thedrifter
01-31-06, 07:29 AM
Training resumes at Corps' jungle warfare center
MCB Camp Butler
Story by Lance Cpl. Warren Peace
JUNGLE WARFARE TRAINING CENTER, OKINAWA, Japan (Jan. 27, 2006) -- After more than four months of inactivity, the Jungle Warfare Training Center became operational Jan. 16 as it hosted a training evolution for more than 100 Marines and sailors.
When the former commanding officer, Capt. Anthony Guess-Johnson, left in September to help train the Afghan National Army, JWTC was left without a commander and the clearance to operate. The center is now operational and looking toward the future with its new commander, Lt. Col. Robert A Sanchez, according to Gunnery Sgt. Kingsley A. Pryce, the chief instructor for JWTC.
“JWTC will continue to provide expert instruction and training in order to prepare personnel and units to operate in a jungle environment,” Pryce said. “Additionally, we control the usage of expeditionary campsites and diversified training areas in order to allow Marine and joint forces to conduct independent operations and combat exercises, from squad to regiment size within a dense jungle environment.”
Established in 1958, JWTC was originally called the Northern Training Area and was designed as a counter-guerilla school to aid in the training of service members during the Vietnam War. Since the Jungle Operation Training Center at Fort Sherman, Panama, closed in 1999, the 17,230-acre JWTC here has been the only U.S. operated jungle training facility in existence.
JWTC has extreme terrain and harsh weather and is one of the toughest training environments around, according to Sanchez.
Jungle Skills Course, Military Tracking Course and Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Course are the current lessons available for units and also provides a 3.8 mile Jungle Endurance Course.
Located in the Yambura forest of northern Okinawa, units can also utilize the facility for independent operations. There are training areas featuring facilities like fast rope towers, ship-to-shore operation areas and 23 helicopter landing zones in the double-canopy jungle.
The center plans to get validated by the Marine Corps Training and Education Command, Sanchez explained. Being validated by TECOM will allow units from other branches and areas of the world to utilize the center. This would put them in the company of other Marine Corps training facilities, like the Mountain Warfare Training Center, near Bridgeport, Calif.
Jungle Warfare Course, Jungle Leader’s Course and the Jungle Training Course will also be available in the future.
JWTC also received six new instructors and is prepared to train infantry and non-infantry units.
"If (units) can operate here, they can operate just about anywhere else,” Sanchez said.
To schedule a training course, contact JWTC at 622-2238.
Ellie
MCB Camp Butler
Story by Lance Cpl. Warren Peace
JUNGLE WARFARE TRAINING CENTER, OKINAWA, Japan (Jan. 27, 2006) -- After more than four months of inactivity, the Jungle Warfare Training Center became operational Jan. 16 as it hosted a training evolution for more than 100 Marines and sailors.
When the former commanding officer, Capt. Anthony Guess-Johnson, left in September to help train the Afghan National Army, JWTC was left without a commander and the clearance to operate. The center is now operational and looking toward the future with its new commander, Lt. Col. Robert A Sanchez, according to Gunnery Sgt. Kingsley A. Pryce, the chief instructor for JWTC.
“JWTC will continue to provide expert instruction and training in order to prepare personnel and units to operate in a jungle environment,” Pryce said. “Additionally, we control the usage of expeditionary campsites and diversified training areas in order to allow Marine and joint forces to conduct independent operations and combat exercises, from squad to regiment size within a dense jungle environment.”
Established in 1958, JWTC was originally called the Northern Training Area and was designed as a counter-guerilla school to aid in the training of service members during the Vietnam War. Since the Jungle Operation Training Center at Fort Sherman, Panama, closed in 1999, the 17,230-acre JWTC here has been the only U.S. operated jungle training facility in existence.
JWTC has extreme terrain and harsh weather and is one of the toughest training environments around, according to Sanchez.
Jungle Skills Course, Military Tracking Course and Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape Course are the current lessons available for units and also provides a 3.8 mile Jungle Endurance Course.
Located in the Yambura forest of northern Okinawa, units can also utilize the facility for independent operations. There are training areas featuring facilities like fast rope towers, ship-to-shore operation areas and 23 helicopter landing zones in the double-canopy jungle.
The center plans to get validated by the Marine Corps Training and Education Command, Sanchez explained. Being validated by TECOM will allow units from other branches and areas of the world to utilize the center. This would put them in the company of other Marine Corps training facilities, like the Mountain Warfare Training Center, near Bridgeport, Calif.
Jungle Warfare Course, Jungle Leader’s Course and the Jungle Training Course will also be available in the future.
JWTC also received six new instructors and is prepared to train infantry and non-infantry units.
"If (units) can operate here, they can operate just about anywhere else,” Sanchez said.
To schedule a training course, contact JWTC at 622-2238.
Ellie