thedrifter
05-01-06, 01:17 PM
The Iraq War: Another View
By John Boyce, News Staff Writer
07:10 AM, Monday, May 01, 2006
Although the national media provides everyone with up-to-the-minute news of all the attacks, bombings, and other horrors of combat, there are other facets of the effort to help the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as of the support provided to our troops in combat, which don’t get the coverage they deserve. That is the purpose of this column, in which information from various other sources is presented.
Today’s column presents an April 10 story out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif. It was written by USMC Cpl. Brian A. Tuthill. It has been edited for style and length only.
“I want you all to patrol down and observe and record what you think is a possible IED, and we’ll go over it at the end.”
Those were the instructions the Marines of Combined Anti-Armor Platoon, Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, received before they walked down the 100-meter-long simulated improvised explosive device training lane at Camp Wilson as part of their Mojave Viper training.
Moving in a staggered column, they quickly scribbled notes about suspicious objects they passed along the black trail of ground asphalt. Cardboard boxes, tires, trash, discarded ammunition cans, even an abandoned car, were all suspect along the alleyway as Marines walked past and meticulously eyed them as possible threats.
The platoon then gathered at the end of the lane near a 3-foot-high pile of broken concrete, which hid an inert 120mm artillery shell beneath it, as their instructor reviewed with them what they had identified.
“Who saw this arty shell in the concrete pile here?” asked Staff Sgt. Bryan K. Burgett, a combat engineer with the Tactical Training Exercise Control Group who led the evaluation for CAT Platoon.
Most raised their hands.
“How many saw the make-shift rocket launcher pointing at you from the bushes behind us?” Burgett asked as another instructor revealed a homemade four-tube launcher just out of sight.
None raised their hands. Some shook their heads, knowing what could have happened if this scenario had played out for real in the streets of Iraq.
“That’s why we’re out here,” Burgett said.
Marines participating in Mojave Viper will now take part in an improved and expanded version of the IED indicators and detection lane, as well as review skills they need to know before taking part in the new Motorized Operations Training Package which recently replaced the convoy course exercise.
“The current IED Lane at Camp Wilson is a static display of various IEDs, where Marines get experience recognizing IEDs and their indicators,” said Gunnery Sgt. Kelly Crawford, explosive ordnance disposal technician. “We try to let them know they will get a very small indicator, if anything. But if you’re not developing your senses to pick up on these things, you’re not going to see them until they have already detonated.”
Crawford said the IED Lane is continually updated by EOD and can be changed almost instantly based on the latest reports from EOD teams currently serving in Iraq.
“IEDs are so important because they are killing so many Marines, and more focus needs to be put on them,” Crawford said. “I tell Marines in my classes I’m not the one who is going to save your life, you are going to save your life by being aware of these things, and preventing a device from going off on you or somebody else.”
One reason for the redesign of these portions of Mojave Viper is to provide a more structured training progression.
“The convoy course did not have a building block approach to it, so now we have devised the MOTP,” said Maj. Mark P. Gianotti, TTECG assistant infantry representative. “It’s called a package because we now start with academic classes up front followed by the lane training, then we do the live fire later.
“It’s now more of a crawl, walk, run method that will set them up for success on the live fire portion of the MOTP, which is essentially the old convoy course. All of this is geared to the private first class or the lance corporal straight out of the School of Infantry.”
Lane training at Camp Wilson is conducted on a company level with platoons rotating through three different lanes at once. One company can complete the course per day. The three lanes total five individual stations, each of which lasts about an hour and a half.
Lane One of the training — the IED Lane — is broken into three different sections, and comes only after Marines have completed a day of classroom learning from TTECG controllers and EOD technician instructors.
Section one of Lane One is the guided walk-through down the IED indicator alley. Section two shows Marines how to properly react to a suspected IED while on a patrol. Section three deals with reacting to a detonated IED.
Lane Two deals with vehicle recovery and casualty evacuation considerations. It also gives Marines information from Navy corpsmen on what to do if they are a first responder to an injured comrade who may need to be evacuated from the field of battle.
Lane Three based on pre-combat checks and pre-combat inspections prior to any mission. Marines must perform practical applications of how to properly set up heavy and crew-served weapons on vehicle mounts and prepare for combat operations.
“Machine gunners know all of this inside and out, but the ones manning the weapons may not be machine gunners and (they) need to be taught this,” said Gianotti.
Getting Marines to understand the value of this training is not hard, because of the significant threat IEDs pose in Iraq.
“One of the biggest things for defeating IEDs is training, knowledge and preparation, and that’s the main focus of lane training,” Gianotti said.
Ellie
By John Boyce, News Staff Writer
07:10 AM, Monday, May 01, 2006
Although the national media provides everyone with up-to-the-minute news of all the attacks, bombings, and other horrors of combat, there are other facets of the effort to help the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as of the support provided to our troops in combat, which don’t get the coverage they deserve. That is the purpose of this column, in which information from various other sources is presented.
Today’s column presents an April 10 story out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif. It was written by USMC Cpl. Brian A. Tuthill. It has been edited for style and length only.
“I want you all to patrol down and observe and record what you think is a possible IED, and we’ll go over it at the end.”
Those were the instructions the Marines of Combined Anti-Armor Platoon, Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, received before they walked down the 100-meter-long simulated improvised explosive device training lane at Camp Wilson as part of their Mojave Viper training.
Moving in a staggered column, they quickly scribbled notes about suspicious objects they passed along the black trail of ground asphalt. Cardboard boxes, tires, trash, discarded ammunition cans, even an abandoned car, were all suspect along the alleyway as Marines walked past and meticulously eyed them as possible threats.
The platoon then gathered at the end of the lane near a 3-foot-high pile of broken concrete, which hid an inert 120mm artillery shell beneath it, as their instructor reviewed with them what they had identified.
“Who saw this arty shell in the concrete pile here?” asked Staff Sgt. Bryan K. Burgett, a combat engineer with the Tactical Training Exercise Control Group who led the evaluation for CAT Platoon.
Most raised their hands.
“How many saw the make-shift rocket launcher pointing at you from the bushes behind us?” Burgett asked as another instructor revealed a homemade four-tube launcher just out of sight.
None raised their hands. Some shook their heads, knowing what could have happened if this scenario had played out for real in the streets of Iraq.
“That’s why we’re out here,” Burgett said.
Marines participating in Mojave Viper will now take part in an improved and expanded version of the IED indicators and detection lane, as well as review skills they need to know before taking part in the new Motorized Operations Training Package which recently replaced the convoy course exercise.
“The current IED Lane at Camp Wilson is a static display of various IEDs, where Marines get experience recognizing IEDs and their indicators,” said Gunnery Sgt. Kelly Crawford, explosive ordnance disposal technician. “We try to let them know they will get a very small indicator, if anything. But if you’re not developing your senses to pick up on these things, you’re not going to see them until they have already detonated.”
Crawford said the IED Lane is continually updated by EOD and can be changed almost instantly based on the latest reports from EOD teams currently serving in Iraq.
“IEDs are so important because they are killing so many Marines, and more focus needs to be put on them,” Crawford said. “I tell Marines in my classes I’m not the one who is going to save your life, you are going to save your life by being aware of these things, and preventing a device from going off on you or somebody else.”
One reason for the redesign of these portions of Mojave Viper is to provide a more structured training progression.
“The convoy course did not have a building block approach to it, so now we have devised the MOTP,” said Maj. Mark P. Gianotti, TTECG assistant infantry representative. “It’s called a package because we now start with academic classes up front followed by the lane training, then we do the live fire later.
“It’s now more of a crawl, walk, run method that will set them up for success on the live fire portion of the MOTP, which is essentially the old convoy course. All of this is geared to the private first class or the lance corporal straight out of the School of Infantry.”
Lane training at Camp Wilson is conducted on a company level with platoons rotating through three different lanes at once. One company can complete the course per day. The three lanes total five individual stations, each of which lasts about an hour and a half.
Lane One of the training — the IED Lane — is broken into three different sections, and comes only after Marines have completed a day of classroom learning from TTECG controllers and EOD technician instructors.
Section one of Lane One is the guided walk-through down the IED indicator alley. Section two shows Marines how to properly react to a suspected IED while on a patrol. Section three deals with reacting to a detonated IED.
Lane Two deals with vehicle recovery and casualty evacuation considerations. It also gives Marines information from Navy corpsmen on what to do if they are a first responder to an injured comrade who may need to be evacuated from the field of battle.
Lane Three based on pre-combat checks and pre-combat inspections prior to any mission. Marines must perform practical applications of how to properly set up heavy and crew-served weapons on vehicle mounts and prepare for combat operations.
“Machine gunners know all of this inside and out, but the ones manning the weapons may not be machine gunners and (they) need to be taught this,” said Gianotti.
Getting Marines to understand the value of this training is not hard, because of the significant threat IEDs pose in Iraq.
“One of the biggest things for defeating IEDs is training, knowledge and preparation, and that’s the main focus of lane training,” Gianotti said.
Ellie