IQUITOS, Peru -- Marines from the 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company, from Mobile, Ala., part of Special Marine Air Ground Task Force 24, in Iquitos -- a city with a population of more than 400,000 accessible only via air or boat -- participated in a rigorous 10-day combined jungle training package with Peruvian and Colombian Marines.
"The mission was to participate in a trilateral training package with the Colombian and Peruvian Marines," said Staff Sgt Craig Blassingame, 1st
Platoon sergeant, 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company. "From jungle operations to long range patrolling, the Peruvians and the Colombians conduct different immediate action drills when it comes to sniper contact. They taught us their tactics and procedures for reacting to such contact, and then, we taught them ours."
"The best part of the training was the long range jungle patrol," said Blassingame. "It got us out into the jungle. We had been conducting most of the training on base, and when we finally got out into the jungle for the Finex (Final exercise), that was the best part."
During a command visit to Iquitos by Col. Brent Dunahoe, SPMAGTF 24 commanding officer, Capitan de Navio Carlos Tello, Commandant Peruvian Marine Corps, and Lieutenant Col. Reese Rogers, 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company's commanding officer, the visiting Marines saw first hand how the Marines from the three allied nations instructed each other during an ambitious training package in two different languages.
"Excellent training. We learned about traps. We learned how to make them. The Peruvians taught us some new traps for usage in the jungle that we have never seen," said Cabo Tercero John Gerardo Correa Albarracin, a Colombian Marine training here. "We all learned different techniques associated with reconnaissance and survival techniques -- the entire package was superb."
The Marines also taught each other counter-ambush techniques. Using translators, they presented the techniques commonly used in their respective militaries and then demonstrated while the other squads watched.
First the Colombian Marines displayed a counter to a sniper's ambush, followed by the Peruvian Marines and finally the U.S. Marines had a chance to show theirs; similar techniques with subtle difference, punctuated by the amazing use of fire power on the part of the U.S. Marines as they broke contact with an imaginary sniper.
The training also included survival training, first aid, patrolling
and force-on-force exercises involving Peruvian Marines. As the host country with a numerical advantage, the Peruvians countered a joint force of U.S. and Colombian Marines in the assault.
The U.S. Marines trained with fellow combat hardened veterans. The Colombian Marines, part of a squad recently involved in combat operations against Colombian guerrilla groups, have been instrumental in the killing of senior terrorist leaders in Colombia.
"This kind of training is instrumental in our efforts to regain proficiency in our core reconnaissance mission essential tasks," said Rogers.