Breaking and entering

Photo By Cpl. Garrett White | Marines with 1st Reconnaissance Battalion conducted breaching training at range 211A aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., September 22, 2014. The goal of the training was to reinforce the recon Marines’ breaching skills.  

CAMP PENDLETON, CA, UNITED STATES

09.26.2014

Story by Lance Cpl. Garrett White 

I Marine Expeditionary Force

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Marines with 1st Reconnaissance Battalion conducted breaching training at range 211A aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, September 22, 2014.

Of the four kinds of breaching, explosive, mechanical, ballistic, and thermal, the Marines were refining their skills in the employment of explosive breaching.

“We have a wide skillset as recon Marines,” said Sgt. Sean Wade, current operations noncommissioned officer in charge with 1st Reconnaissance Battalion training cell. “When we go with the MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit), not only do we carry out reconnaissance and surveillance for the battalion landing team, but we also can execute limited scale raids. What that entails is gaining entry into buildings.”

To achieve this goal, various types of shaped charges are utilized depending on the type of barricade blocking the Marines’ entry.

“The purpose is to gain 100 percent penetration on the objective site using the least amount of explosives,” said Sgt. Anthony Watkins, team leader with 1st Recon Bn. “Everyone here has a basic knowledge of how to breach; we are basically just refining skills.”

The Marines spent the day building water charges and strip charges then properly employing them to breach a door.

“A lot of our objectives are high value individuals,” said Wade. “They are going to be well protected and well barricaded in that structure, so a lot of times you can’t gain entry without explosive means.”

Watkins explained, it’s important for all the Marines to possess breaching skills. If a unit is on an objective site and the breacher goes down, everyone needs to know how to employ the explosives properly.

Ultimately the goal was to keep the recon Marines current on all their skills so they are prepared when in a forward-deployed environment.

“We host a wide variety of skillsets,” said Wade, “not only in reconnaissance, but also infantry and close-quarters combat skills, which are very perishable. So we perpetually train every skillset, so we can be as good as we can be for whatever a commander may ask of us.”

• Date Taken: 09.26.2014
• Date Posted: 09.26.2014 14:07
• Story ID: 143398
• Location: CAMP PENDLETON, CA, US