Photo By Staff Sgt. Tegan Kucera | Practicing his jump for later in the day, Sgt. Nicholas Bucy is a reconnaissance-man...... read more read more
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Echo Company with the 4th Reconnaissance Battalion from Joliette, Illinois, is getting the opportunity to perform amphibious reconnaissance, or wet jumps, into Lake Margrethe, Michigan.
“It’s kind of a rare opportunity for us to be able to actually get wet jumps to happen,” said Staff Sgt. Aaron Ramsey a Springfield, Missouri, resident. “Anytime we have the opportunity, we try to take full advantage of it.”
Ramsey, a team leader, came to Camp Grayling last year in order to receive wet jump training, one of the few times in his career he has done so. He and his team jump from a Chinook CH-47 at about 5,000 feet and land in water. Jumps from that height require parachutes with steering capabilities to hit the landing target. Ramsey said it takes precise steering skills in order to meet the target when dropped from higher altitudes, thus requiring as much training as possible.
“For us, this high altitude jumping, it helps us with our capabilities,” said Ramsey. “We can insert ourselves over a long distance into the objective sites with less risk of compromise because we’re coming in from a long distance and hopefully the enemy won’t hear our airplanes dropping us.”
He said the advantage of the opposition not hearing the planes is that they won’t know from which direction the Marines are coming. This is an advantage for reconnaissance Marines, who are essentially special operations. Improving their jumps is an advantage for those who don’t want to be heard.
“I’d like our jump capabilities to improve for my team specifically,” said Ramsey. “I’d like them to get more proficient at the jumping as well as the reconnaissance/surveillance aspect and continue to refine our capabilities there as well.”
The Marines coming to Camp Grayling is a relatively new occurrence, with Charlie Company from the same battalion having come last year. Ramsey was able to attend as well, and so is now working with a lot of the Michigan Guardsmen he is worked with the year prior. He said he really likes the facilities Camp Grayling provides, and was glad to come again. Only a handful got the chance before, so it is a new experience for most of Echo.
“It was great, we had a great venue here,” said Maj. Joshua Donathan the commander of Echo Company. “It was one of the best landings I’ve ever had.”
Donathan, has only had one other chance to jump into water over the course of the six years he has been doing reconnaissance. At home, the unit only has the chance to jump onto land during training which is why this is a rare, but valuable opportunity. The unit is scheduled to deploy next year so this training will support their mission.
“The wet jump is a training standard for us to meet and a goal we’ve been trying to meet for a while,” said Donathan a native of Cleveland, Ohio.
Conducting parachute operations with swim gear requires combat skills ranging from exiting the aircraft with flippers to safely landing in the water.
“They use the fins in order to propel them,” said Master Gunnery Sgt. Mike Brown the Battalion operations chief. “When you’re pushing a lot of gear/equipment and the like, the fins give you a lot more propulsion...more power in your kick.”
Brown, who lives in Washington, D.C. and drills in San Antonio, Texas, was the former operations chief for Echo Company so he knows many of the Marines already. He is currently acting in a supervisory position as the jumpmaster. He said doing this was like coming home.
“It’s a little stressful as jumpmaster, because of the small chance something could go wrong,” like perhaps landing in a different spot than intended.
Brown might have a soft spot for Echo, he makes sure they are well trained. The jumps will get progressively harder with additional requirements added in each iteration leading to a full tactical operation..
Altogether, the Marines had a blast performing this mission essential training they are rarely able to conduct.
Northern Strike 17 is a National Guard Bureau-sponsored exercise uniting approximately 5,000 service members from 13 states and five coalition countries during the first two weeks of August 2017 at the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center and the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, both located in northern Michigan and operated by the Michigan National Guard. The newly accredited NS17 demonstrates the Michigan National Guard’s ability to provide accessible, readiness-building opportunities for military units from all service branches to achieve and sustain proficiency in conducting mission command, air, sea, and ground maneuver integration, together with the synchronization of fires in a joint, multinational, decisive action environment.
| Date Taken: | 07.30.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 08.05.2017 11:38 |
| Story ID: | 243850 |
| Location: | GRAYLING, MI, US |
| Hometown: | BLOOMINGTON, IN, US |
| Hometown: | CLEVELAND, OH, US |
| Hometown: | JOLIET, IL, US |
| Hometown: | SAN ANTONIO, TX, US |
| Hometown: | WASHINGTON, DC, US |
| Web Views: | 248 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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