Photo By Staff Sgt. Joshua Hillman | U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Ashley Oiterong, a Mortuary Affairs Specialist with the 377th...... read more read more
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FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, Calif. – Nestled into the hills of Monterey County, California, there stands a small green tent. Just outside of the tent is a lone black and white guidon, flapping in the breeze, and a coin press with a hammer leaning against it. Inside the tent, U.S. Marine Corps Unit Recovery Team instructors conduct the Unit Recovery Team Instructor Certification Course, a first-of-its-kind training opportunity for U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers, at CSTX 24-01.
“Soldiers and Marines who serve as Mortuary Affairs Specialists, a term that will soon be changed to Fatality Management Specialists, are certified to train non-augmented mortuary affairs personnel,” U.S. Army Reserve Captain Stephanie Ramos explained. Ramos serves as the Fatality Management Officer for the 377th Theater Sustainment Command at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas.
“For real-world operations,” Ramos said, “Fatality management is a joint effort.”
The Marine Corps was the first branch in the military to certify URT instructors. During CSTX 24-01, Marines were certifying the Army’s first URT instructors. This training ensures that Soldiers and Marines are not only capable of recovering fallen personnel, but also getting them home to their loved ones.
“It provides closure,” said Marine Cpl. Kayshawn Houston, a Mortuary Affairs Specialist with the U.S. Marine Corps Personnel Recovery and Processing Company, before quoting the PRP motto, “Fight the Battle, Win the Day, Recover the Fallen.”
“With wearing this uniform comes war,” said Ramos, “And with war comes death.”
She explained that Soldiers go to the Combat Lifesaver Course and other courses that deal with preserving life, but learning to recover our fallen is just as important.
“It is unfair to ask service members to perform fatality management at the time of combat without giving them proper training," Ramos explained.
After a block of classroom training from Marine instructors, Soldiers executed simulated recovery exercises.
“We set out hyper-realistic training aids,” Houston explained, “Then we set out lanes, whether in an open field, vegetative area, enclosed areas such as buildings or vehicles, or a large-scale area to conduct these searches.”
The course teaches the fatality management specialists how to become trainers for future courses and train other Soldiers to recover fallen personnel.
“It is the responsibility and the mission of every unit in the Army to ensure that their fallen Soldiers will be brought home,” said Ramos. The URT instructors ensure that Soldiers have the skills needed to accomplish this mission.
The URT instructors impart not only their personnel recovery and processing knowledge to the Soldiers but also the solemn attitude of the mission. After hours of lectures and several simulated personnel recovery events, the training narrows down to one solemn event.
Marine Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Carter, officer in charge of the unit recovery team instructor certification course at CSTX 24-01, explained the solemn symbolism behind their unit guidon.
“On the front of the guidon is written Charon’s Own,” Carter explained, "in Greek mythology, Charon is the boatman who ferries the souls of the dead across the River Styx into the Afterlife. We are Charon’s Own. We carry the vessel of that soul from the battlefield to their final resting place.”
The URT training helps Soldiers and Marines understand that from the moment a fallen Soldier is recovered, to the moment that Soldier is laid to rest, the responsibility of fatality management specialists is to ensure that the fallen receive proper honor throughout the process.
“The ultimate end state of this job,” Ramos said, “is to recover the fallen, to bring closure to their families.”
The Soldiers who have been through the URT training at CSTX 24-01 are the first-ever certified URT Instructors in the Army.
With a hammer in one hand and coins in his other, Carter explains, “Charon requires a toll from those ferried into the Afterlife; that toll is their life.”
He then places the coins in the coin press and slams the hammer down on them, creating a two-sided coin bearing the symbols from Charon's Own, made to hang from a chain and remind the new URT instructors that they are now “Charon’s Own,” tasked with carrying the souls of the fallen to their final resting places.
| Date Taken: | 06.08.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 06.10.2024 22:53 |
| Story ID: | 473463 |
| Location: | FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 257 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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