CENTRAL TRAINING CENTER, OKINAWA, Japan -- “Did gunny or the lieutenant kill you?” a group of Marines casually ask each
other after clearing a house at Snipe Mount, Central Training Area, Okinawa, Japan. Red and blue
chalk dots speckle the Marines’ uniforms; evidence of the recent simulated
gunfight.
Fire teams of Marines, with Military Police Detachment, Combat
Logistics Battalion 31, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, practiced entering and
clearing buildings with opposing forces Nov. 4-6. Marines on both sides used
special effect small-arms marking systems or SESMAS, simulated rounds filled
with chalk to mark their impact point, to create a more realistic environment to
best prepare them for their jobs.
“In the movies you always see guys
running into buildings, shooting all the bad guys with pinpoint precision,
that’s not really a thing,” said GySgt. Oliver Bickle, Detachment Staff
Noncommissioned Officer-in-Charge. “It’s never going to be that pretty in real
life, so they have to try to do the best they can, with the training they
have.”
On the first day, the fire teams entered and cleared houses with a
simple scenario, slowly working up to more complicated training scenarios. By
the third and final day of training, they cleared a house with multiple active
shooters and a hostage situation.
“It does make you more comfortable as a
team, prepares you as a team and your communication gets better,” said Cpl. Mark
McNulty, a squad leader from Scranton, Pennsylvania. “Communication is extremely
important inside a house, because if you don’t communicate that you are leaving
a room or going into a room, another team member might mistake you, and someone
who is trigger-happy might shoot.”
Since clear and confident
communication is essential to a successful mission, every member of a team must
be ready to make a well-educated decision no matter what their rank or billet
is. The doors and corners of every house are different and present a new
scenario each time a fire team enters. While the point man may enter first, by
the end it could be the team leader or newest member knocking down a
door.
“There’s no rank inside a house,” said Lance Cpl. David Gamble, a
military policeman. “Myself as a point man, starting out I’m not always going to
be that point man because of how we have to maneuver in the house. To be able to
be successful as a team everyone has to know everyone else’s job.”
The
Marines use initiative based tactics, so when they encounter a problem as an
individual they have the understanding of the mission and knowledge of
commander’s intent to decide how best to deal with the situation.
“It’s
kind of like a ballet when everything goes right,” said Bickle from Brooklyn,
New York. “If somebody gets held up doing something, somebody else should
automatically cover that person.”
Along with building a strong team,
Marines had to learn to control adrenaline rushes and not let the hormone feed
their aggression too much, as SESAMS rounds fly by.
“Once they got to
grips with the enemy they would keep ahold of him, which led the enemy to start
making mistakes because of constantly being pressured,” said Bickle. “I feel
after only three days they had met a good balance between being very aggressive
and very disciplined.”
Given the environment the Marines are in –
operating with small numbers, traveling together on ship for months at a time
and doing the same missions together – they build strong unit
cohesion.
“CLB has provided for me the opportunity to get to know these
individuals a lot better,” said Gamble from Dallas, Texas. “I know I can rely on
every single one of these guys to have my back.”