Photo By Saska Ball | A speaker from a loudspeaker system is placed in front of Marines while soldiers of...... read more read more
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PICKEL MEADOW, Calif. - Soldiers of the 304th Tactical Psychological Operations Company participate in Mountain Warfare Training with a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve unit in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California.
“We are going to stress them out. We are going to push them to the limit,” said 1st Sgt. Derrick Sims, acting first sergeant of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines Regiment, a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve unit based in Johnson City, Tenn. “We want them to get a feel for what it’s going to be like so it’s not uncommon for them in the event we need to go to a combat zone where we have these kinds of elevations and these types of rigorous terrain.”
Sims is talking about the environment found at the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center that is known for being one of the most remote and isolated training posts.
Situated in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, and occupying 54,000 acres of Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, the starting base elevation is 6,272 feet and reaches nearly 11,500 feet above sea level.
For the next three weeks, eight soldiers of the 304th Tactical Psychological Operations Company, who are used to the mere 30 feet above sea level conditions in their hometown of Sacramento, Calif., will be training alongside these Marines.
“Today we are in the field doing rappelling training with slick rope and then with assault packs,” said Spc. Aaron Powe, a PSYOP specialist in the 304th. “It [rappelling] is part of the field exercise that we’ll be doing the last three to four days that we’re here. For certain missions, [some] teams will have to assault by rappelling so we’re all getting familiarity training.”
The soldiers and Marines have already received classes on mountain warfare health, how to move over rough terrain, knot tying, river crossings and casualty evacuation techniques with more survival skills to follow.
“Basically, we are trying to get them prepped to initiate assaults during the field training exercise by teaching them how to climb and rappel, if they need to be able to do their cliff assaults,” said Staff Sgt. Rey Castro, an instructor with the MCMWTC.
“From a health standpoint, it’s so they get all the information needed and get familiarized with all the problems the body can encounter out here, same with all the symptoms that can be encountered at high altitude,” said Castro.
Getting acclimated to the terrain and elevation is a slow process that is carefully thought out. The soldiers and Marines take part in what’s called pre-environmental training to allow their bodies to adjust to the altitude; they then go through six days of basic mobility where they will become more familiar with moving through the treacherous terrain before moving onto the final culmination event, the field exercise.
“We’re going to teach them how to live up here off minimal water, minimal chow and minimal support,” said Sims. “Tonight we are going to teach them how to build survival shelters. We are going to get rid of everything we have and move up to the ridges a little bit and sleep there for the night.”
More than learning survival and mountaineering skills, the PSYOP soldiers are here to conduct Military Information Support Operations for the Marines.
The ultimate objective of MISO is to convince enemy, neutral and friendly forces to take actions favorable to the United States and its allies. These soldiers are communicators who provide the combatant commander with the ability to convey information to large audiences via radio, television, leaflets and loudspeakers, which can either be vehicle mounted or a man-pack version carried on the back of a soldier.
“It’s going to be pretty interesting using our speakers during the FEX,” said Sgt. James Paulk, a team leader in the 304th. “We’ve already scouted out for a possible mission that the Marines are asking us to look into. It’s supposed to be a faint, if it goes through, we just want to draw the enemy off the objective so the Marines can assault in with their assault climbers and use direct action to push the enemy off the objective completely.”
Persuading rather than compelling physically, PSYOP soldiers rely on logic, fear, desire or other mental factors to promote specific emotions, attitudes or behaviors to win over a civilian populace.
“Once we have them [PSYOP soldiers] and we get out in the FEX, we will use them to either mingle with the civilian populace or figure out what we need or to employ some kind of PSYOP to get the civilians on our side,” said Sims. “Our mission is to ensure the civilians are on our side. Once we get the civilians on our side, we’ll be good to go.”
Aside from using equipment and products as a means to get a message out to populated areas, PSYOP soldiers use their interpersonal and cultural skills in the form of face-to-face engagements with key leaders.
“Conducting face-to-face engagements allows us to give information about certain key people that a unit needs to find or certain areas they need to spend more time in and target,” said Powe. “It allows us to get a face-to-face for us, as a unit, but also helps the unit we are supporting, which here, are the Marines.”
PSYOP soldiers are employed during peacetime and contingency operations as well as declared war. They can be attached to an array of units ranging from infantry units to special operation units.
“I think this training is really important, especially as we can see the last couple operations we’ve been in, Afghanistan, not so much Iraq, but Korea, things like that, where it’s very mountainous terrain,” said Paulk. “Being able to take this training, integrate with a unit, and understanding what it takes to get to a level of preparedness, it’s very important.”
The MCMWTC was established in 1951 as a Cold Weather Battalion with a mission of providing cold weather training for replacement personnel bound for Korea. Today, trainees typically head for the mountains of Afghanistan, where mountain warfare expertise is again a top priority.
“It’s great having these guys here developing camaraderie and trust,” said Sims. “Those things are paramount in combat.”
| Date Taken: | 06.19.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 07.19.2013 14:27 |
| Story ID: | 110483 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NC, US |
| Hometown: | BRIDGEPORT, CA, US |
| Hometown: | FORT LIBERTY, NC, US |
| Hometown: | JOHNSON CITY, TN, US |
| Hometown: | SACRAMENTO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,500 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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