4th LEB conducts SRT training

Photo By Marcy Sanchez | Marines with 4th Law Enforcement Battalion, Force Headquarters Group, Marine Corps Forces Reserve, out of St. Paul, Minn., conduct suspect barricade and vehicle ambush training during Special Reaction Team training aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, July 16. The small detachment combines reserve Marines spanning across the country executing annual training requirements to become proficient in Special Reaction Team tactics. The Special Reaction Team is capable of isolating a crisis scene, providing proficient marksmanship support, conducting tactical movement and building entry, and clearing buildings in a variety of light and weather conditions.  

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT PARRIS ISLAND, SC, UNITED STATES

07.25.2014

Story by Sgt. Marcy Sanchez  

Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. - An abandoned building with little to no visibility, an unforeseen environment that can house the most dangerous of situations, lives depending on action. These are the situations Special Reaction Team members train for and react to with split-second decisions determining life or death.

Marines with 4th Law Enforcement Battalion, Force Headquarters Group, Marine Corps Forces Reserve, trained on SRT tactics and fundamentals designed to familiarize the Marines with operations in a Special Reaction Team during an SRT course aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, July 7-18.

“Any critical situation on an installation which calls for above and beyond your normal military policeman, the SRT teams are called in and they are trained to handle any threat, any situation on that installation,” said Brian Corbin, an instructor with Advanced Training Group, Marine Corps police academy-East. “It gives them a basic understanding of how to operate in a Special Reaction Team for the Marine Corps which is an equivalent of a civilian S.W.A.T. team.”

Corbin, a native of Seabrook, S.C., is an instructor at the SRT course along with Marines and civilians from the Provost Marshal’s Office at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
During the two-week long training, Marines learned through classroom instruction as well as hands-on instruction including small-arms fire training. At the conclusion of the course, Marines were tested with a two scenarios allowing them to execute proper tactics and techniques to immobilize their subjects.

“We take a simulated bad guy and have the students go in, identify the location of the subject, confront and immobilize the suspect,” explained Corbin.

Aside from live-fire familiarization, the training included principles and fundamentals in Close-Quarter Battle, hostage rescue, apprehension and control, and hostage negotiation.
“It’s a lot of great skillsets that we are going to take back that we can not only teach to our Marines but take them with us to other units,” said 2nd Lt. Brian Mcnelis, a military police officer with 4th LEB. “[The course] is refining our skills even more for those urban environments, clearing rooms and searching areas.”

According to Mcnelis, the skills taught through the SRT course will assist 4th LEB succeed with slowly increasing advisory roles overseas.

“Military police are starting to take on a lot of advisory roles as our enemies and tactics have changed,” said Mcnelis, a 31-year-old native of Dayton, Ohio. “What we’re doing out in the field, those responsibilities are starting to go to infantry units. A lot of times we’ll augment infantry units to help handle weapons caches, handle high-priority targets if we’re not focused on totally destroying the subject.”

The Special Reaction Team aboard MCAS Beaufort is responsible for providing the Air Station commanding officer and the provost marshal with a credible response team for any major situation, such as a terrorist incident or a crisis situation.

• Date Taken: 07.25.2014
• Date Posted: 07.25.2014 08:49
• Story ID: 137255
• Location: MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT PARRIS ISLAND, SC, US