MARINE CORPS TRAINING AREA BELLOWS, Hawaii -- As a Marine infantryman progresses through billets, ranks and responsibilities, he gains knowledge from his seniors and applies it to field operations. Subsequently, he’s tested on the battlefield.
With this progression, he’ll be called to lead his peers, and may rise to the position of squad leader, in which he’s tasked with applying his leadership to a squad of 12 Marines. And the cycle begins again.
The strenuous Infantry Squad Leader Course, School of Infantry West — Detachment Hawaii, ensures this position is well-learned and earned. Students from the course completed its offensive and defensive tactics and techniques at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows Aug. 23 through 25.
“The mission of the Infantry Squad Leader Course is to give Marines the technical and tactical tools to begin leading their squad when they get back to the fleet,” said Staff Sgt. Eric Ciotola, chief instructor, ISLC. “It’s is the best leadership school an infantry Marine can go through.”
Before beginning the operations, classes taught by squad instructors provided the theory the students would need to put their plans into action. These classes are among the course’s more than 600 academic hours.
At MCTAB, the students patrolled to their objective rally point, selected a fighting position and conducted leader’s reconnaissance to determine if the area was defendable, said Ciotola, of Sheboygan, Wisc.
Upon finding their position, they began establishing a linear defense. “We’ve taught the students the basics and now they’re applying [what they’ve learned] to the current enemy situation and the terrain to find how to best build their defense,” Ciotola said.
After setting up security and automatic weapons coverage to ensure they had interlocking fields of fire, the students prioritized primary and supplementary positions by entrenching an arrangement of fighting holes on the hillside. They constructed obstacles using Concertina wire and then focused on camouflage, cover and concealment, and bettering their fighting positions.
“Regardless of where you go, whether you’re in an urban environment or the jungle, you’re going to be in a defensive posture,” Ciotola said. “As soon as the students go static, they begin creating their defense.”
The four squads of students rotated between manning the fighting position, providing security and long-range patrols, and standing readily on a quick reaction force. On the long-range patrols, squads attacked and cleared enemy positions.
During the offensive and defensive portion of the course, they wrote two, five-paragraph orders. These orders specify instructions to a small unit, such as a squad, based on situation analysis and reconnaissance prior to potential enemy engagement. Writing the lengthy orders — one for establishing the defense and the other for conducting the attack — is an involved, mentally taxing process which forces the squad leader to start thinking about a fire-support plan, coordinating instructions and scheme of maneuver, Ciotola said.
Nonetheless, knowing the process is imperative to the developing infantrymen. Pairing the students’ knowledge with what they’re learning in the course teaches them to be flexible with evolving enemy situations. It should help them keep their discipline and constantly improve their positions, Ciotola said.
“One of the most challenging things a Marine can do is lead their peers, and they’re forced to do that here,” said Staff Sgt. Michael Wissmeyer, staff noncommissioned officer in charge of ISLC. “When they leave here, we expect them to hold themselves to a higher standard and be ready to lead Marines in combat situations.”
The course is different from other leadership courses like Infantry Machine Gun Leader Course or Mortar Leader Course because it isn’t military occupational specialty-specific, and is open to all infantry Marines, said Sgt. Andrew Farlaino, an ISLC squad instructor.
“It shows infantry Marines a different way of thinking,” said Farlaino, of Price, Utah. “In their units, they might be given a task and then execute it, but here, they have to figure it out on their own.”
Over ISLC’s 45 training days, the students also learn advanced patrolling, military operations in urban terrain, demolitions, land navigation, combat hunter, fire plan sketches, and conducting unit training management. Each of the classes builds on the previous and works toward building combat leadership, said Wissmeyer, of DeRidder, La.
“In this course, you’re not just thrown into a billet spot,” said Cpl. Nicholas Metzel, an ISLC student and machine gunner with Company C, 1/3.
“We’re being given the necessary tools and are taught to lead and work like the billet requires,” said Metzel, of Chicago. “We’re becoming better all-around leaders by learning the purpose behind the task.”