thedrifter
03-02-08, 09:00 AM
Marines showcase combat skills in South Korea exercise
By Jimmy Norris, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Monday, March 3, 2008
RODRIGUEZ RANGE, South Korea — The Marines have landed in South Korea and are raring to showcase their skills.
“This is an organization that is designed to apply violence and at the end of the day put metal into meat,” Col. Brian McCoy, commander of the 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division — home-based at Twentynine Palms, Calif., and deployed to the Western Pacific — told a gathering of about 50 media members on Saturday.
And in a demonstration of those skills, the Marines cleared buildings with hand grenades and directed aerial bombs to their targets as part of the annual Foal Eagle exercise, which runs concurrently with Key Resolve.
McCoy said their first mission was to match up their manpower — which arrived via plane at Incheon Airport — with their prepositioned, ship-based equipment at Chinhae port.
Now that they’re on the range, he said, the regiment will work with South Korean marines to develop tactics, techniques and procedures for combined operations.
McCoy said the overarching goal is to show “the United States — and the United States Marine Corps — is resolved to defend the Republic of Korea from aggression.”
He said his regiment, which took part in key battles during the Korean War, was visiting the peninsula for the first time since 1953.
After his briefing, the media watched the Okinawa-based 5th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company use a ground laser target designator to mark targets for U.S. Navy F-18 Hornets. The combat jets dropped training bombs onto the targets.
Members of the media also observed the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion practice using hand grenades to enter buildings with South Korean marines of the 2nd ROK Marine Division.
Ellie
By Jimmy Norris, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Monday, March 3, 2008
RODRIGUEZ RANGE, South Korea — The Marines have landed in South Korea and are raring to showcase their skills.
“This is an organization that is designed to apply violence and at the end of the day put metal into meat,” Col. Brian McCoy, commander of the 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division — home-based at Twentynine Palms, Calif., and deployed to the Western Pacific — told a gathering of about 50 media members on Saturday.
And in a demonstration of those skills, the Marines cleared buildings with hand grenades and directed aerial bombs to their targets as part of the annual Foal Eagle exercise, which runs concurrently with Key Resolve.
McCoy said their first mission was to match up their manpower — which arrived via plane at Incheon Airport — with their prepositioned, ship-based equipment at Chinhae port.
Now that they’re on the range, he said, the regiment will work with South Korean marines to develop tactics, techniques and procedures for combined operations.
McCoy said the overarching goal is to show “the United States — and the United States Marine Corps — is resolved to defend the Republic of Korea from aggression.”
He said his regiment, which took part in key battles during the Korean War, was visiting the peninsula for the first time since 1953.
After his briefing, the media watched the Okinawa-based 5th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company use a ground laser target designator to mark targets for U.S. Navy F-18 Hornets. The combat jets dropped training bombs onto the targets.
Members of the media also observed the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion practice using hand grenades to enter buildings with South Korean marines of the 2nd ROK Marine Division.
Ellie