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NOVO SELO TRAINING AREA, Bulgaria - Black Sea Rotational Force Marines and Sailors got a head start on the upcoming Platinum Lion exercise by conducting a week-long company live-fire exercise Jan. 4-10 at Novo Selo Training Area, Bulgaria.
The Marines of 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines’ purpose in the training was to practice crucial night-time skills leading to a company sized attack on the final night.
The week’s training was also to prepare the Marines for Platinum Lion 15, a multi-lateral exercise taking place at Novo Selo Training Area.
“The training that Weapons Co. is conducting now is supporting the training that’s going to be conducted during Platinum Lion. We’re refreshing the basics before we work with our partner nations,” said 1st Lt. Mark Ryan, Golf Co. 2nd platoon commander.
The upcoming exercise also marks the final exercise being conducted by this iteration of BSRF.
“We’re finishing our deployment off by coming out to Novo Selo to work on combined arms integration,” said Ryan.
The mountainous terrain put a spin on the normal training areas that the Marines practice in, at their home base of Camp Lejeune, N.C. Precision and trust were key elements during the final night-fire range, as each platoon had to rely on the other platoons to direct fire at the right area, at the right time.
“It’s good to do the training in Bulgaria instead of Camp Lejeune because of the different elements we face out here, the different terrain,” said Ryan. “Lejeune is pretty flat; out here we get to utilize some of the mountainous terrain to do different types of attacks.”
Leading up to the night movement, the Marines practiced the skills needed to execute the attack properly. 81mm Mortar Platoon, Combined Anti-Armor Team Platoon, Scout Sniper Platoon and Golf Co. Platoons all spent the week getting a feel for the new terrain, firing their weapons in the cold weather conditions and carefully honing their skills during night hours.
“The weather here has been pretty cold; most of the terrain has been pretty icy, but there’s a lot of micro-terrain that the maneuver elements can utilize in their movements,” said Ryan.
The conclusion of the training only marks a brief pause in operations as other nations begin to arrive for Platinum Lion happening in only a few days.
| Date Taken: | 01.10.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 01.11.2015 16:19 |
| Story ID: | 151743 |
| Location: | NOVO SELO TRAINING AREA, BG |
| Web Views: | 308 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Black Sea Rotational Force Marines work under the cover of darkness in preparation for Platinum Lion, by Sgt Ryan Young, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
