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U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND -- The Marines and sailors of Special
Purpose Marine Air Ground Task - Crisis Response - Central Command
provide unique capabilities to support the wide range of missions
and responsibilities associated with operations in U.S. Central
Command.
Of these capabilities, the command's Law Enforcement
Detachment operates one of the region's primary Exploitation
Analysis Centers.
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Marine Cpl. Blake A. Wintch with the Exploitation Analysis Center,
Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central
Command, organizes exploded ordinance Dec. 28, 2014. The center
processes thousands of pieces from a variety of devices, adding
another facet to the many capabilities of the SPMAGTF.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Tony Simmons)
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“An EAC is a field-expedient, forward-deployable
forensics lab,” said Gunnery Sgt. Joshua Hairston, staff
noncommissioned officer-in-charge, LED, SPMAGTF-CR-CC. “It's
modelled off of the Special Operations Command's forensic
concept. Ours is actually called the EAC Lite; everything in
this lab will fit in a [quadruple container] and can be
deployed forward or broken down into scalable pieces.”
The Marines employing the EAC participated in a
month-long training course prior to the unit's deployment to
ensure their work met the qualifications needed to serve as
a qualified exploitation site.
This coursework helped the Marines prepare for
the variety of techniques and material encountered by a
functioning lab.
“Initially when we set the lab up we
were waiting for business and materials to show up,” said
Hairston. “And the word got out through SOCOM, specifically
[Special Operations Command Central], that we had a lab here
and there was a lack of exploitation capability in theater.
So they tapped into us and they started sending us materials
almost immediately. To date, it's been going on two to two
and a half months now, we've been receiving materials pretty
steadily. Almost every day or every other day.”
As
Operation Inherent Resolve continues to assist Iraqi
Security Forces degrade and defeat Daesh, items left behind
offer valuable glimpses into the tactics, techniques and
procedures used by the extremist organization.
“As a
whole, we attack the network and the people running it,”
said Lance Cpl. Logan Denhoff, military police, LED,
SPMAGTF-CR-CC. “We can figure out what people are behind
this; who is responsible for it. Maybe we can get a whole
chain of IED labs.”
Along with exploiting discarded
or forgotten information sources, the LED examines ordnance
and unexploded Improvised Explosive Devices in close
coordination with Explosive Ordnance Disposal Marines. The
two sources of expertise make the analysis more effective,
which further assists forces combatting Daesh.
“[Military forces] forward [indirect fire] fragments to us,”
said Dehnhoff. “We take a picture of all of the rocket
fragments we've gotten and have EOD figure out what kind of
rocket it was. Also, trace explosives on something that's
been blown up, we can figure out what they've used for the
[homemade explosive]. It helps us figure out what the bad
guys are using”
The theme of cooperation and
utilizing outside expertise extends beyond analysis though;
for without the capabilities of the MAGTF, the whole process
of exploitation could not occur.
“It's a big team
effort,” said Hairston. “It's not just us in this lab, but
it's a MAGTF as a whole working together; we're this small
piece of the puzzle that we call the MAGTF.”
The
Marines and sailors of SPMAGTF-CR-CC serve as an
expeditionary, crisis-response force tasked with supporting
operations, contingencies and security cooperation in Marine
Corps Forces Central Command and CENTCOM.
By U.S. Marine Corps 1st Lt. Matthew Finnerty
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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