thedrifter
10-29-06, 07:09 AM
A new breed of Marines rises
SPECIAL OPERATIONS, SPECIAL PURPOSE
BY CHIP JONES
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Sunday, October 29, 2006
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C.
An enemy soldier points his rifle from a third-story window, searching the shadows to pick off anyone heading this way.
An eerie calm falls over this fabricated town rising out of the pine forests. With its narrow streets, park benches, stores, bank and a church with a lighted cross, the empty settlement has the look of a Hollywood movie set -- albeit one with generic names such as City Bank and Urban Clothing and Apparel.
Welcome to the Marine Corps' training ground for military operations in urban terrain. The Marines just call it "Combat Town."
It quickly lives up to its name.
Shortly after the enemy soldier sticks his head out the window for a wary look around, two Humvees with mounted machine guns roar in from either end of the street and quickly set up roadblocks.
Soon, Marines from the Humvees dash toward the safe house, kicking in doors and tossing "flash bang" grenades that explode with white-hot flashes and stun anyone inside. This security platoon shoots plastic-tipped bullets "simunitions" -- at the federal contractors playing terrorists inside.
"They sting a little when you get hit," says Capt. A.J. Johnson, one of the 250 Marines and contractors involved in the nightlong operation.
Helicopters approach from the horizon with their familiar eggbeater sound. After about a minute, one chopper swoops in with a red light blinking menacingly.
The copter circles the building, stirring up a dust storm. Then it touches down gently on the roof.
About a dozen Marines on board sprint down a rear ramp and across the roof and blast their way inside. Within a few minutes, the safe house is in American hands, and the Marines are searching for more clues to the terrorist network.
It may be a simulated battle, but it's serious business for the Marine Corps, which is now in the special-operations game.
Since February, the smallest branch of the nation's military has faced a substantial challenge: Create a 2,500-member Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command, or MARSOC.
For the first time, the Corps is training to be part of the nation's lead military agency fighting terrorism. The U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla., also oversees Army, Navy and Air Force special-operations forces.
The command center at Camp Lejeune in coastal North Carolina has throbbed with a sense of urgency since Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered it to train and deploy small groups of special-operations Marines as soon as possible.
"Is it hard for the Marine Corps? You bet it is," said Maj. Gen. Dennis J. Hejlik, MARSOC's commander. "You look at those young Marines out there and they're on their third or fourth tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, so it is very difficult. But once the decision was made to stand up MARSOC, everyone's gotten on board, and we've pushed forward very hard."
Hejlik enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1968 during the Vietnam War. He has held a number of high-level posts, including working at the U.S. Special Operations Command as director of its Center of Policy, Training and Readiness.
Much is different for the military in the post-Sept. 11 environment, he said.
"If you look at the way warfare had been in the past, it was easy to find the enemy, but hard to finish the enemy because everyone fought en masse. That's totally changed. Now it's extremely hard to find the enemy, and relatively easy to finish him."
Hejlik's special operators are preparing for tough, shadowy, small-unit assignments -- such as seizing and searching a terrorist safe house.
During the September training exercise in Combat Town, the Marines confiscated a computer to search for clues that could lead them to the next ring in the terrorist chain.
"Intelligence is playing a bigger and bigger role on fighting the war on terror," Hejlik said. This includes the use of specialists skilled at interpreting satellite photos.
Such imagery can be hard for even veteran Marines to fathom. "It looks like a bunch of land to me, with a guy standing there," Hejlik admitted.
Intelligence specialists, who will serve in each special-operations team, can say, "You know, this is a little out of whack from the last time the satellite went by," Hejlik said.
The Army has special-forces units such as the Green Berets and Rangers, the Navy has SEALs and the Air Force has its own units. Now the Marine Corps, known for amphibious and light-infantry prowess, is adding a continuous sea-based presence to the special-operations mix.
This company of about 120 men expects to be sent abroad with an ocean-going Marine Expeditionary Unit, making it the Marine Corps' first direct action and special-reconnaissance unit to ship out.
They will be deployed early next year with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which recently conducted urban combat training at Fort Pickett, with exercises in Blackstone, Petersburg and Hopewell. A MEU, with 2,200 Marines and sailors, typically spends six months at sea, ready for combat or humanitarian assignments.
The goal, Marine commanders say, is to prevent potential conflicts from starting. As a result, the Marine Corps' special-operations command is training the assault elements to search out terrorist groups. And MARSOC has a Foreign Military Training Unit to work with allied militaries in what planners call Phase Zero countries.
"Phase Zero is really preventing war from happening by preventing instability," said Col. Michael N. Peznola, commanding officer of the Foreign Military Training Unit. "We want to keep it at Phase Zero."
Peznola was deployed for several months in 1993 on the U.S. military relief mission to Somalia, scene of the fighting that led to the book and movie "Black Hawk Down."
The military's mission today is different. "We don't think in terms of months, but in terms of years. It's a long-term commitment for these countries so we can help them out," he said. "We seek long-term engagement rather than random acts of training."
Since February, the Marine Corps has sent four foreign military training units to Africa and South America.
At Camp Lejeune, the Corps has carved out a training center, called the schoolhouse, from the pines and dirt roads on the base, which is the size of Henrico County and has 14 miles of Atlantic coastline. While plans call for new buildings, for now the advisers are being trained in Spartan classrooms with no running water.
Classes include intensive language training along with the study of foreign weapons and other skills needed to operate abroad.
Much of the cultural training focuses on nations in Africa, South America and the "Stan" countries -- Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkistan and the like.
The Marines get a heavy dose of foreign languages, and they must take Arabic, Russian, Spanish or French.
They also receive mediation training.
"We're looking for the right kind of guy," Peznola said. "Not every man wants to learn a language and a culture and really work with partner nations."
Only men are eligible because the assignments involve combat-arms jobs that by federal law are not open to female Marines, said Maj. Cliff W. Gilmore, MARSOC's spokesman. Women do serve in noncombat positions in the special-operations command, such as logistics and administration, he said.
At the ceremony marking the start of MARSOC in February, a military band played the "Mission: Impossible" theme, underscoring the stealth nature of the new command.
The hardest part is filling "high-demand, low-density" jobs in intelligence analysis, communications and explosive ordnance disposal.
"They're so highly trained, you can only push them through school so fast," Hejlik said. "We're at war, so [time] is a commodity that's hard to come by." Coming tomorrow: Lost in translation in West Virginia.
Contact staff writer Chip Jones at cjones@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6726.
Ellie
SPECIAL OPERATIONS, SPECIAL PURPOSE
BY CHIP JONES
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Sunday, October 29, 2006
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C.
An enemy soldier points his rifle from a third-story window, searching the shadows to pick off anyone heading this way.
An eerie calm falls over this fabricated town rising out of the pine forests. With its narrow streets, park benches, stores, bank and a church with a lighted cross, the empty settlement has the look of a Hollywood movie set -- albeit one with generic names such as City Bank and Urban Clothing and Apparel.
Welcome to the Marine Corps' training ground for military operations in urban terrain. The Marines just call it "Combat Town."
It quickly lives up to its name.
Shortly after the enemy soldier sticks his head out the window for a wary look around, two Humvees with mounted machine guns roar in from either end of the street and quickly set up roadblocks.
Soon, Marines from the Humvees dash toward the safe house, kicking in doors and tossing "flash bang" grenades that explode with white-hot flashes and stun anyone inside. This security platoon shoots plastic-tipped bullets "simunitions" -- at the federal contractors playing terrorists inside.
"They sting a little when you get hit," says Capt. A.J. Johnson, one of the 250 Marines and contractors involved in the nightlong operation.
Helicopters approach from the horizon with their familiar eggbeater sound. After about a minute, one chopper swoops in with a red light blinking menacingly.
The copter circles the building, stirring up a dust storm. Then it touches down gently on the roof.
About a dozen Marines on board sprint down a rear ramp and across the roof and blast their way inside. Within a few minutes, the safe house is in American hands, and the Marines are searching for more clues to the terrorist network.
It may be a simulated battle, but it's serious business for the Marine Corps, which is now in the special-operations game.
Since February, the smallest branch of the nation's military has faced a substantial challenge: Create a 2,500-member Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command, or MARSOC.
For the first time, the Corps is training to be part of the nation's lead military agency fighting terrorism. The U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa, Fla., also oversees Army, Navy and Air Force special-operations forces.
The command center at Camp Lejeune in coastal North Carolina has throbbed with a sense of urgency since Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered it to train and deploy small groups of special-operations Marines as soon as possible.
"Is it hard for the Marine Corps? You bet it is," said Maj. Gen. Dennis J. Hejlik, MARSOC's commander. "You look at those young Marines out there and they're on their third or fourth tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, so it is very difficult. But once the decision was made to stand up MARSOC, everyone's gotten on board, and we've pushed forward very hard."
Hejlik enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1968 during the Vietnam War. He has held a number of high-level posts, including working at the U.S. Special Operations Command as director of its Center of Policy, Training and Readiness.
Much is different for the military in the post-Sept. 11 environment, he said.
"If you look at the way warfare had been in the past, it was easy to find the enemy, but hard to finish the enemy because everyone fought en masse. That's totally changed. Now it's extremely hard to find the enemy, and relatively easy to finish him."
Hejlik's special operators are preparing for tough, shadowy, small-unit assignments -- such as seizing and searching a terrorist safe house.
During the September training exercise in Combat Town, the Marines confiscated a computer to search for clues that could lead them to the next ring in the terrorist chain.
"Intelligence is playing a bigger and bigger role on fighting the war on terror," Hejlik said. This includes the use of specialists skilled at interpreting satellite photos.
Such imagery can be hard for even veteran Marines to fathom. "It looks like a bunch of land to me, with a guy standing there," Hejlik admitted.
Intelligence specialists, who will serve in each special-operations team, can say, "You know, this is a little out of whack from the last time the satellite went by," Hejlik said.
The Army has special-forces units such as the Green Berets and Rangers, the Navy has SEALs and the Air Force has its own units. Now the Marine Corps, known for amphibious and light-infantry prowess, is adding a continuous sea-based presence to the special-operations mix.
This company of about 120 men expects to be sent abroad with an ocean-going Marine Expeditionary Unit, making it the Marine Corps' first direct action and special-reconnaissance unit to ship out.
They will be deployed early next year with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which recently conducted urban combat training at Fort Pickett, with exercises in Blackstone, Petersburg and Hopewell. A MEU, with 2,200 Marines and sailors, typically spends six months at sea, ready for combat or humanitarian assignments.
The goal, Marine commanders say, is to prevent potential conflicts from starting. As a result, the Marine Corps' special-operations command is training the assault elements to search out terrorist groups. And MARSOC has a Foreign Military Training Unit to work with allied militaries in what planners call Phase Zero countries.
"Phase Zero is really preventing war from happening by preventing instability," said Col. Michael N. Peznola, commanding officer of the Foreign Military Training Unit. "We want to keep it at Phase Zero."
Peznola was deployed for several months in 1993 on the U.S. military relief mission to Somalia, scene of the fighting that led to the book and movie "Black Hawk Down."
The military's mission today is different. "We don't think in terms of months, but in terms of years. It's a long-term commitment for these countries so we can help them out," he said. "We seek long-term engagement rather than random acts of training."
Since February, the Marine Corps has sent four foreign military training units to Africa and South America.
At Camp Lejeune, the Corps has carved out a training center, called the schoolhouse, from the pines and dirt roads on the base, which is the size of Henrico County and has 14 miles of Atlantic coastline. While plans call for new buildings, for now the advisers are being trained in Spartan classrooms with no running water.
Classes include intensive language training along with the study of foreign weapons and other skills needed to operate abroad.
Much of the cultural training focuses on nations in Africa, South America and the "Stan" countries -- Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkistan and the like.
The Marines get a heavy dose of foreign languages, and they must take Arabic, Russian, Spanish or French.
They also receive mediation training.
"We're looking for the right kind of guy," Peznola said. "Not every man wants to learn a language and a culture and really work with partner nations."
Only men are eligible because the assignments involve combat-arms jobs that by federal law are not open to female Marines, said Maj. Cliff W. Gilmore, MARSOC's spokesman. Women do serve in noncombat positions in the special-operations command, such as logistics and administration, he said.
At the ceremony marking the start of MARSOC in February, a military band played the "Mission: Impossible" theme, underscoring the stealth nature of the new command.
The hardest part is filling "high-demand, low-density" jobs in intelligence analysis, communications and explosive ordnance disposal.
"They're so highly trained, you can only push them through school so fast," Hejlik said. "We're at war, so [time] is a commodity that's hard to come by." Coming tomorrow: Lost in translation in West Virginia.
Contact staff writer Chip Jones at cjones@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6726.
Ellie