Photo By Lance Cpl. Zainab Sink | U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Leilani Kurnik, a legal services specialist with Headquarters...... read more read more
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CAMP COURTNEY, OKINAWA, Japan – Headquarters Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, implemented a new, weekly training series called Warrior Wednesday, aimed at maintaining the combat readiness of the battalion’s Marines. This series reinforces skills such as land navigation, defensive tactics, basic patrolling, order writing and briefing, and familiarization with various weapon systems, and it takes place on Camp Courtney.
“Warrior Wednesday is increasing the lethality of the force in a way that the Marines’ current MOSs may not afford them the opportunity,” said Sgt. Cyrus D. Zielenski, a rifleman with HQBN, 3rd MARDIV and chief training instructor of Warrior Wednesday.
Instruction occurs every Wednesday in two five-hour iterations and is divided into four main topics: patrolling fundamentals, grenade launchers and crew served weapons employment, land navigation and fire support integration, and combat orders foundations. Each topic is covered once a month, and each category offers basic, intermediate, and advanced packages, allowing Marines to further their knowledge as the categories repeat.
“The junior Marines and non-commissioned officers want to get out of their offices. They want to get out of their daily MOS activities and get back to what we learned in Marine Combat Training or at The Basic School,” said Lt. Col. Donnie Fricks, acting commanding officer of HQBN, 3rd MARDIV.
Camp Courtney's diverse landscape provides a realistic and immersive training ground where Marines can hone a wide range of skills and maneuvers. It offers beaches, a helicopter landing pad, open fields and dense jungle-like terrain that provide a variety of environments for comprehensive training.
“Marines joined for many reasons, but often they joined to be to be a warfighter and to have that [mentality] instilled in them,” Fricks stated.
This initiative ensures the battalion remains a premier warfighting organization where every Marine is a capable warfighter. The end state is a more lethal and ready force, where every Marine of any MOS has mastered the core skills necessary for conducting active security to enable assured command and control for the battalion and Division Headquarters, while getting to do what they signed up for -- to be a warfighter.
| Date Taken: | 03.09.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 04.27.2026 21:50 |
| Story ID: | 563632 |
| Location: | JP |
| Web Views: | 13 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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