Photo By Sgt. Jessica Ito | A member of the Senegalese special forces participating in Exercise Western Accord...... read more read more
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THIES, Senegal –U.S. Marine Reservists and servicemen from four West African countries joined forces to improve urban combat techniques during Exercise Western Accord 2012.
Urban combat is very different from combat in open areas. Tactics are complicated by a three-dimensional environment, limited fields of view and fire because of buildings, enhanced concealment and cover for defenders, below-ground infrastructure, and the ease of placement of booby traps and snipers.
Marines from Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion 25th Marine Regiment are making sure African partner nations understand their own tactics, as well as learning as much as they can from their African counterparts.
“We have several partner nations working here together, so it’s good for them to learn from each other and the Marines are learning from everyone,” said Gunnery Sgt. Michael Ulch, the operations chief with Weapons Co., 3rd Bn. 25th Marines.
The training is broken up into three phases. The first phase is known as movement to contact, which consists of basic patrol knowledge. After patrols are mastered, the African troops learn basic urban combat skills in a “tape house”.
Engineers tape is laid out on the ground to show a blueprint of a realistic house, and the Marines demonstrate how to clear rooms so it is visible to everyone. After practicing a few runs in the tape house, the African forces move onto clearing real buildings.
“It’s great to have everybody working together, it’s beautiful to see how different armies and different uniforms work together and get stuff done,” said 2nd Lt. Youssouf Kaba, the first platoon commander of a company in the Guinean army.
After the Africans practiced the technics on a real building multiple times, they run through a final exercise to test their abilities.
“I’m very impressed with the effort that they put out and the know-how and the knowledge they’ve displayed,” said Cpl. Grant Coy, a fire team leader with Weapons Co., 3rd Bn. 25th Marines.
A struggle both sides have been facing is the language barrier. Most of the African forces speak French so that makes it difficult for the Marines to share knowledge. The combined forces have successfully been using a demonstration method to get the message across.
“Everybody knows charades, smiles and laughs,” said Coy, who has been working directly with the Africans.
At the end of WA-12, American and African forces hope to have increased their understanding of each other’s capabilities and proficiencies, and enhanced their ability to operate together.
“What I hope to accomplish is all of these partner nations, including the Marines, working together and learning that just because we’re from different countries and nationalities does not mean that we can’t work together toward a common goal,” said Ulch.
The exercise will focus on various types of military training to include: live-fire training, peacekeeping operations, intelligence capacity building, command post, and disaster response training. In addition, a medical humanitarian assistance project and exercise-related construction will run concurrent with the training.
The exercise is coordinated by Marine Forces Africa and runs from June 26 – July 24. More than 600 U.S. service members and approximately 600 members of the Armed Forces of Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Gambia and France will participate. Africa Command is committed to strengthening their relationship with their Senegalese and African partners.
| Date Taken: | 07.14.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 07.14.2012 07:33 |
| Story ID: | 91542 |
| Location: | THIES, SN |
| Hometown: | CLEVELAND, OH, US |
| Web Views: | 246 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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