Squad rushes take Marines to next level 

Company E conducted the training for an upcoming deployment with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit later this year.

The rushes required Marines to run a distance, drop to their bellies, fire their weapons, and resume running.

Conducting the rushes challenged both the Marines’ abilities to work in unison as squads and their individual physical endurance.

The squads rushed through an area nearly one half-mile in length, scattered with several small hills and barbed wire for added challenges.

“The course is physically exhausting,” said Staff Sgt. Shawn M. Skaggs, 26, from Pilot Grove, Mo. “In combat, you have adrenaline and the will to survive to keep you going. In training, you don’t have that; you have to have that physical will to drive yourself.”

The hills posed visual and audible challenges.

“We’re so spread out, even if you scream off the top of your lungs, you probably won’t be heard with all the rounds going off,” said Lance Cpl. Ian H. Cole, 21, from Jacksonville, Fla.

For Pfc. John E. Hoban, using live rounds was an advantage to learning what happens within a squad during the exercises.

“When you train with the same people enough, you learn the patterns of how they shoot off bursts with their rifles,” said Hoban, 20, from Los Angeles. “If you can’t see them, you can still tell who’s around you and what they’re doing.”

Between the live rounds and terrain, Marines took notice of how similar the scenario mirrored combat situations in Afghanistan, where they may be deploying.

A trench at the end of the range served as the finish, another comparison to how insurgents currently fight.

“When people hide inside those canals … it turns into trench warfare,” said Skaggs. “You never know what’s going to come up. These Marines need to be training for everything, whether it’s jungle or desert.”

Much of the MEU is currently conducting an air-ground task force exercise at Fort Hunter Liggett and at other military and civilian installations around the state.