U.S., Mongolian forces conclude training with riot demonstration

10.05.2007

Story by Cpl. Juan D. Alfonso 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

III Marine Expeditionary Force Public Affairs

FIVE HILLS TRAINING FACILITY, Mongolia – After a week of intensive training, U.S. and Mongolian service members conducted a non-lethal weapons demonstration for officers from more than 20 Asian countries at the Five Hills Training Facility.

The demonstration displayed the non-lethal skills and tactics taught during the week-long seminar and promoted the training to the international representatives observing the event, said Maj. Michael C. Conover, the officer in charge of the Special Operations Training Group Detachment.

The purpose of the seminar was for U.S. and Mongolian forces to share alternative methods of preventing chaos during peacekeeping operations.

"The demonstration shows other countries how they can deescalate a situation so they don't have to resort to lethal force," Conover said.

During the demonstration, the Marines and Mongolian soldiers formed riot-control formations and used the techniques they shared earlier in the week to suppress a crowd of Mongolian soldiers acting as aggressors.

As the aggressors became more and more uncooperative, the Marines and Monoglian armed forces soldiers escalated their force using non-lethal munitions such as tasers and pepper spray.

Brig. Gen. Peter Talleri, the 3rd Marine Logistics Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force commanding general, who was there to observe the event, said he was impressed with the demonstration.

"The demo is a wonderful example of two foreign countries working together during peacekeeping operations," said Talleri.

"This training is just world class. SOTG and the MAF's side-by-side training was a great collaboration effort."

With NOLES 2007 at an end, several MAF officers expressed their heartfelt thanks toward the Marines.

"I have personally worked with the Marine Corps since 2003 and truly love it," said Mongolian Maj. Dashjivaa Ariunbold, a peace support operations specialist with Mongolian armed force's foreign cooperation department. "With this demonstration, we had the opportunity to show our generals how important this type of training is and that we must teach it to everyone in the MAF. I am very thankful to the Marine Corps for that and for all the training we did together to help improve Mongolia."

• Date Taken: 10.05.2007
• Date Posted: 10.13.2007 23:09
• Story ID: 12959