Marines, State Department employees, train for future coordination

Photo By Master Gunnery Sgt. Matt Epright | Marines from Sierra Battery, Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine...... read more read more

Photo By Master Gunnery Sgt. Matt Epright | Marines from Sierra Battery, Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, wait for the call to push Marines role-playing protesters away from the gates of a mock American embassy aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Feb. 10 during Composite Training Unit Exercise, a major pre-deployment exercise for the 22nd MEU.  see less | View Image Page

CAMP LEJEUNE, NC, UNITED STATES

02.11.2009

Story by Staff Sgt. Matt Epright 

22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit

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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - American embassies sit alone in foreign countries; small islands of sovereign American soil protected by America's premiere fighting force - the Marines.

However, the Marine Security Guards stationed around the world are not the only Marines that work so closely with the State Department Foreign Service Officers at the embassies.

Whenever a Marine Expeditionary Unit goes ashore to conduct some of its higher-profile missions, like non-combatant evacuations or humanitarian assistance operations, they liaise with the local American Ambassador and his or her staff to get expert views on the lay of the land.

The 22nd MEU Forward Command Element takes point whenever the MEU directly interacts with an embassy.

During Composite Training Unit Exercise, the 22nd MEU FCE came ashore from USS Bataan to train for possible future missions with American embassies around the world.

"Having Marines physically located at the embassy provides a personal representative of the MEU to begin translating arcane military language, acronyms and operations," said Maj. Mike Prosser, the executive officer of the MEU's Logistics Combat Element, Combat Logistics Battalion 22 and the assistant officer in charge of the MEU FCE.

Packing everything they need to operate away from, and communicate with the rest of the MEU, the FCE Marines serve as the conduit of information between the Ambassador and the MEU commander.

"I think there is a certain comradery with working with such a small group of Marines who only have each other to rely on when accomplishing any assigned mission," said Cpl. George Cole, a communications data specialist for the FCE and New York City native.

While ashore, the FCE Marines worked side by side with State Department Foreign Service Officers serving as role players for the exercise to give the Marines an idea how an embassy staff deals with crisis.

"The employment of actual Department of State personnel as role players was enormously helpful in understanding DoS culture and how to provide the very best assistance and advice to the MEU commander and the Ambassador," said Prosser, a native of Golden, Colo. "It also affords the opportunity to build relationships and trust between MEU and DoS personnel."

The FSOs weren't the only role players on hand to help train the Marines. There were also numerous Marines from other units, role playing as local citizens, American citizens and even terrorist agitators.

When the FCE members first arrived at the mock embassy, the few "local citizens" outside the compound were mainly peaceful and simply curious.

As the exercise developed, the role-players grew in numbers and got steadily more aggressive, throwing rocks and trash and shouting angry words of protest against the military presence in their "country."

As the crowd became more agitated, the Ambassador asked for reinforcements. Reinforcement came in the form of Sierra Battery, Battalion Landing Team, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment.

Though normally tasked with firing M777 155mm Howitzer cannons, the artillerymen of Sierra Battery have been trained as jacks-of-all-trades since joining the BLT.

In November of last year, about 80 of the Battery Marines attended the Special Operations Training Group Non-Lethal Weapons Course, where they learned crowd and riot-control procedures, as well as the proper use of such non-lethal weapons as police batons and beanbag shotguns.

Sierra's Marines put their training to good use, keeping the agitated, and later violent, crowd from infiltrating the embassy grounds.

"The Marines performed exceptionally well and proved they are very operationally flexible," said 1st Lt. Jay Dodge, the Battery executive officer and native of Davison, Mich.

As the scenario further deteriorated, the Ambassador authorized the evacuation of all American citizens, and asked for the MEU's help.

This served as a prime training opportunity for the Marines, as a non-combatant evacuation operation is something MEU's must master prior to deployments. The most recent evacuation non-combatant evacuation was conducted in Lebanon by the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in 2006.

During the training NEO, Sierra Battery again stepped up to perform non-traditional duties, such as processing and evacuating Marines who were role playing American citizens.

As a final wrench in the machine, exercise coordinators simulated the explosion of a barrel of hazardous chemicals inside the embassy compound.

While the Battery Marines provided the initial response to the attack, the hazardous nature of the chemicals necessitated a call for experts.

The FCE called back to the MEU for a mass-casualty team, to be accompanied by members of the MEU's Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear incident response team.

Once the CBRN team cleared the site, the mass-casualty team evacuated casualties to safety and all role players were evacuated, the Ambassador and the FCE packed up and pulled out of the embassy.

As the Marines awaited the final helicopter to take them back to the ship, they felt secure in the knowledge that they were ready for what may come during the deployment.

The 22nd MEU is a scalable, multipurpose force of more than 2,200 Marines and Sailors. Commanded by Col. Gareth F. Brandl, it consists of its Ground Combat Element, BLT 3/2; Aviation Combat Element, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263; Logistics Combat Element, Combat Logistics Battalion 22; and its Command Element.