Photo By Sgt. Robert Reeves | Corporal David Stewart, combat engineer of Mobility Assault Company, 1st Combat...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – Marines with 1st Combat Engineer Battalion took part in training courses taught by the Tactical Tracking Operation School here, May 10.
The school specializes in research and development of new techniques and procedures, and offers personnel from every branch of military service instruction on visual tracking, dismounted operations, and counter improvised explosive devices training.
The TTOS has focused on creating dismounted-based training programs for the Department of Defense and law enforcement agencies since 1994. Its program has evolved from teaching basic combat tracking skills to instruction that includes a hybrid of visual tracking and modern technology that Marines use today.
“This program should be taught in basic training,” said Peter Kerr, senior instructor and president of TTOS. “The sooner you teach a Marine how to do this, the better equipped they will be and more proficient.”
The instructors participated as role players and acted as elusive targets during the training exercise. Giving a 30-minute head start, the instructors established trails for the 1st CEB Marines to track.
“Those are skill sets that most people have, but they aren’t aware how to utilize them correctly,” said 1st Lt. Ryan Chrobak, officer in charge of Mobility Assault Company, 1st CEB and a native of Clinton, N.Y. “They are learning how to pick up on those very simple clues that come with tracking.”
By merging ancient hunting skills with 21st century technologies, techniques, tactics and procedures, TTOS has created its own methods for combat tracking and counter IED.
“The type of tracking we teach is visual tracking,” Kerr said. “We’re teaching Marines and soldiers how to use their eyes to detect indicators and signs by enemy insurgents. The tracking itself is the same that has been taught for thousands of years. It’s an ancient hunting skill that has been passed down for generations. The biggest challenge of teaching tracking is getting people to see the tracks and understand what they mean. Every time they step they leave an indicator of their movement, direction and speed.”
The program specializes in its own combat and visual tracking techniques and ways of instructing, teaching team and individual tracking skills in both the classroom and a field environment.
“I used to do a little tracking, hunting small game, deer and hogs mostly,” said Cpl. Derick Warren, a 21-year-old combat engineer, serving with MAC, 1st CEB. “It’s a totally different thing, but the program is pretty natural once you get into the school because humans have been tracking for years.”
Like hunting, trackers look for signs that their target has been in the area. Trackers call these clues spores, or pieces of evidence left unintentionally by the target. After the team has examined the spore, they continue to pursue the enemy based on the facts they have gathered.
“Air spore, ground spore, this is basically the passage of human or animal through an area, and the evidence they leave that they were there,” said Kerr. “They will leave signs, and we teach Marines how to interpret and understand what those signs mean.”
The TTOS offers classes using mobile training teams, which can deploy to locations across the United States and worldwide to instruct, consult and advise. The program’s visual tracking techniques can be used in any type of terrain from mountains to the jungle, deserts to the tundra, cities to the wilderness, day and night.
“Having the school out here is pertinent, especially when it comes to our counter improvised explosives training,” Chrobak said. “Engineers are moving our entire mobile and maneuver elements across the battlefield. This training gives that individual an extra skill set to help during the execution of his duties as an engineer.”
The collective training is conducted at the TTOS Tactical Tracking Training Center in Fort Huachuca, Ariz., or at TTOS' Shadow Ridge Training and Range Complex in Dell City, Texas.
| Date Taken: | 05.10.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.30.2013 02:26 |
| Story ID: | 107734 |
| Location: | CAMP PENDLETON, CA, US |
| Hometown: | DELL CITY, TX, US |
| Hometown: | FORT HUACHUCA, AZ, US |
| Web Views: | 267 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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