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CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - Smoke filled the air at the end of the
breaching and clearing exercise signifying that the Marines with 2nd
Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, had accomplished
their task and maneuvered through the course successfully.
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Marines with 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, exit their tanks at the completion of the breaching and clearing course September 12, 2013, aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Marines with 2nd Tank Bn. and 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, participated in a week-long field exercise in which they had to implement four basic combat engineer tasks including, mobility, counter mobility, assault and general engineering.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Pfc. Dalton Precht)
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In this field exercise, Marines had to use the four basic
combat engineer qualities of mobility, counter mobility,
assault and general engineering to breach and clear the
training area, and build a forward operating base.
First Lieutenant John M.
Lunbeen, the heavy equipment platoon commander, was in
charge of planning all the heavy equipment operations for
the exercise Sept. 12, 2013.
Lunbeen's platoon is in
charge of conducting all the heavy equipment operations for
Combat Engineer Battalion.
Approximately 30 Marines
from Mobility Assault Company, 2nd CEB took part in the
actual breaching and clearing portion, and approximately 70
Marines total from 2nd CEB took part in the overall field
exercise, Lunbeen said.
Marines from Alpha Company,
2nd CEB, designed and constructed the engineer course with
the help of heavy equipment operators, Lunbeen said. The
breaching and clearing course consisted of coiled razor
wire, tank ditches and berms for the Marines to navigate
through.
Lance Cpl. Alexander G. Delphia, a heavy
equipment operator with 2nd CEB, took part in the training
exercise by moving gear and building berms.
“The
hardest part of being a combat engineer is learning some of
the techniques for building and tearing things down,”
Delphia said. “Once you get out here in a field exercise,
you realize what you can actually do with a piece of
equipment.”
Combat engineers perform many important
tasks, from building training areas and clearing obstacles
to building or deconstructing forward operating bases.
“Combat engineers move everything that the Marine
Corps needs us to,” Delphia said. “From forks to heavy
equipment we also are qualified in using the equipment for
many tasks.”
“My favorite thing is that everyone has
their own way of building or tearing down, and it lets you
build off of what people before you have done,” Delphia
said.
At the combat engineers' school, Marines learn
basic techniques so when they hit the fleet they can expand
their knowledge and find their own way of doing things.
“When you get out here in training environments, you get
to use things you would in combat,” Delphia said.
By USMC Pfc. Dalton Precht
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2013
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