Photo By Sgt. Jonathan Sosner | General Jeff Broadwater stands with Lt. Col. Mark Liston during a Deployment for...... read more read more
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Tucked away in the mountains, the Marines were waking up and getting ready to start the day when incoming mortar rounds started crashing down around them. They scrambled to set up tactical security positions, as many of their fellow Marines were stopped in their tracks; notional casualties in this simulated attack.
The Marines with 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion participated in a 10-day field exercise from Jan. 13 to Jan. 23 at Fort Irwin, California as part of Marine Corps Combat Readiness Evaluation Exercise (MCREE) to evaluate their overall unit readiness.
The Marines went head-to-head with Soldiers from the 1st Stryker Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, in a large-scale notional battle that spanned across approximately 1,000 square miles of California desert.
“We were the opposing force that went up against the Army unit out here,” said 1st. Lt. Justin Panikowski, the executive officer for Headquarters Service & Support Company, 2nd LAR Battalion. “We are here to sharpen ourselves, as well as the Army, in this inter-service exercise.”
The primary goal of an LAR battalion is to penetrate enemy lines and pass on pertinent information, while simultaneously providing assault capabilities against the enemy.
“LAR shapes the battlefield in a simple, yet dynamic way,” said Cpl. Austin Stewart, a Light Armored Vehicle crewman with the unit. “We’re able to show our command and the higher echelon what the enemy is doing and how they are doing it. At the same time, if they need offensive abilities, we are able to do that as well.”
One of the main benefits of conducting training in the desert is the opportunity for Marines to conduct training in different weather and terrain.
“We’re used to dealing with set paths, and wooded areas at Camp Lejeune,” Panikowski said. “Out here, it is wide open, and you have to deal with entirely new terrain such as cracks and crevices. You can see for miles, which can both help and hurt us.”
With the optics on the vehicle, the crew members can see up to nine kilometers away, and although they cannot necessarily engage the enemy from that distance, it is a crucial aspect to accomplishing their mission, Stewart added.
Another benefit to this training exercise was instead of fighting a notional or inanimate enemy, they were able to engage with another well-trained fighting force.
“Out here, we are able to go up against some of the best in the world, in terms of a well-trained and well-resourced enemy that has a specific mission,” said Lt. Col. Mark Liston, commanding officer for 2nd LAR. “This exercise gave us an opportunity to operate against a thinking enemy, to a level which I have not encountered since leading Marines in battle.”
The life-like exercise gave the Marines a chance to be challenged by a competent enemy, day or night, where they were forced to think about why the enemy was acting in a certain manner and what they were trying to achieve, Liston added.
“It’s one thing to shoot at targets,” Panikowski said. “It’s another thing to go out and fight against another person. You don’t know what they’re thinking or doing, so you have to anticipate their next action.”
Despite advances in battlefield technology, the conventional tactics of an LAR battalion are still the most reliable, tried-and-true methods for reconnaissance.
“One of the most critical aspects of this unit is their all-weather capabilities,” said Liston. “Many people believe that an Unmanned Aerial System can provide what we provide on the battlefield, but we have proven in this exercise that during periods of limited visibility and high winds, we were the only all-weather reconnaissance force that provided that capability to the command elements.”
Through some of the harshest terrain and weather that the United States has to offer, 2nd LAR thrived in this simulated combat environment.
“The Marines out here did a phenomenal job,” Panikowski said. “This type of training lets the Army know that their sister service has some lethal aspects that we can bring to the table if they are ever in a pinch.”
Training in an unfamiliar environment is key to the success and mobility of the nation’s 911 force. Exercises like this ensure that the Marines are ready to bring the fight to anywhere in the world, at only a moment’s notice.
| Date Taken: | 02.01.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 02.01.2017 13:06 |
| Story ID: | 222162 |
| Location: | FORT IRWIN, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 144 |
| Downloads: | 4 |
This work, Wheels Rolling: 2nd LAR conducts desert training, by Sgt Jonathan Sosner, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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