HAWTHORNE ARMY DEPOT, Nev. -- After their helicopters touched down at a small compound in Fallon Air Base, Nev., June 22, Marines from Company B, 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, ran through a opening in a wall to set up their position for a daytime raid.
“Since we were so close to the objective, we went to the outside of the wall to set up an assault position so we could get some dispersion among ourselves and give the support element a chance to catch up, and be able to orient themselves to the objective while we went through and assaulted the objective,” said 2nd Lt. Ernest Zacher, platoon commander for 1st Platoon.
After orienting themselves to the compound, the Marines ran back through the opening in the wall back into the compound.
Second Platoon broke off to set up a perimeter around the compound while 1st Platoon advanced to the target building.
Moving past two tents, 1st Platoon arrived at their objective.
Their objective was a two story building simulating a drug lab with role players inside representing high value individuals.
Seeing that the building had two levels, Cpl. David Perkins, 2nd squad leader, 1st Platoon, called for support from another squad.
“As we got in, I realized how big the building was, that’s when I called for support to help us clear the building, with it being two levels,” said Perkins. “I had to ensure that we had enough guys going through.”
One squad entered the building to support, then another ran in behind them. The first squad went to right, then the other proceeded upstairs. The Marines busted through the doors searching for enemy combatants and clearing rooms as they moved through the building.
“I had to make sure that they were going through clearing in pairs and the team leaders were controlling their teams properly,” said Perkins.
As a pair of Marines turned into a hallway, they saw a head peeking around the corner.
The Marines secured the hallway and advanced to clear more rooms. They turned into another hallway to find their fellow Marines searching a “dead” role player. The other Marines had located a high value individual and were searching for intelligence on his body.
By this time, all the enemy combatants had been killed and the Marines prepared to extract.
The Marines, most of whom have not deployed to combat zones, were able to experience a kinetic environment with the assault.
“They haven’t done a raid before so they got to experience the confusion and the fog of battle and getting on the deck and orienting themselves,” said Zacher.
Company B practiced assaulting the drug den using helicopters from the aviation unit in order to insert into their mission objective quickly. The raid was part of the final exercise of Javelin Thrust 2010. The goal for the final exercise is to train Marines to work together as a deployed Marine Air Ground Task Force.
Javelin Thrust is an annual exercise conducted by Marine Forces Reserve in several different locations in the Southwest.
This year, more than 4,500 Marines from ground combat, logistical and aviation units are participating in the training, which resembles a Marine Air Ground Task Force operating in Afghanistan, in terms of both terrain and mission objectives.