ALMERIA, Spain -- Marines from 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion conducted live-fire drills for exercise Trident Juncture 2015 in Almeria, Spain, Oct. 27, 2015. Trident Juncture is the largest NATO exercise in 10 years and allows Allies to work on their warfighting as a team.
The Marines performed the drills with small arms that fired off 5.56 rounds, according to Master Sgt. Jeffrey Hetrick, platoon sergeant for 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. The drills consisted of shooting and moving from various positions that may be encountered during combat situations, including corrective and immediate-action drills.
“In any environment that we get deployed to, whether it’s a hostile nation or it’s for peace keeping security, Marines need to know how to manipulate their weapons systems,” said Hetrick. “They need to reinforce their accuracy and target acquisition and know how to fix their gun in the event of a stoppage so they can continue the fight.”
Conducting live-fire drills allow Reserve Marines to train in realistic environments and maintain a high state of readiness.
“As Reserve Marines we only get so much time out of the year to really get together and hunker down on stuff that active-duty units really get a lot of time to do, so while we’re out here we need to make the most out of our time,” said Sgt. Bryson Norris, scout section leader, 4th LAR Bn.
With more than 30 nations and 36,000 troops participating in the exercise, Trident Juncture tests each military’s ability perform missions in conjunction with other foreign militaries as an interoperable force.
“When we are in other countries we have other partnering countries that are there working with us and we want to make sure we keep positive relations with them when it comes to logistics, making sure they can support us and we can support them,” said Hetrick.
Exercise Trident Juncture 2015 allows Marines and Allies to gain a better understanding of each other’s procedures as well as hone their own skills in preparation for real world events.
“As Marines you’re supposed to be the tip of the spear, you’re supposed to be able to go anywhere in the world and conduct operations at the drop of a hat, by doing this it keeps us sharp, keeps us on point and keeps us focused,” said Norris.