December 05, 2005
‘Viper’ gives Marines a preview of life in Iraq
By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. — From a distance in the air, the neat collection of sand-colored buildings surrounded by the nondescript desert lends a vision of an isolated village in Iraq’s western province. Close up, the midday sun bounces off the blue dome of a mosque, and the faces of Iraqi men, some wearing dishdashas or police uniforms, show that this is no American town.

The urban village sprouting from the desert floor is a key part of the Marine Corps’ plan to give leathernecks more realistic training and immerse them in places they will experience when they deploy.

Training officials want Marines to sense and feel Iraq the moment they arrive at the combat center for a new training evolution called “Mojave Viper,” developed from the revised Combined Arms Exercises that have been held here and at security and stabilization operations training at March Air Reserve Base in nearby Riverside County. They want little white space in their training schedule in order to replicate as much of the stress, adrenaline and uncertainty Marines will encounter overseas as possible.

During a Nov. 14 briefing in front of Lt. Gen. John Sattler, head of I Marine Expeditionary Force, Brig Gen. Doug Stone said he wants Marines to “cross the line, to be in contact the whole time.” Stone runs the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Training Command and is helping develop Mojave Viper.

Sattler, visiting for the day, nodded.

“You don’t want them to see it for the first time in Iraq,” said Sattler, who will be in charge of all Marines in Iraq in the spring.

Marine Corps Times accompanied Sattler when he flew in to get updates on Mojave Viper.

Two months ago, the first battalions with I MEF landed at Camp Wilson, which has taken on the feel of a rear supporting base, and rolled into the desert for the intense, 30-day training. Every two weeks, another 800 Marines and sailors arrive for Mojave Viper, which continues to evolve to meet units’ needs, officials said.

‘The most difficult training’

Camp Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, landed here and jumped into training. “We wanted to do the most difficult training there is,” Lt. Col. Patrick Looney, 3/5’s commander, said Nov. 14. The battalion is preparing for its third tour in Iraq.

Their training, Looney said, “is more focused on the [tactics, training and procedures] that have proved well in Iraq.” He’s tapped into his Marines’ experience, especially his noncommissioned officers, to build the battalion’s skills. Of its roughly 800 men, two-thirds have at least one combat tour under their belt and about 250 are fresh out of the School of Infantry, he said.

At Mojave Viper, battalion Marines sharpen their basic infantry skills, fire their weapons in live-fire exercises, run convoys and conduct security and stabilization operations at the combat center’s new and expanding “Iraqi village.” There, some 50 Iraqi nationals, hired by Titan Corp., join more than 200 role players for the 10-day Urban Warrior training, held in the town that includes Iraqi police stations, shops, tunnels and a canal that bisects the village. A young grove of palm trees sits at one entrance. Nearby, two berm-lined forward-operating bases become the units’ home.

Every moment here is a part of mostly scenario-driven training events. “There are no admin moves in Iraq,” Sattler said.

Camp Wilson, the combat center’s longtime stepping-off point, is where battalions gear up to train and then unwind before returning home. The military’s General Order No. 1 — which includes, among other rules, no alcohol in a combat zone — applies here too, even at the Warrior Club. “It’s my decision to make it that way,” said Col. Geffrey Cooper, the officer in charge of Mojave Viper’s support detachment.

“It’s a FOB,” Cooper added. “They come in through the wire, and they can relax a little bit.”

They are still subjected to simulated indirect fire, however. He’s heard few complaints from battalions, which may opt for a beer tent on the last day here, he said.

“It’s good to have the troops say life in Iraq is a lot better than life here,” Stone quipped.

Pulling it all together

So far, no two battalions have trained the same way; that flexibility suits training officials just fine. “Everyone has the opportunity to take from a buffet menu,” Sattler said. “Each commander has to be able to influence his own actions” in accordance with the battalion’s mission-essential task list.

Battalion commanders pick from training options available to them so they can tailor them to their unit skills and the missions they expect to encounter. “Each Marine becomes very personal with his weapon,” he said. “It’s 30 days of intensiveness.”

A week of live-fire and maneuver-battalion exercises and a 10-to 14-day combined arms training exercise is followed by a pause to debrief before the unit dives into a 10-day urban-warfare package. With battalions arriving every 14 days, three or four battalions could be living and training here at any given time, a big change from when single battalions rotated for the monthly CAX training.

Training planners and controllers juggle more moving parts, whether they are convoys on the road, live-fire rounds crossing the sky or helicopters providing close-air support. And that’s a lot to keep track of while making sure battalions are out of each other’s way.

“My priority is trying to get this running like a Swiss clock,” Stone said.

Ellie