MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va.(Sept. 1, 2005) -- Turning on the television to the evening news, one encounters common images of the Global War on Terrorism: Marines clearing buildings, patrolling the streets, and participating in convoy operations. All Marines must be prepared to do these things.
Although Marine Corps Base Quantico is considered a non-deployable base, individual augments are finding themselves making the trip to the desert to join the fight. Marine Battle Skills Training, offered by Headquarters and Service Battalion, helps ensure these Marines are able to go to Iraq or Afghanistan and operate effectively.
The week-long training covers a variety of combat-related topics, including convoy operations, basic first aid, land navigation, night vision capability, urban patrolling, and vehicle and personnel searches.
“The average Marine gets this training at (Marine Combat Training),” said Staff Sgt. Christian Boles, MBST chief. “We have incorporated the tactics used over in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Boles believes the training helps Marines stay up-to-date on their battle skills, and because of the real-world operations in the middle east, it will prepare them if they are deployed.
“This training keeps you a Marine,” said Col. Carl Fosnaugh III, commanding officer of Headquarters and Service Battalion, to a group of Marines who completed MBST Friday. “The main purpose of MBST is to re-enforce amongst all Marines the simple foundation that every Marine is a rifleman and (show) you the fundamentals of what the Marines are doing in Iraq.”
The training has changed over the past couple years. Whereas the Marines once humped to fighting positions in the woods, dug fighting holes, and spent a day at combat town executing military operations in urban terrain, Marines are now riding on seven-ton trucks, going on convoy operations, and spending three days and two nights providing security for a “city”.
“The training has changed a lot since the first time I went to MBST, in 2003,” said Sgt. David Neubert, saxophone player for the Quantico band. “It feels like actual training now. Before we would just go to the field, but we really didn’t do anything. This time we got to run operations. We got to do what the Marines are doing in Iraq everyday.”
According to Boles, the training was changed to reflect real-world conflict in the Middle East.
“We train these Marines as if they were going tomorrow,” said Boles.
The week starts with a variety of different classes. Students receive classes on cultural awareness, improvised explosive devices, first aid, and land navigation.
Tuesday’s activities begin on a live-fire range, where students shoot targets with the M16A2 service rifle. At the end of the day, students find themselves at the Military Operations in Urban Terrain facility, where they receive classes on the patrols, convoy operations, and ambushes they will conduct Wednesday and Thursday.
Students conduct operations from Wednesday through Thursday morning.
Friday, the last day of training, includes a brief on antiterrorism force protection, the general military skills tests and a short graduation.
Many of the instructors have been deployed and are able to speak firsthand about what it was like. The instructors also bring others who have fought in the Global War on Terrorism to speak.
“We incorporate individual augments that have been to Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Sgt Jacob Willing, MBST instructor.
Having Marines who have experienced combat firsthand come and speak brings structure to the training, because they give their personal experiences and give the Marines real-world justification for why they need the training, said Willing.
“It was great to have someone who has been to Iraq or Afghanistan talk to us about their experiences,” said Neubert. “It made the training seem real and changed my perspective on how Marines are fighting the Global War on Terrorism.”
MBST is offered to Headquarters and Service Battalion once a month from January to September. For more information on the training, contact battalion supply (S-3 ) at (703) 784-2555.
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