Royal Thai, U.S. Marines participate in Emergency Assault exercise

Photo By Lance Cpl. Andrew Avitt | Cpl. Nate Meier of Millington, Mich., Cpl. Tyler Hinkley of Port Jervis, N.Y., Cpl. Mathew Kudena of Boerne, Texas, Cpl. Christian Rauwerda of Houston, Texas are set up in an exfiltration stack next to the exit of a building providing security and taking cover until the Deep Reconnaissance Platoon with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit is ready to move during an emergency assault exercise on Feb. 9 during Cobra Gold 2009. Cobra Gold is a regularly scheduled joint/coalition multinational exercise hosted annually by the Kingdom of Thailand, and it is focused on improving military-to-military relationships among its participants.  

02.14.2009

Story by Lance Cpl. Andrew Avitt 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

By Cpl. Andrew S. Avitt
III Marine Expeditionary Force

SAMAESAN, Thailand— Eight Royal Thai Reconnaissance Marines and 43 U.S. Marines conducted an Emergency Assault bilateral exercise here on Feb. 9 during Exercise Cobra Gold 2009.

Cobra Gold is an annual joint, coalition multinational exercise focused on maintaining and improving military interoperability among its participants.

The U.S. Marines worked together with the Royal Thai Reconnaissance Marines to assault a building, which in the scenario was suspected of housing a meeting between two insurgent groups.

Upon receiving the warning order, the coalition force assaulted a building were they swiftly gained entry to the house.

"From my experience, 80 percent of the time, when you go in, it ends up being a soft hit," said Sgt. Brandon McGraw, an instructor with Special Operations Training Group, Special Missions Branch, III Marine Expeditionary Force.

The difference between a soft hit and a hard hit, he explained, is that a hard hit uses explosives to breach into a building, and a soft hit only requires hand tools or may even be unlocked and unobstructed.

Upon breaching the house, the live-fire portion of the exercise commenced.
Inside the building, the team quickly identified and neutralized their first terrorist target – a bullet trap with a criminal silhouette posted over it. There were 6 hostile silhouettes placed in 4 rooms throughout the building, which challenged the team to make the right decision.

"They must learn to assess hostile and non-hostile targets and think about every shot before they take it," said Gunnery Sgt. David Jarvis, chief instructor with the Special Missions Branch.

The Marines moved from room to room in a disciplined and precise manner, neutralizing the targets, even a particularly tricky one depicting a small woman holding a gun to a larger man's head, demonstrating Jarvis' philosophy perfectly.

"In order for such a raid to go as smoothly as this one, every team member on the target site must know his responsibilities down to the last detail, such as proper clearing tactics and target identification," said Cpl. Tyler Hinkley, a Deep Reconnaissance Plt. Marine with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit. "By being so proficient, the platoon is able to focus on other areas of the raid, such as blowing caches on site and conducting searches of the building."

Throughout the scenario, the team also came across weapons and inert explosives, which the team systematically confiscated or destroyed, while holding tight security of the house and documenting the raid thoroughly.

"Team work is important because it takes the entire Maritime Raid Force to plan and insert and process a crisis site, minimizing collateral damage and gathering intelligence for future operations," said Jarvis.

• Date Taken: 02.14.2009
• Date Posted: 02.14.2009 06:44
• Story ID: 30027