VAZIANI TRAINING AREA, Republic of Georgia -- There are nine machine gunners in a regular infantry platoon, each one capable of unleashing 850 rounds per minute with their standard M249 squad automatic weapon. All gunners in a regular infantry platoon combined, that’s 7,650 rounds per minute rained upon the enemy. Multiply 7,650 rounds per minute seven times and you have the capability Machine Gun Platoon, Support Company, Anti-Terrorism Battalion, 4th Marine Division based out of Chicopee, Mass.
There are machine gun sections with approximately 20 machine gunners each in regular infantry weapons companies but Machine Gun Platoon is the only unit where close to 70 machine gunners come together to train. The number of machine gunners and their employment of all three dominant machine guns, the M240B machine gun, the M2 .50 caliber machine gun, and the MK19 40mm machine gun, is what distinguish them from any other unit in the Corps.
Machine Gun Platoon’s mission is to have well trained gunners on tap to provide anytime the Corps asks. They send gun teams to support deployments whenever the Corps calls and currently have 26 Marines deployed in support of overseas contingency operations.
Machine Gun Platoon is the only platoon in the Marine Corps where more than 300 years of combined machine gunning experience comes together. It is a unique experiment where so many gunners with different experiences and different knowledge are pooled in one unit.
“We always train together and work on machine gun proficiencies together,” said Capt. Ryan Engle, the Machine Gun Platoon commander. “This provides lots of knowledge on machine guns to bring to the table.”
The wealth of machine gun experience and knowledge in the platoon is a gold mine to young gunners coming out of infantry school. Normally, they wouldn’t have as many gunners to learn from in a regular infantry platoon. In Machine Gun Platoon, young gunners have plenty of proven gunners as mentors to learn from.
“I love it here,” said Lance Cpl. Jason Santili, a machine gunner who’s been with the platoon for two years. “The guys taught me a lot of the tricks of the trade.”
MACHINE GUNS
For the reserve unit, having only one weekend a month and two weeks a year to train and fulfill a host of annual Marine Corps training requirements can limit firing time. Yet, the gunners relish any opportunity they get to shoot their machine guns.
There is no consensus among the platoon of which one of their guns is better. Lance Cpl. Jovani Roman, a machine gunner with the platoon summed it up best when he said, “You got the best of all three worlds; why would you choose?”
“The .50 cal is powerful, the MK19 blows everything up and the 240 is the most accurate so they all cause damage in their own way,” added Roman, the Boston native. “It’s like having kids, you love them all.”
Furthermore, it wouldn’t be smart for a gunner give one gun more love than the others; they have to know all three guns inside and out.
MUSTACHES AND MOTIVATION
When not out in the field shooting their guns or fulfilling their yearly training requirements, the platoon can be found taking classes to refine their knowledge of their profession. The machine gunners partake in an estimated nine classes a day on a drill weekend.
They invest several hours practicing for different scenarios, assembling and disassembling the guns, learning and relearning the guns’ nomenclature, and conducting various gun drills. They also take time to refine basic infantryman skills whenever possible.
“We have very small windows to learn many things so we do a lot of active high-paced training here,” said Staff Sgt. Raymond Pettersen, a section leader with the platoon and an Enfield, N.H., native.
The platoon’s essential requirement is team unity because each of their crew served weapons employs a three man gun team to operate the most effectively.
The gunners’ unity continues far beyond the firing lines on machine gun ranges and battlefields of Afghanistan onto the backyard barbecues of Massachusetts. The machine gun brethren often spend off duty time together attending events and hanging out.
Their motto “machine guns, mustaches and motivation,” reflects on the faces of the predominantly mustached gunners as they smile coming off the firing line after unleashing rounds from their weapons.
“I love it because I like to be in control and I can be in control with machine guns,” said Santili, the East Boston, Mass., native. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
“The camaraderie is pretty strong,” added Engle. “They love what they do.”
Machine gun Platoon’s gunners, well trained, motivated and privileged to an abundance of knowledge and experience, are ideal to supply and fill the needs of deploying infantry units.