Hollywood Aids Marines Going To Iraq

[thedrifter]

Hollywood Aids Marines Going To Iraq


Submitted by: I Marine Expeditionary Force
Story Identification Number: 20042191730
Story by Cpl. Matthew J. Apprendi



SAN DIEGO(Feb. 13, 2003) -- Inside a movie studio, several hundred Marines from 3rd Civil Affairs Group participated in Military Operations in Urban Terrain Feb. 9-12 in order to prepare for their upcoming deployment to Iraq.

Creating and fortifying a strong relationship between the people of Iraq and the U.S. presence will be their primary goal while deployed, according to Capt. Steve Coast, 3rd CAG training officer.

With most of their civil affairs training complete, the Marines took the opportunity to polish their abilities as riflemen.

“There’s a very fine line between civil affairs and being a Marine – we have to mesh the two together to complete our mission,” Coast said. “We don’t have a choice, we could be completing civil affairs operations and all of a sudden we are taking in fire – we have to switch modes to control that threat.”

The training placed the reservists in a simulated Iraqi town that featured gas stations, taxis, houses and professional role players eating, drinking and talking to each other in full Iraqi costumes on the streets and in cafes.

“This is the most real-life training we can possibly give them (the Marines) in preparation for their deployment,” said Coast.

The CAG encompasses volunteer Marines from numerous military occupational specialties such as infantrymen, mechanics and radio operators. This gives the CAG a wealth of background to complete humanitarian operations, according to Coast.

“We’re a melting pot from all around the Marine Corps,” he said.

While touring through the mock village, the six-man civil affairs team approached an Iraqi woman sweeping in front of a shop.

“We have to treat everyone as a threat – you just never know,” said Sgt. Mark Corrado, a civil affairs specialist. “This training gives us the techniques and tactics to defend ourselves if something were to go wrong.”

The Iraqi lady began with polite gestures saying “hello” and asking the Marines to come inside the shop. With smiles on their faces, two members of the team approached the lady; other Marines provided security.

“We’re the ones going out in the community to meet with people to build a strong relationship,” said Corrado, who also works in the K-9 Division of the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department, N.J. “There could be a bridge that needs to be built for a village. We’re going to be the ones to make that happen through the relationships we make.”

When the Marines entered the shop, not all of the Iraqis welcomed them with open arms. Some shouted, “What are you doing here? Get out!” The Marines calmly stated they were there as friends. The situation seemed resolved, however, a man in the back of the café reached inside of his jacket pocket.

By switching modes, the Marines deescalated that threat by throwing the man to the floor and after searching him. A pistol was found. Then they had to calm down the innocent Iraqis.

This was just one of many scenarios the Marines coped with during the exercise. The facility, operated by Strategic Operations, boasts not only its realistic scenarios, but also its visual system that captures the training scenarios for the CAG to analyze.

“There are video cameras located all over the training site to monitor the Marines so they can evaluate their performance,” said Kit Lavell, Strategic Operations, Inc. executive vice president. “We even have the ability to zoom as far into as the trigger of a Marine’s weapon to tell if they got a round off in time to kill the enemy.”

Because of this technology, 3rd CAG is able to monitor these scenarios on tape to see what they did correct and what they need to improve upon before they start up a new scenario, Lavell explained.

“I feel real prepared going over there,” said Lance Cpl. Billy Howard, civil affairs specialist, from Florence, Ala. “Our training has eliminated anything that could be a surprise.”


http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004219171013/$file/screamlo.jpg

An actor portraying an Iraqi screams at Sgt. Veronica Cortez, 3rd Civil Affairs Group civil affairs specialist. Nearly 200 Marines from 3rd CAG participated completed the four-day training evolution of Military Operations in Urban Terrain at a mock Iraqi town at Stu Seagall Productions in San Diego to prepare for their upcoming deployment to Iraq. (USMC official photo by Cpl. Matthew J. Apprendi)

Photo by: Cpl. Matthew J. Apprendi

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/9EBB71678EA0D0BF85256E3F00792020?opendocument


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: February 23, 2004

And … action!
Marines train at a TV studio for duty in Iraq

By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer

SAN DIEGO — The Marines never saw it coming.
Flying in low along a dusty street in the Iraqi village, the rocket-propelled grenade made a “whoosh” sound before it detonated behind the Humvee in a cloud of white smoke.

The five Marines jumped from the vehicle as civilians dodged for cover. A bicyclist huddled against a building. A yellow taxi cab stopped near the Humvee, and the driver ran to another building.

“Cover! Cover!” one Marine yelled to another before he darted across the street, his M16 rifle in hand as four Iraqi men and women, dressed in flowing robes and scarves, scattered to safety.

Two Marines pointed their rifles at one man’s head as he rolled on the ground behind a small shed.

“Down! Down!” Sgt. David McLaughlin yelled to the man whose head was wrapped in a blue cloth. “Get your face in the ground! Hands out!”

The second Marine, Cpl. Mario Padilla, spotted a knife the man had pulled from his right sleeve. The Marine fired, killing the man.

Hollywood Marines

This time the “dead” man was an actor and the RPG blast was staged, but the Marines were real — reservists with the 3rd Civil Affairs Group who were using a San Diego TV studio to help prepare them for duty in the mean streets of Iraq. The four-acre studio run by Strategic Operations Tactical Training is on a lot owned by Hollywood producer Stu Seagall and has been used to film several television shows, including “Pensacola: Wings of Gold,” “Renegade” and “Silk Stalkings.”

The set has indoor and outdoor alleys, sheds, classrooms, a house with a furnished room, a ship’s bridge and an actual 727 jetliner. Crews configure the rooms and buildings to create different settings and scenarios.

“We apply movie-making techniques to make realistic training,” said Kit Lavell, executive vice president and a former Navy jet pilot.

A “shoot house” inside a 12,000-square-foot building provides room-clearing training for law-enforcement and military personnel. It can serve as a hotel, apartment, café, drug lab, tire shop.

“We can create just about everything,” Lavell said.

Using that flexibility, Strategic Operations designed three scenarios for the 3rd CAG squad-level training: A shoot house using simulated rounds, a military operation in urban terrain, and a café, all set in an Iraqi village.

‘Crash course’

The training has a sense of urgency for 3rd CAG, which was reactivated in January for duty in Iraq. About 170 Marines from the unit will deploy, including 30 who were in Iraq last year.

“We’re trying to train everybody in a crash course in civil affairs,” said Capt. Steve Coast, the group’s training officer and a veteran of last year’s combat operations.

The civil-affairs mission they face “definitely has changed a lot from when we were there the first time,” said Coast, whose civilian job is in law enforcement.

This year, he and his team will work closely with 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, when they arrive in Iraq to replace Army units with the 82nd Airborne Division.

The Strategic Operations training, Coast said, gives his team a combination of classroom instruction in cultural issues and realistic training with role players, who are professional actors.

“This is what really happens out there,” Coast said after the mock attack on the Humvee, which began with pyrotechnic devices running along a wire.

‘Go away’

After the RPG attack, the leathernecks received a tip that a wanted terrorist was at a local café.

The five-man team approached the small café, located next to a small shop and a tire store.

“Please come in,” an Iraqi woman said in English, waving her hand toward her shop’s door.

The Marines, fingers brushing their rifle triggers, slowly walked into the café. Arabic music chimed in the air. Two women sat, sipping tea.

“Please, join us,” the waiter said. “Thank you for coming.”

But others were less welcoming. “Why are you here?” asked one agitated man, looking up from a newspaper. “You’re filthy, like dogs here. Go away.”

The conversations became heated, and the waiter began speaking in Arabic. A man led a woman on crutches quickly out of the café.

Two Marines stood guard at the café entrance as the other, tipped off by a citizen, found the terrorist in a back room.

“Hands up!” one yelled.

Quickly, the terrorist was sprawled on the ground, handcuffed and led away.

Building confidence

The Marines said the training should help them once they land in Iraq.

“I’ve got confidence in my fellow Marines, and I’m sure they have confidence in me to watch their backs,” said McLaughlin, who joined 3rd CAG in January after serving with 14th Marines.

The studio scenarios reinforce the importance of getting information and gaining the trust of the Iraqi people, he said.

“The key word to it all is rapport,” he said

The Marines also learn to hone their “cultural nerve ends,” Coast said, and to sharpen their instincts by watching hands and body language.

“Hands and corners will kill,” said Staff Sgt. Frank Ortega, the team’s senior NCO. Ortega served 13 years on active duty, mostly as a reconnaissance Marine, including duty in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and in Somalia.

Since he joined 3rd CAG in December, he’s emphasized to his team the importance of situational awareness and sharpening their “spidey senses,” ala “Spiderman.”

“The more scenarios we learn, the more prepared we are,” he said. “It builds more confidence in the Marines who aren’t sure of their environment.”

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-2640661.php


Sempers,

Roger
:marine: