thedrifter
12-16-07, 08:02 AM
Training follows war into cities
To better learn about fighting in an Iraqi city, Marines built one
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 15, 2007
Twentynine Palms, Calif. - It looked like news photos out of Iraq - tires, broken bicycles, piles of rocks and wrecked hulks of vehicles strewn about the sandy streets. It sounded like Iraq, too - the pop, pop, pop of rifle fire, rumbling tanks, loud bangs of buried explosives and staccato bursts from machine guns.
The license plates were the same as those affixed to Iraqi cars, and men and women dressed in long robes and head scarves spoke Arabic. But it wasn't Iraq. It was sunny California.
For the 207 men in Fox Company of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines, this is as close as they'll come to Iraq - until they actually arrive in the war-torn country next month.
The Milwaukee-based Marine Reserves unit has been at the sprawling Marine training base in this community near Palm Springs since Sept. 17. They're training for an unconventional war where the enemy doesn't wear a uniform and death can come from a mortar hidden in a pile of garbage detonated by a garage door opener.
Last week the Milwaukee Marines trained for urban warfare, conducting exercises through a mock Iraqi city complete with Arabic-speaking role players, traffic roundabouts and mosques set up in the Mojave Desert.
"This is the final validation of what we've been training for since September," said Capt. Jeff Wong, Fox Company's second-in-command. "The development of this base reflects what's going on in Iraq where we're now engaging much more with the populace."
As the war in Iraq has evolved over the last 4 1/2 years, so, too, have Marine training and tactics. Instead of training for a Cold War-era World War III, the military is changing the way it readies its troops so they can handle insurgents such as the Taliban and al-Qaida.
That means more Arabic language and cultural instruction, learning to set up checkpoints, road detours and security perimeters - something that previously only Marines working at embassies had to know - and identifying improvised explosive devices, the weapon of choice of terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The hardest part is trying to learn all aspects of urban combat. Like thinking in terms of 360 degrees of danger and keeping your head on a swivel," said Lance Cpl. Matthew Zarling, 24, of Cedarburg.
The Milwaukee Marines have memorized Arabic phrases so the "Iraqis know you're trying to help them," said Zarling, who took two years of Spanish in high school.
Lance Cpl. Michael Van Handel, 20, studied German in high school in Neenah, and "when I speak Arabic, I sometimes revert back to German," he said.
This will be the first deployment for both Van Handel and Zarling. However, about one-quarter of Fox Company are veterans of Iraq.
The 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines spent seven months in combat in 2004-'05. Wong said the war has changed since then, when the company spent much of its time in skirmishes and battles and lost five members in action. Now the Marines are preparing to be more like beat cops - to engage the Iraqi citizens who the Marines hope will report terrorist activity.
It's similar to the jobs of police officers in America, said Sgt. Juan Lopez, 34. He should know - he has been a Milwaukee police officer for 10 years, working out of District 2. Just as police communicate with community leaders about what is happening in their neighborhoods, Fox Company Marines will meet with Iraqi religious and community leaders.
"If the sheiks and imams are in contact with American forces, it will help us. It's not what most people think of with the Marines," said Lopez, who has spent 15 years in the military, including five with the Wisconsin Air National Guard 128th Refueling Wing.
"Our overall mission stays the same, but we're getting more Arabic language and cultural training. The Marines are learning more how to process detainees and making liaisons with the heads of households," Lopez said.
The intensive training ends this week with a 72-hour exercise simulating the kind of combat they could face in Iraq. Then the troops will get time off for the holidays before leaving for Iraq in January.
Among the things Fox Company Marines have learned since arriving at Twentynine Palms: how to enter a home that may have bad guys inside, how to toss grenades, how to insert an IV tube and use a tourniquet, how to say "stop," "open your trunk" and "hello" in Arabic, the difference between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, how to spot a roadside bomb, how to divert traffic when a bomb explodes and how to look out for the safety of their buddies.
They also spent plenty of time getting themselves into peak physical condition, training with their weapons with both live ammunition and paint cartridges and learning how to communicate with each other, particularly when they're under fire.
"It's not easy," said Lance Cpl. Jacob Bolton, 23, a Mukwonago High School grad. "There's really no one thing that's hard. It's the accumulation that stresses you."
This week the Marines learned how to enter and clear a building, walking through hallways, doorways and rooms simulated by metal pipes, then doing the same thing in buildings set up like an Iraqi neighborhood, where they came under fire from fake insurgents.
In a later exercise, the Marines shot blue paint cartridges while the insurgents used red cartridges. Trainers with clipboards yelled at Marines standing in front of windows not to be "hard targets" while medics tended to "wounded" Marines as smoke from grenade canisters swirled and paint cartridges pinged off the sides of the metal buildings.
As he waited to take his turn with the 3rd and 4th platoons, Cpl. David Bertram, 23, of West Bend took out a magazine of 15 paint bullets from a pouch on his body armor and loaded it into his M-16.
"I like to go paint-balling at home. This is like that but more intense," said Bertram, who is deploying to Iraq for the second time. "It's training that could save our lives."
Ellie
To better learn about fighting in an Iraqi city, Marines built one
By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 15, 2007
Twentynine Palms, Calif. - It looked like news photos out of Iraq - tires, broken bicycles, piles of rocks and wrecked hulks of vehicles strewn about the sandy streets. It sounded like Iraq, too - the pop, pop, pop of rifle fire, rumbling tanks, loud bangs of buried explosives and staccato bursts from machine guns.
The license plates were the same as those affixed to Iraqi cars, and men and women dressed in long robes and head scarves spoke Arabic. But it wasn't Iraq. It was sunny California.
For the 207 men in Fox Company of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines, this is as close as they'll come to Iraq - until they actually arrive in the war-torn country next month.
The Milwaukee-based Marine Reserves unit has been at the sprawling Marine training base in this community near Palm Springs since Sept. 17. They're training for an unconventional war where the enemy doesn't wear a uniform and death can come from a mortar hidden in a pile of garbage detonated by a garage door opener.
Last week the Milwaukee Marines trained for urban warfare, conducting exercises through a mock Iraqi city complete with Arabic-speaking role players, traffic roundabouts and mosques set up in the Mojave Desert.
"This is the final validation of what we've been training for since September," said Capt. Jeff Wong, Fox Company's second-in-command. "The development of this base reflects what's going on in Iraq where we're now engaging much more with the populace."
As the war in Iraq has evolved over the last 4 1/2 years, so, too, have Marine training and tactics. Instead of training for a Cold War-era World War III, the military is changing the way it readies its troops so they can handle insurgents such as the Taliban and al-Qaida.
That means more Arabic language and cultural instruction, learning to set up checkpoints, road detours and security perimeters - something that previously only Marines working at embassies had to know - and identifying improvised explosive devices, the weapon of choice of terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The hardest part is trying to learn all aspects of urban combat. Like thinking in terms of 360 degrees of danger and keeping your head on a swivel," said Lance Cpl. Matthew Zarling, 24, of Cedarburg.
The Milwaukee Marines have memorized Arabic phrases so the "Iraqis know you're trying to help them," said Zarling, who took two years of Spanish in high school.
Lance Cpl. Michael Van Handel, 20, studied German in high school in Neenah, and "when I speak Arabic, I sometimes revert back to German," he said.
This will be the first deployment for both Van Handel and Zarling. However, about one-quarter of Fox Company are veterans of Iraq.
The 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines spent seven months in combat in 2004-'05. Wong said the war has changed since then, when the company spent much of its time in skirmishes and battles and lost five members in action. Now the Marines are preparing to be more like beat cops - to engage the Iraqi citizens who the Marines hope will report terrorist activity.
It's similar to the jobs of police officers in America, said Sgt. Juan Lopez, 34. He should know - he has been a Milwaukee police officer for 10 years, working out of District 2. Just as police communicate with community leaders about what is happening in their neighborhoods, Fox Company Marines will meet with Iraqi religious and community leaders.
"If the sheiks and imams are in contact with American forces, it will help us. It's not what most people think of with the Marines," said Lopez, who has spent 15 years in the military, including five with the Wisconsin Air National Guard 128th Refueling Wing.
"Our overall mission stays the same, but we're getting more Arabic language and cultural training. The Marines are learning more how to process detainees and making liaisons with the heads of households," Lopez said.
The intensive training ends this week with a 72-hour exercise simulating the kind of combat they could face in Iraq. Then the troops will get time off for the holidays before leaving for Iraq in January.
Among the things Fox Company Marines have learned since arriving at Twentynine Palms: how to enter a home that may have bad guys inside, how to toss grenades, how to insert an IV tube and use a tourniquet, how to say "stop," "open your trunk" and "hello" in Arabic, the difference between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, how to spot a roadside bomb, how to divert traffic when a bomb explodes and how to look out for the safety of their buddies.
They also spent plenty of time getting themselves into peak physical condition, training with their weapons with both live ammunition and paint cartridges and learning how to communicate with each other, particularly when they're under fire.
"It's not easy," said Lance Cpl. Jacob Bolton, 23, a Mukwonago High School grad. "There's really no one thing that's hard. It's the accumulation that stresses you."
This week the Marines learned how to enter and clear a building, walking through hallways, doorways and rooms simulated by metal pipes, then doing the same thing in buildings set up like an Iraqi neighborhood, where they came under fire from fake insurgents.
In a later exercise, the Marines shot blue paint cartridges while the insurgents used red cartridges. Trainers with clipboards yelled at Marines standing in front of windows not to be "hard targets" while medics tended to "wounded" Marines as smoke from grenade canisters swirled and paint cartridges pinged off the sides of the metal buildings.
As he waited to take his turn with the 3rd and 4th platoons, Cpl. David Bertram, 23, of West Bend took out a magazine of 15 paint bullets from a pouch on his body armor and loaded it into his M-16.
"I like to go paint-balling at home. This is like that but more intense," said Bertram, who is deploying to Iraq for the second time. "It's training that could save our lives."
Ellie