2nd Recon conducts certification exercise for deployment

Photo By Sgt. Melodie Snarr | Cpl. Brian Newport, a reconnaissance Marine with 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, playing an enemy hostile, notionally tortures a hostage during a certification exercise in preparation for their upcoming deployment, at Camp Lejeune, N.C., June 15, 2016. During the exercise, the Marines are inserted into an area and given objectives to gather information on to report back to the Reconnaissance Operating Center, while remaining undetected by enemy forces. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Melodie Snarr/Released.)  

NC, UNITED STATES

06.17.2016

Story by Cpl. Melodie Snarr 

II Marine Expeditionary Force   

Marines with 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, participated in a certification exercise in preparation for their upcoming deployment, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, June 7- 17.
During the exercise, the Marines are inserted into an area and given objectives in order to gather information for the Reconnaissance Operating Center, all while remaining undetected by enemy forces.
“The mission of CERTEX for the battalion is to evaluate the company who is going on the next Marine Expeditionary Unit. Before they actually attach to the MEU, we run a certification exercise to evaluate the teams, the platoon and the companies on their thousand-level tasks and to make sure they are meeting all their requirements on reconnaissance missions,” said Sgt. Dustin Thurmond, an evaluator and reconnaissance Marine with 2nd Recon.
The Marines began the exercise by navigating small river boats down the New River inlet to their beach landing site.
“From [the initial cache site] we cached the boats in vicinity of the beach landing site with whatever means we had to, either digging them in or using vegetation to conceal them,” said Sgt. Tyler Ring, a team leader with the unit. “From there, we made movement conducting zone reconnaissance.”
Zone reconnaissance is used to create reports of the characteristics of an area to give to a landing force.
“We take thermal imagery, thermal video and digital night photography so they can see the composition of the ground and if there are any obstacles they would encounter when landing,” said Ring.
The Marines patrolled from the landing site to the objective taking reports of the area to give to the landing force.
“They get in the nastiest parts of Lejeune, the swamps, and that’s where they live. They push out two-man patrols and get eyes on the objective. They conduct reconnaissance surveillance from there,” said Thurmond. “Their reports really need to paint that picture of the battlefield so [2nd Marine Division units] can go in and know what they’re going to do.”
Marines go through months of different training such as the Basic Airborne Course or the Marine Combatant Diver’s Course before the CERTEX.
“[The certification] is just to see where they’re at. The Marines in Bravo Company have been in their platoon work up phase for more than six months. They have plenty of time to prepare for the battalion certification exercise,” said Thurmond. “It’s eight days of reconnaissance and surveillance. It’s not an easy job. It’s definitely the hardest mission in the Marine Corps.”
During the exercise, each team had an evaluator to observe and ensure the Marines were proficient in each task.
“From what I could see, the Marines did extremely well. We’re very pleased with their performance. From when we composited the company to now, the Marines have done extremely well and have made a lot of improvements,” said Capt. Jonathan Harris, a platoon commander. “We’re where we need to be prior to going on the MEU.”

• Date Taken: 06.17.2016
• Date Posted: 06.17.2016 13:29
• Story ID: 201582
• Location: NC, US