Photo By Lance Cpl. Elizabeth Gallagher | Lauren Allmon, conservation officer, and Bill Sellars, range director, both with the...... read more read more
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[YUMA, ARIZONA] – Yuma locals and annual visitors from out of state attended a hazard area tour on the Barry M. Goldwater Range (BMGR) hosted by the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Yuma, Arizona, conversation office on Jan. 9, 2023.
The purpose of this tour was to enlighten visitors about the importance of military training that occurs on the ranges surrounding MCAS Yuma and educate them on the safety reasons why those training areas are restricted to the public.
“Yuma is pretty unique, where we have a lot of public recreation that happens on our property. We also have some areas that are hazardous to the public that we make off limits.” Says officer Lauren Allmon, a conservation law enforcement officer with the MCAS Yuma conservation office. “What we like to do is bring the public out on tours when the range is open for that, so that we can show people the different hazards and also kind of what the Marine Corps mission is out on the BMGR and help them understand what we do.”
To put things into perspective, MCAS Yuma is responsible for approximately 1.2 million acres of range space, which include the BMGR West and the Chocolate Mountains Aerial Gunnery Range with restricted air space in both California and Arizona. About 40,000 acres of the BMGR West is used for ground, live fire and non-live fire military training. About 600,000 acres of the BMGR is open to the public for recreation. It’s also important to note that BMGR East is managed by the U.S. Air Force at Luke Air Force Base Glendale, Arizona.
The tour included visits to many aerial and ground military training sites such as Yodaville, the 1,000-meter observation post (OP) point and KNOZ.
The first point of the tour was Yodaville, an Urban Training Complex constructed with cargo containers, old vehicles and roads with urban infrastructure to mimic a city from an aerial view point. It’s an air to ground training facility that supports the employment of aviation as well as guided and unguided GPS and laser weapons.
William Sellars, the director of the MCAS Yuma Range Management Department explains the purpose of the Yodaville complex looking as it does, “The intent from altitude, when looking down is to replicate a city in different parts of the world. And even though on the ground, it looks relatively crude. From the sky, the buildings and the structures with the painted windows and the painted doors and the green soccer field look like a real urban facility that could exist anywhere that the Marine Corps conducts contingency operations. So, for that reason, Yodaville presents a very realistic venue where air crew can train as if they were training in an urban environment, in locations anywhere around the world.”
The next point in the tour was the 1,000-meter OP point. This is a small training complex that allows troops to see Yodaville from a distance and practice radio transmissions to target the site. Sellars explains, “Additionally, ground based forward air controllers or joint tactical air controllers can train from the 1,000-meter op and use lasers from the 1,000-meter op. This allows ground personnel to interact with aircrew employing weapons within the Yodaville Urban Training Complex. Fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft train out there in conjunction with forward air controllers.”
Another stop in the tour was a site called KNOZ. It’s an aircraft carrier training facility specifically designed for Marine Aircraft Group 13’s F-35B Lightning II aircraft. It is meant to simulate operations on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier and aircrew are required to train there before deploying to a ship to conduct real operations.
“KNOZ itself, from a dimensional standpoint replicates exactly what's on the ship, the size, the lighting, everything except for the fact that ship is moving in the ocean, which is why there's so much value.” Says Sellars, “the lighting at KNOZ replicates exactly what they would see on the ship, which is why it brings so much value to air crew that will deploy with one of the MEUs (Marine Expeditionary Unit) off the west coast that come out of Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.” Training is conducted at KNOZ about a dozen times a year in three to four-day intervals which include day and night operations.
The tour included many informational military training sites and it’s important that the public sees what is happening out there.
Hartmut and Joann Gall, residents of Northern California come to visit Yuma annually and decided to go with some friends of the local area on this tour. Hartmut says “This was a total eye opener. This was one of the coolest things we’ve done.”
Hartmut adds, “I was proud to see the government supporting something like this and giving our military all the possible training that they can. I think that money needs to be put back here, giving our military every advantage.”
MCAS Yuma continues to try to inform the public of not only the restricted military training sites on the BMGR but also the abundance of land on the range that visitors and local residents can recreate on. Keep in mind that visitors must have a permit to participate in things such as hiking, camping and going on tours. If recreating in a vehicle, it must be properly registered. To go on tours visitors can reach out to the MCAS Yuma conservation office and schedule a time and date. Take into account that the sites mentioned previously are not open to the public for recreational use as it would compromise military training. It is also extremely dangerous, as the safety of trespassers can be compromised and be fatal if live fire training were to be conducted.
“The tours are great because they’re educational opportunities. A lot of times people are never going to get the opportunity to see these training areas. And once they get these tours, they see what's out there and they understand why those areas are restricted to the public.” Says officer Allmon. “They then become stewards of the range. So, every person that we bring on these tours can then pass the word along to other people who recreate and then we have less people trespassing that’ll interrupt military training.”
For more information about tours visit the MCAS Yuma Conversation Page at https://www.mcasyuma.marines.mil/Staff-and-Agencies/Range-Natural-and-Cultural-Resources/
For information about permits to visit the BMGR please visit https://bmgr.recaccess.com/
| Date Taken: | 01.12.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 01.19.2024 13:49 |
| Story ID: | 462094 |
| Location: | YUMA, AZ, US |
| Web Views: | 116 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Stewards of the Land: Understanding the Hazard Areas of Barry M. Goldwater, by Cpl Jade Venegas, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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