Photo By Sgt. Devon Tindle | Marines with Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, storm a room taking casualties, chosen by...... read more read more
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CENTRAL TRAINING AREA, Japan – Marines with the Combined Anti-Armor Team Platoon executed military operations on urbanized terrain training Aug. 19-22 at the Central Training Area, Okinawa, Japan.
The CAAT Platoon is a combination of Marines assigned to the Heavy Weapons and Anti-Armor Platoons of a Weapons Company. The heavy weapons Marines use machine guns to isolate armored vehicles while the anti-armor Marines fire missiles or rockets to disable the target.
This training gave the Marines a chance to step away from their normal routine to brush up on basic infantry skills.
“We came out here to merge the machine gunners and anti-tank missilemen in one standard operating procedure for MOUT training and going back to the basics to nail them home,” said 1st Lt. Joseph Krawczyk, the CAAT Platoon commander with Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, currently assigned to 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, under the unit deployment program.
The skills needed to operate effectively in an urban environment are critical to the success of CAAT Platoon members.
“This training is important for the Marines in case we have to assault a village or objects are blocking our vehicles path,” said Pfc. Andrew Avis, a machine gunner with the CAAT Platoon. “It teaches Marines everything that is vital to (close-quarter combat) as well as patrolling.”
The training helped improve unit cohesion and team building while better preparing the Marines, according to Lance Cpl. Jacob Hyder, an anti-tank missileman with the CAAT Platoon.
“We went through basic clearing of stair cases, multiple entryways, and how to clear a room with a fragmentation grenade,” said Hyder, a Jacksonville, Florida, native. “Training for life and death situations builds unit cohesion with the Marines to the left and right of you.”
The military needs to adapt to the changing of the world and the tactics needed to complete the mission, according to Krawczyk, a Trenton, Michigan, native.
“We fight a lot of warfare in urban terrains due to cities around the world getting bigger and the countryside getting smaller,” said Krawczyk. “We need to be ready to fight in any terrain.”
The Marines train like they would during real life contingency scenarios, according to Krawczyk.
“We are training hard and training to do the right thing,” said Krawczyk. “We don’t come out here to just play, we come out here to train and be professionals.”
The wide array of skills the Marines learned are vital for infantrymen, according to Avis, a Dallas, Texas, native.
“Every bit of training is important for a unit, but in this job the training is vital for a safe return home,” said Avis.
| Date Taken: | 08.20.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 08.27.2014 01:29 |
| Story ID: | 140465 |
| Location: | CENTRAL TRAINING AREA, OKINAWA, JP |
| Hometown: | DALLAS, TEXAS, US |
| Hometown: | JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, US |
| Hometown: | TRENTON, MICHIGAN, US |
| Web Views: | 269 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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