What does the Weapons Platoon do?

Hi,

My son has deployed to Afghanistan with 2/1 Echo Company, Weapons Platoon.
Does this platoon stay together while deployed or do they move the Marines to other platoons as needed?
He was a mortarman but they asked for volunteers and he said me, so now he is a SAW gunner. All this happend 3 weeks before they deployed. Just trying to understand how he will be used. I only know that he is in the southern Helmand Province. Been over there for about 1 month now. He told us that was in a post with 15 Marines, 2 EOD men and 2 ISAF interpreters. His AO only has a satellite phone and we have been told they may access to it every 2 weeks. So we are waiting for a phone call.

Those in Weapons Platoon are attached to HQ&S,,,, Deployed as needed.

United States Marine Corps
<DL><DT>Rifle company</DT></DL>

• three rifle platoons
• a weapons platoon
• four Navy hospital corpsmen (one attached to each rifle platoon and the senior corpsman with the company headquarters)
• an administrative clerk
• a police sergeant (typically holding the rank of corporal or sergeant)
• a training NCO
• a company Gunnery Sergeant
• a first sergeant
• an Executive Officer (XO), typically a first lieutenant
• a Commanding Officer (CO), typically a captain

<DL><DT>Weapons company</DT></DL>A weapons company has in place of the three rifle platoons, an 81 mm mortar platoon, an anti-armor platoon, and a heavy machine gun platoon.
<DL><DT>Headquarters and Service Company</DT></DL>

• Headquarters Platoon consists of Marines from S-1, S-2, S-3, the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defense section, and the Chaplain section (one Navy chaplain and an enlisted religious program specialist).
• Communications Platoon, consisting of Radiomen, Wiremen, Techs, Data Marines, and the associated staff.
• Service Platoon, consisting of S-4, Motor Transportation, Food Service, armorers, and Supply.
• Scout Sniper Platoon.
• Medical Platoon, which includes all of the Navy medical personnel for the rifle companies and the Battalion Aid Station (BAS). The allowance of 65 hospital corpsmen and two Medical Corps officers (doctors) is usually not completely staffed. As such, the BAS usually fields one doctor and 10-12 hospital corpsmen. The remaining personnel are assigned to the rifle companies, usually four hospital corpsmen per company.

From your post, it sounds like he was moved to a rifle platoon to be used in a fire team. His duties could include guarding a post or conducting security patrols. I cannot say for sure what he is doing, and he probably won't be able to tell you either for security reasons (you never know who is listening). I hope this helped you out.

I'd guess (and not to sound harsh or anything) that he's doing whatever they need him to do. I'd imagine he's in a support (as in support by fire) kind of situation, but you never know....he may be a vehicle gunner, or driver, or whatever.

As well he could be a filler role, so while he may be assigned as a SAW gunner, as a replacement/filler role he could be doing mundane tasks such as radio operator, armorer/assistant, could be assisting in the ToC/CoC, it would all depend on the attached unit, its optempo , AO and the units mission/role in that area.

Get early predisposition for total knee replacements by humping 81mm mortar base plates -- do they still shoot those?