Marines from Military Police Company, Headquarters Battalion, 4th Marine Division, and Royal Moroccan Armed Forces conducted non-lethal training here during the Peacekeeping Operations portion of African Lion 2011, May 24 and 25.
African Lion is an annually scheduled, bilateral U.S. and Moroccan sponsored exercise designed to improve interoperability and mutual understanding of each nation’s tactics, techniques and procedures.
According to Michael Cleveland, non-lethal weapons program manager, Marine Forces Africa, non-lethal options consist of techniques used to de-escalate an incident and include the use of TASER®, Oleoresin Capsicum spray, baton, Marine Corps Martial Arts Program, along with various types of non-lethal munitions.
Unlike lethal force, non-lethal force is “nonpermanent and completely reversible,” said Cleveland. He further added, non-lethal force is no longer just employed for riot and crowd control. Cleveland emphasized that non-lethal force can also be employed to manage many different types of missions to include checkpoints, vehicle searches, detainee searches, voting, food and water distribution and other humanitarian missions.
Sgt. Anthony Kiehl, non-lethal weapons instructor with MP Company, said, “Non-lethal options allow you to be ready for every type of situation.” He further stated this is significant because it gives commanders and countries additional resources and options other than just relying strictly on lethal force.
Cleveland stated that the non-lethal training of the Peacekeeping Operations portion is important because the U.S. encourages the employment of non-lethal weapons since the effects are reversible and bodily harm can be avoided.
All Marines and Moroccans must train on their equipment and tactics until their use and employment becomes second nature. Captain Roy Mokoso, commanding officer of MP Company, stated training is important in the military because it builds “proficiency and confidence in their own abilities and equipment.”
During the non-lethal training, Marines and Moroccans trained side-by-side, each taking turns instructing the other on the techniques and tactics employed in their country.
Lance Cpl. Ronald Meng, an armor with MP Company, was one of the many that volunteered to receive a direct spray of OC to his eyes, or level 1 training. Meng said afterwards that receiving the level 1 made him “more confident in facing challenges and the things I’ve never done before.”
Overall, the non-lethal training was deemed a success as both the Marines and Moroccans eagerly volunteered to "ride the lightening" of the TASER® and be sprayed with OC. “They love it, we [Marines] love it,” said Kiehl. “We all love just coming together and you would never know our differences if we were all in the same uniforms.”
This year’s African Lion exercise is the largest to date and involves more than 2,000 U.S. military and more than 900 Royal Moroccan Armed Forces service members participating in training that includes command post training, live fire training, peacekeeping operations, intelligence capacity building seminar, disaster response training, aerial refueling/low-level flight training, and medical, dental and veterinarian assistance projects.