chief for 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion. “If there is not a suitable drop zone on land close to our target site, then we may have to jump into water. Also, doing a deliberate water jump will prepare Marines for the possibility of an accidental water jump.”

The last time the battalion did a water jump was in 2007 because the assets the battalion needs includes available parachutes, safety boats, drivers, safety swimmers and air space that are not always readily available.

In addition to logistical requirements, jumpers must have the highest swim qualification. Also, they must learn how to properly escape from underneath a parachute and how to remove the parachute harness the moment they land in the water in wet-silk training.

“You practice for it over and over and it just becomes muscle memory,” said Sgt. Matthew L. Deboth, one of the static-line jumpers from 2nd Force Recon.

For most of the jumpers, including Deboth, it was their first time doing a water jump.
“It was interesting, good training and something I think all jumpers in recon should do,” added the Carroll, Iowa, native.

The Marine Corps has been using water jumps as an insertion technique since the 50’s. Though it has not been a common practice in Iraq or Afghanistan, it is still a vital skill that reconnaissance Marines must have for future missions and conflicts.

[vor033]

FORT A.P. HILL, Va. – Explosions rocked Fort A.P. Hill, Va., Sept. 12, 2009, as Marines from 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, blew the handles off more than a dozen doors and cleared paths through lines of concertina wire during a series of training exercises.

Assaultmen from the battalion’s Companies A and B conducted biannual explosives training in order to sustain their demolitions expertise and prepare them to lead the way during assaults when combat engineers are not available.

The majority of the Marines participating in the training have conducted similar operations for the last several years, said Sgt. Ryan White, an assault section leader with Company A.

In fast-paced operations in Afghanistan and Iraq during recent years, Marines like White often found themselves blocked by obstacles such as walls and locked doors, and such barriers needed to be cleared in a timely fashion so as to not bog down operations.

“The purpose of this [training] is to provide us with the capability to handle these situations when we don’t have combat engineers,” said White, a Milwaukee native

Sgt. Frankie Hines, an assault section leader with Company B, echoed White’s sentiments, adding, “This training allows the Marines to get some hands-on experience with demolitions and see the effects that breeching charges have on a target.”

The Marines used a variety of charges designed to blow off door handles, destroy door hinges, or simply push down doors – whatever the mission requires.

The assaultmen created, emplaced and detonated a variety of the charges they may be required to use while on a deployment, and the training also included tips on how to make improvised explosives. For example, with a length of steel, explosives, and a roll of tape, the Marines can make an improvised Bangalore torpedo to smash through barbed wire and other tangled obstacles.

Getting out to a demolitions range and working with live explosives is a rare and invaluable opportunity, said Lance Cpl. Adam T. Toffling, an assaultman with Company B.

[mcsuperfly]

I know this picture is from a few pages back, but I'll be damned if I didnt recognize my Senior Drill Instructor. Seeing as how I just graduated bootcamp on the 13th, the memories (nightmares?) are still fresh... but anywho, it's good to be back

[HollywoodMarine]

Why is it still so common to see Marines carrying the M16 with the full stock (C7A1 in Canada)? How come they have not phased it out for a collapsible stock? We still use the C7A1 here as well, but only in the reserves as far as I know.

The M-16 A4 is still a excellent weapon, and the M-4 will only be issued to certain units.

Understood. That must have been a bitch to work with in built up areas.

It's not. You just have to know how to adapt, and utilize it to your advantage.

Question: I got out of the USMC back in '91, and I coulda swore that my Dress Blues belt buckle didn't have the EGA (I was a sergeant), and the emblem was reserved for Staff Sergeants and above. Any of you current Marines know if/when this changed?

The NCO Buckle (serial # 14-95) was authorized for wear in 1995 Fiscal Year.

[Vince S]

The M-16 A4 is still a excellent weapon, and the M-4 will only be issued to certain units.
.

I'm fairly sure what len173 meant was why there isn't a collapsible stock installed on those M16A4 like the Canadian Forces do on the C7A2

[Ratamacue]

The NCO Buckle (serial # 14-95) was authorized for wear in 1995 Fiscal Year.

If I remember correctly from boot camp, junior enlisted belts have no emblem, NCO belts have the EGA, and SNCO belts have the EGA framed by a wreath.

[chefjavier]

If I remember correctly from boot camp, junior enlisted belts have no emblem, NCO belts have the EGA, and SNCO belts have the EGA framed by a wreath.

How come the change?

[gaijinsamurai]

Thanks for answering my question, Hollywood Marine.

S/F

GS

[Ratamacue]

I know this picture is from a few pages back, but I'll be damned if I didnt recognize my Senior Drill Instructor. Seeing as how I just graduated bootcamp on the 13th, the memories (nightmares?) are still fresh... but anywho, it's good to be back

Congratulations, brother. What's going to be your MOS? I hope you're going to ITB, because you'll look back at the Reaper as a casual morning stroll after the humps you'll get to do. Oh, and pray you don't get stationed in Lejeune.

[gaijinsamurai]

Lejeune sucks.

Camp Lejeune, that is. Not the general.

[HollywoodMarine]

How come the change?

I guess the Uniform Board wanted an NCO's buckle to look different from SNCO's and non-rates.