thedrifter
12-13-07, 10:07 AM
Surveillance exercise tests Recon Marines
Lance Cpl. Corey A. Blodgett
CAMP HANSEN, Okinawa (December 14, 2007) -- Marines from the Amphibious Reconnaissance Platoon, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, honed their urban observation skills with an exercise on Camp Hansen Dec. 4, as part of the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Course led by III Marine Expeditionary Force's Special Operations Training Group.
The 5-week course, which began Nov. 8 and concludes today, gave in-depth training in covert surveillance techniques on high-value targets and culminated with exercises that brought the students within feet of enemy role players who were on the lookout.
"The Marines are inserted several hundred yards away from (enemy forces) and from there they'll advance to within feet of the targets," said Gunnery Sgt. David Jarvis, an instructor with SOTG. "Avoiding all enemy contact, they'll collect information and send it back for commanders to review."
Once near the target area, the Marines set up a small base camp a couple hundred feet from the enemy positions.
Then they sent small teams even closer to take photographs and gather useful information, according to Jarvis.
"They'll take pictures of the individuals on site, any structures on site and basically everything that's going on in that target area," explained Sgt. Scott Greene, an instructor with 3rd Reconnaissance Bn., talking about the Marine taking part in the exercise. "They'll then send all the information and photos back via radios, so commanders can see what is going on and plan their raid or other actions."
The Marines spent most of their time training on reporting intelligence and working with the different radios and communication equipment to get information back to a command unit.
"The main learning points (for the exercise) are communication and reporting," Greene said. "They need to be able to report accurate information (quickly) back to the commanders."
During the course, the Marines also conducted weapons training to prepare for scenarios where their cover is compromised and they have to engage the enemy.
The course is designed to teach the Marines to be the unseen eyes of commanders.
"We need to do our job so the commanders can get this information and build an accurate, viable plan to take down the objective, plain and simple," Greene said.
Ellie
Lance Cpl. Corey A. Blodgett
CAMP HANSEN, Okinawa (December 14, 2007) -- Marines from the Amphibious Reconnaissance Platoon, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, honed their urban observation skills with an exercise on Camp Hansen Dec. 4, as part of the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Course led by III Marine Expeditionary Force's Special Operations Training Group.
The 5-week course, which began Nov. 8 and concludes today, gave in-depth training in covert surveillance techniques on high-value targets and culminated with exercises that brought the students within feet of enemy role players who were on the lookout.
"The Marines are inserted several hundred yards away from (enemy forces) and from there they'll advance to within feet of the targets," said Gunnery Sgt. David Jarvis, an instructor with SOTG. "Avoiding all enemy contact, they'll collect information and send it back for commanders to review."
Once near the target area, the Marines set up a small base camp a couple hundred feet from the enemy positions.
Then they sent small teams even closer to take photographs and gather useful information, according to Jarvis.
"They'll take pictures of the individuals on site, any structures on site and basically everything that's going on in that target area," explained Sgt. Scott Greene, an instructor with 3rd Reconnaissance Bn., talking about the Marine taking part in the exercise. "They'll then send all the information and photos back via radios, so commanders can see what is going on and plan their raid or other actions."
The Marines spent most of their time training on reporting intelligence and working with the different radios and communication equipment to get information back to a command unit.
"The main learning points (for the exercise) are communication and reporting," Greene said. "They need to be able to report accurate information (quickly) back to the commanders."
During the course, the Marines also conducted weapons training to prepare for scenarios where their cover is compromised and they have to engage the enemy.
The course is designed to teach the Marines to be the unseen eyes of commanders.
"We need to do our job so the commanders can get this information and build an accurate, viable plan to take down the objective, plain and simple," Greene said.
Ellie