Battalion Landing Team 2/1 Marines conduct counter-insurgency training

CAMP GONSALVES, Japan – A squad leader sits down with a group of villagers and explains, through a translator, how the villagers should set up security in their village. In another part of the village, a corpsman explains how to purify water from ponds for drinking. Meanwhile, Marines are helping other villagers build a walkway in and out of the village.

While this may resemble a scene from a deployment to a foreign country, it's actually Marines with 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, serving as the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit's Battalion Landing Team, conducting counter-insurgency training at the Jungle Warfare Training Center's Third World Village training site, Dec. 10-14.

The exercise was designed to prepare small-unit leaders for future operations.

"While building this course, we studied historical rebellions and consulted such sources as the Marine Corps Small Wars Manual," said Staff Sgt. David McMullen, the staff non-commissioned officer in charge of the exercise with BLT 2/1. "We really wanted to drive home to the Marines that counter-insurgency today is very much a kind of psychological warfare."

Squads from BLT 2/1 spent a day each inside the village populated with Spanish-speaking Marine role-players. Each role-player had a different position in the village such as translator, farmer or village elder. The goal for the squads was to not only provide security for the village but to establish a friendly, working relationship with the villagers. The villagers made this challenging for the Marines by analyzing the Marines' responses to every situation in the village.

Some simple scenarios in the village tested the squads by having the Marines decide whether or not to help repair the village or help gather up chickens that had escaped from the village coop. Other more-serious scenarios involved a local villager providing security and accidentally firing his weapon. Also, the Marines had to decide whether or not to engage a target, which might have just been a hunter searching for food in the jungle. Every action taken, or not taken, had an effect on their relationship with the villagers.

The role-players came up with over 100 hours of scenarios for the exercise. Additionally, the role-players spent 50-75 hours of independent study to better play their roles.

1st Lt. Dan Grainger, the officer in charge of the exercise with BLT 2/1, said the training was a unique exercise for the Marines, who already knew combat aspects of fighting an insurgency.

"The goal out here was to mimic real life situations Marines might encounter while operating out of a village in a combat zone," Grainger said. "The Marines here already know how to physically fight insurgents, so we wanted to train the Marines how to mentally battle an insurgency by building trust within the community. With training like this, Marines will have all the experience they need when they deploy to a combat zone."

Cpl. Mike Hobbs, a fire team leader with BLT 2/1, said the training tested him mentally and made him see the effects of every decision he makes as a team leader.

"This training really took me out of my element," said Hobbs. "It teaches everyone to be a leader and to realize every decision they make, no matter how small, has a huge effect. The exercise really showed me different ways of getting the mission done and really helped me work on communication and problem solving skills. Overall, I'd say it was the most realistic training I have ever had."