MAF, US service members continue field training exercise at KQ14

Photo By Sgt. Alyssa N. Gunton | Mongolian Armed Forces members provide security and tell role players to drop their weapons during check point training June 29 at Five Hills Training Area, Mongolia, during Exercise Khaan Quest 2014. KQ14 is a regularly scheduled, multinational exercise hosted annually by Mongolian Armed Forces and co-sponsored this year by U.S. Army, Pacific, and U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific. KQ14 is the latest in a continuing series of exercises designed to promote regional peace and security. This year marks the 12th iteration of this training event. During the training, the service members were faced with several different scenarios they could likely come across in real life such as a fight beginning inside the check point, improper identification being used and a firefight among separate entities near the check point. The Marines and sailors are with Company C, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, which is currently assigned to 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, under the unit deployment program.  

FIVE HILLS TRAINING AREA, MONGOLIA

06.29.2014

Story by Cpl. Alyssa N. Gunton 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

FIVE HILLS TRAINING AREA, Mongolia - “One of the great things about Khaan Quest is you get to see all the militaries from around the world, not even just as much as their tactics, techniques and procedures, but as well as their basic mentality in how to operate in different situations,” said U.S. Marine 2nd Lt. Ryan T. Murray, a platoon commander with Company C, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, which is currently assigned to 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, under the unit deployment program.

Mongolian Armed Forces and U.S. service members trained together during several days of training June 24-29 at Five Hills Training Center, Mongolia, during Exercise Khaan Quest 2014.

KQ14 is a regularly scheduled, multinational exercise hosted annually by Mongolian Armed Forces and co-sponsored this year by U.S. Army, Pacific, and U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific. KQ14 is the latest in a continuing series of exercises designed to promote regional peace and security. This year marks the 12th iteration of this training event.

All of Company C is participating in Exercise Khaan Quest 2014.
During the exercise, the service members practiced cordoning and searching a small city with about 20 community members residing there.

“The cordon and search lane had some elements of complexity in it,” said Murray, a native of Monktown, Maryland. “It used a lot of training that we received at the other lanes such as convoy operations, check points and searching. Some of the other lanes focused on individual tactics, the cordon and search lane brought them together into one.”

As the service members secured town, the instructors watched how they would react to different things the citizens would do. Some would get in their way, while others would constantly ask them what was going on. After several training improvised explosive devices went off, the community began to riot telling the service members to ‘go back’.

At the end of the training, the instructors discussed different ways to approach the situation in the future.

“I’ve been hearing a lot that Marines are very aggressive and we’re quick to violence of action because that’s how we’re trained,” said Murray. “So they can take our mentality on how when things go kinetic and we’re going to immediately gain that fire superiority, as opposed to some other nations, which are trained more on peaceful things. We can bring that together and mold it into one generalized mentality, which helps out all of us.”

The service members also practiced dismounted patrolling and how to properly control a check point entry.

“I think the best lane was check point because we will go to Sudan where we will need to check people,” said MAF 1st Lt. T. Gankhuu, a platoon commander. “So it’s good to practice more. And it’s good to learn other ways to do it.”

Some MAF service members will be able to use what they learn during Khaan Quest while they are deployed to Sudan for U.N. peace keeping operations.

The exercise provides an ideal platform for participating nations to demonstrate military-to-military interoperability, improve peacekeeping operations capabilities, enhance relationships and increase multinational cooperation. In addition to Mongolia and the United States, military personnel from Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, Poland, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Tajikistan, and the United Kingdom are participating or observing.

“It’s really good to work with the U.S. because we can learn many things from each other,” said Gankuu. “I think Khaan Quest is important training because many worlds are coming here and learning many things from here.”

• Date Taken: 06.29.2014
• Date Posted: 07.05.2014 02:56
• Story ID: 135337
• Location: FIVE HILLS TRAINING AREA, MN
• Hometown: MONKTON, MD, US