Bridgeport, Calif. -- High in the California mountains, Marines repeatedly attack an enemy in the tree line, setting up a machine gun position in fewer than 15 seconds.
These Marines, however, are full-time students, retailers, roughnecks and much more and the enemy is imagined. The Reserve Marines of B Co., 1st, Bn., 23rd Marine Regiment spent a day running gun drills and practicing checkpoint tactics and searches at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center here June 15.
The drills were run as part of exercise Javelin Thrust 2009, which is training more than 2,000 Reserve Marines on the type of terrain and culture to be expected in future deployments to Afghanistan.
For the Marines of B Co., of Shreveport, La., the thin air at such high altitude of more than 8,000 feet, provides many obstacles and challenges.
“The first thing we had to do was get used to the mountains,” said Lance Cpl. Steven Ticer. “Then we switched into more mountain warfare training, learning how to work with the thin air and the poor sight lines.”
Though this is the case, the Marines say that the instructors help them to overcome any obstacles they may face.
“I think this is some of the best training I’ve had in the Marine Corps,” said Lance Cpl. Shawn Buckley, a machine gunner for B Co. 1st Bn., 23rd Marine Regiment. “The instructors taught us how to adapt to the altitude and a bunch of other skills that will be necessary in Afghanistan.”
For many of the Marines here, the lessons learned will be invaluable to them in the not-to-far future.
“In May of 2010 our unit is deploying and I feel like we’ll know what we’re talking about and be ready,” Ticer said.
Not all of B Co. is inexperienced in deployments. Buckley has been to Iraq and is glad to take this training on another deployment.
“I think this training is helping the Marines a lot,” he said. “All of us are from Shreveport, La and the first day we were up here was tough, but this is how you really prepare and I am just super happy we can do this.”
Company B has much more training to do before heading out on deployment, so, for now the Marines deploying in 2010 have only to look to the future and prepare themselves for the challenges that lie ahead.