MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, North Carolina -- “Standby!” a Marine shouts out in warning. His fire team takes cover behind a nearby building to avoid injury from the impending blast. “Five ... four ... three ...” The Marines brace themselves. “Two ... one ...” The explosion is deafening. A plume of fire and smoke erupts from the rooftop where moments ago the Marines had placed the charge. Debris rains down from the sky like a gentle snowfall. What’s left after the smoke clears is a giant hole and a clear point of entry for the Marines to storm the building. “All clear!” they sound off to each other as they enter the building through the newly-created opening.
Marines with 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion repeated this scene many times during their urban breaching training exercise on Engineer Training Area-1 aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Feb. 18-20, 2015.
“The purpose of this[training], as combat engineers, is to act as breachers in a situation where our Marines were to attach or be in direct support of an infantry squad,” said 1st Lt. Joseph Garcia, a platoon commander for 2nd Platoon, Mobility and Assault Company, 2nd CEB and native of Miami, Florida. “This is what we would be doing if we were going house to house or conducting any sort of urban clearing operation”
Before going out to the simulated urban environment, the Marines took classes to prepare for the training, explained Garcia. They learned how to open any type of door, gate or roof using a variety of tools, from explosives to shotguns and sledge hammers. They did whatever was necessary in order to allow the infantry squads to make entry.
“The hardest part of this training is not the actual application of the charges,” Garcia said. “It’s understanding how the charges work and understanding the principles behind what we’re doing so that in a real environment, when they are faced with something they’ve never seen before, they know what they are capable of doing so they can get the job done.”
Not only did the Marines become more proficient in their job field during the training, but they also grew as a team and as small unit leaders.
“The small unit leadership has been phenomenal,” said Garcia. “This training has given a chance for not only my corporals and NCO’s to practice leading, but for some of the junior Marines to exercise their individual billets, such as being the breacher or the assistant breacher.”
Because of this training, the Marines of 2nd CEB are now more ready and prepared should they be called upon to assist an infantry squad breach an urban environment.