Squads of Marines poured from amphibious assault vehicles with tanks at their side as they assaulted an insurgent-occupied village at Range 200 here Sept. 15.
The Lava Dogs of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, fought role players in a seven-building complex under the watchful eye of Marine evaluators during the first phase of the Clear, Hold, Build Exercise, a part of their Enhanced Mojave Viper training.
Lava Dogs of 1st Platoon directed the superior firepower of the M1A1 Abrams main battle tank to aid them in clearing the small complex while they assaulted on foot. They executed their plan of moving building to building using smoke, pyrotechnics and visual cues to signal other squads and fire teams to assault to their final objective.
“Each of these lanes teaches Marines something different,” said Staff Sgt. Jason S. Tarr, staff noncommissioned officer in charge of Infantry Battalion Team East, Tactical Training Exercise Control Group.
“This clear portion is an assault to clear the area of insurgents,” Tarr said. “Marines also learn to integrate with tanks and use Assault Amphibious Vehicles for a mechanized attack.
“The hold portion is where they keep insurgents from an area while engaging key leaders in the community,” Tarr said. “Build is building positive relations with community and key leaders.”
Tarr explained that each lane elaborates on the previous one and each of the three phases of the CHB escalates the scale, complexity and challenges of the exercise, including some helicopter-borne portions. For Cpl. Jonathan H. Letner, squad leader, 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1/3, the after action review and analysis from Tarr and his team was valuable to improve his unit’s tactics.
“The feedback we received was very good,” Letner said. “It’s great to have an outside opinion from someone to let you know what you’re missing. I can see what the squad needs to do to improve and what I need to do better as a squad leader.
“I learned how fast something can get out of hand when everyone gets caught up in everything going on,” Letner said. “There were some things my guys missed, but that’s why we’re doing this. We’re here to get good training and learn to get it right for the next one.”
As the Marine Corps shifts its primary focus of combat operations back to Afghanistan, TTECG adapted EMV to follow suit, Tarr said. The change will be mostly transparent to units training, but Marines at CHB Exercises or other training at Ranges 200 and 215 will notice the transition from Arabic to Pashtu- or Dari-speaking role players, and new training scenarios which reflect current operations in Afghanistan.
“We’re going to go from crawl to run – there is no ‘walk,’” Tarr said during his review. “Next time out, it’ll be live rounds.”