Marines train with ?like mines?

[thedrifter]

Marines train with ?like mines?

Submitted by: MCB Camp Butler
Story Identification #: 200451220221
Story by Cpl. Ryan Walker



CENTRAL TRAINING AREA, Okinawa, Japan (April 27, 2004) -- As Marines we are trained never to surrender or retreat during combat operations; however, there are instances when Marines must strategically change their operating area to improve their offensive position.

This often involves setting up a new defense, to stop and delay the enemy and allow for successful movement, which is why nearly 20 Marines of Combat Assault Battalion, 3rd Marines Division, conducted minefield insertion and extraction exercises here April 27.

?What we did is put in a hasty minefield,? said Lance Cpl. James M. Spiars, combat engineer. ?We use this if we?re falling back to get to higher ground. What it does is buys us more time to do what we have to do.?

With six weeks of training in their military occupational specialty school, the Marines developed the skills to insert and extract two general types of minefields, hasty and deliberate.

?We set in a hasty minefield to stop vehicles and tanks. Basically you?re setting a defense in a place where we are not going to stay for more than 72 hours,? said squad leader Lance Cpl. Douglas W. Hampton, combat engineer. ?So this type of minefield stops and delays the enemy.?

Digging in a deliberate minefield involves more planning and takes more time, because the enemy position is known, he explained.

Both minefields, however, are set in using the same techniques of plotting the grid coordinates with a compass, digging them in with a shovel, and handling them with extreme caution.

?The mines we?re using today are M-15 anti-tank mines, but these are just practice mines,? Hampton said.

Split into two squads, the combat engineers swapped minefields to practice extraction by only using the grid coordinates their fellow Marines provided.

?We train like this because it?s our job, and the Marine Corps is constantly coming out with bigger and better things,? Spiars said. ?If we don?t continually train for our job then we lose what we're trained to do.?

Learning how to insert and extract one of our own mines is one thing, but the combat engineers must also know how to properly take out an enemy minefield as well.

?A group of engineers sets up in a sweep formation, which consists of a mine detector, probe, radioman, and demolitions man,? Hampton said. ?We?re never supposed to pull an enemy minefield, because we never know what they are activated with. Most of the time we just blow them up.?

While in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom last year, the combat engineers had a chance to put their skills to work after finding an Iraqi minefield.

?We didn?t actually get to insert a minefield there, but we pulled out a minefield,? Hampton said. ?It took three days to pull out approximately 50 mines, which was about the size of two football fields.?

Perhaps one of the more hazardous military occupational specialties in the Marine Corps, these combat engineers try to keep it simple and safe to complete their mission.

?It?s an adrenaline rush working with these mines, but it?s just another job though,? Hampton said. ?It?s about trusting your knowledge about each mine and trusting the Marines you work with.?




CENTRAL TRAINING AREA, Okinawa, Japan - Private first class Ryan J. Jones, combat engineer, Combat Assault Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, buries a dummy M-15 anti-tank mine during a mine insertion and extraction exercise in the Central Training Area April 27. Photo by: Cpl. Ryan Walker

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn20...D?opendocument


Ellie