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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (1/11/2013) – “You're
riding along in a convoy conducting a resupply mission when you take
contact from the enemy and your machine-gunner goes down,” said Sgt.
Jeremy Marsden, the chief machine gun instructor serving with 1st
Marine Division Schools. “The only other Marines in that vehicle are
a driver, an admin clerk and yourself. What are you going to do?”
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Lance Cpl. Alejandro Pena (left), an air traffic control communication technician serving with Marine Air Control Squadron 1, and Cpl. Juan Quijadamadrio, a supply warehouse clerk serving with Marine Air Support Squadron 3, assemble the Mk-19 grenade launcher as other members of their squad do push-ups during a physical training competition as part of the non-infantry machine gunner's course at 1st Marine Division Schools here, Jan. 9, 2013. (Official United States Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Corey Dabney)
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As the classroom grew silent Marsden, a 25-year-old
native of Boise, Idaho, said “by the end of this course you
will know what to do.”
The Marines of Marine Air
Support Squadron 3 and Marine Air Control Squadron 1 trained
in a weeklong non-infantry machine-gunners course at
Division Schools the week of Jan. 7 to gain skills employing
machine guns.
The purpose
of the machine-gunner's course is to provide both infantry
and non-infantry Marines the proper tactics, techniques and
procedures for operating, maintaining and assembling machine
guns used in combat, Marsden said.
“Every Marine a
rifleman, so we should know how to use the weapons rifleman
used in combat,” said Lance Cpl. James Kendrick, an air
support network operator serving with MASS-3. “Those guys,
grunts (infantrymen), use more than just rifles, so we can't
stop at just knowing how to use a rifle.”
All Marines
are trained in basic level infantry tactics during recruit
training. They gain more experience with rifles as they
complete Marine Combat Training and the School of Infantry.
The instructors at Division Schools help improve
overall combat effectiveness by teaching Marine students,
those who don't typically use machine guns, the skills of a
basic machine-gunner.
“Any Marine who can potentially
deploy in a combat zone should have this training because at
any moment a situation can change, and they may have to fire
the M2 .50 caliber machine-gun or the Mk 19 grenade
launcher,” Marsden said. “They wouldn't be able to
effectively suppress the enemy if they haven't had any
training with these weapons.”
The Marines of MASS-3
and MACS-1 had this concept in mind when they went through
the training.
“I've heard stories all the time about
how a Marine who was not an infantryman but rose to the
occasion and picked up a weapon to return fire,” said
Kendrick, a 23-year-old native of Bellevue, Texas.
“I
wanted this training so I can be relied on – not just as a
rifleman, but as a machine-gunner as well.”
The
training was both mentally and physically demanding for the
Marines. The instructors combined weapons assembly and
disassembly training with physical fitness exercises to test
how well the Marines could operate the weapon under
stressful conditions.
“We take them on runs with the
weapon systems and have them do various exercises to
physically exhaust them,” Marsden said. “Then, we have them
disassemble and assemble the weapons while fatigued –
forcing them to think under pressure.”
After
completing the week of training, the Marines were tested on
the characteristics, functions and maintenance of the weapon
systems. Once the final exam was completed the Marines fired
the weapons at various targets during a live-fire range.
“This is great training, and we get to work with weapons
we normally wouldn't use,” Kendrick said. I can't wait to be
certified and able to say that I am a rifleman and a
machine-gunner.”
By USMC Lance Cpl. Corey Dabney
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2013
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