Photo By Cpl. Jad Sleiman | Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force 2012 spin out while...... read more read more
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MOYOCK, N.C. - The golden four-door sedan wears a Virginia Military Institute Mom sticker on the bumper. An expired Oscar F. Smith High School parking permit clings to the back windshield. It might have been a family car in a previous life. Today, it’s a target.
The glass behind the sticker explodes along with the rear passenger windows as an Oldsmobile driven by two Marines makes deliberate contact with its rear axle, sending it screeching out of the way in a wide arc.
“I’ve been driving for seven years and it’s just ingrained in you; don’t hit anything.” said Cpl. Taylor Rogers a field radio operator and Modesto, Calif. native with Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force 2012. “Then you come here and they say ‘forget what you’ve learned, you will hit these cars.”
SPMAGTF-12, about 130 Marines and sailors in total, is preparing to deploy in support of U.S. Africa Command. Rogers and his classmates came together at U.S. Training Center in Moyock, N.C. Sept. 11-14 to take the advanced tactical driving course. They were the latest of some 70 unit Marines to go through the training.
Throughout their travels across the African continent, the small Marine teams will mostly have to rely on civilian vehicles for transportation within individual nations.
After a couple more hits the VMI Mom sedan’s radiator lets out a long hiss as what was once a typical American SUV rams it out of the way using an outsized steel bumper welded to the area that would normally hold headlights.
This same “Mad Max Mobile,” as the instructors call it, pushes out a fresh new sedan that once belonged to someone whose grade schooler was an honor student and the Marines line up to start again.
“It’s about learning to use the car as a weapon,” explained USTC tactical driving instructor, John. “The object is to preserve the equipment.”
The equipment, or cars as most would call them, are used again and again, he explained, because if the students ram through obstacles correctly, their vehicles should still be able to drive off to safety.
“This is what cars are made out of these days," laughed John before tossing away a chunk of plastic-fiberglass composite that flew off of the obstacle car’s front side panel.
As half the students crash like clockwork, the other half are on a nearby track practicing the “driver down” scenario. An instructor starts out at the wheel before going limp in his seat. It’s the students’ job to regain control of the vehicle, an armored SUV. Most do, but one tried to over steer and the vehicle ended up resting on its roof.
“Good Morning Marines, I’m Cpl. Deandre Nunn, and your next period of instruction will be on flipping Suburbans,” said a SPMAGTF-12 field radio operator from Redwood City, Calif., who was in the backseat of the vehicle when it rolled over. Earlier, he had attached his personal digital video camera to the hood.
The class watches the choppy video footage before an instructor reminds them that students have “turtled” vehicles before and most certainly will again. “It’s better that this kind of thing happens here instead of out there,” he said.
The staff must balance danger with realism in order to make sure students make it through the course prepared, but unharmed.
“You can’t think you’re a good boxer if you’ve never taken a hit, right?” asked Freddy, another TDI.
The next event pits the students, travelling in four car convoys, against the instructors. The Marines drive what can best be described as bumper cars fit for grown-ups: typical four door sedans outfitted with gigantic metal fender guards.
Tires squeel and smoke bellows as the instructors ram the convoy vehicles and harass them with paint ball fire and pyrotechnics. Earlier, the Marines had learned all the right ways to escape as Freddy drew out the vehicle maneuvers on a white board, but things aren’t so simple on the black top.
“When you’re actually doing it your adrenaline is rushing and you have to think a lot faster,” said Cpl. Glendo G. Kerol II, a Marina, Calif., native and SPMAGTF-12 field radio operator.
The final part of the training takes the class off-road. The course starts out with well defined obstacles, log heaps and steep ridges. Other parts appear to be little more than untamed wilderness.
“You want me to go down there?” Lt. Noel Williams, a SPMAGTF-12 security cooperation logistics team leader asked his instructor after being told to take a left turn off a steep hill and into the woods. The New York City native was used to street signs and pavement, not murky water rushing up around the brake pedal as he tried to cross chest-deep water in a four-wheel-drive SUV.
Much of what the class teaches flies in the face of accepted driving norms. Safety features, such as a fuel shut off switch that kills the engine after the car takes an impact, can do more harm than good in a combat situation. If a tire goes flat or the muffler falls off, don’t stop to assess the damage, they say, keep driving.
More than anything, however, the training strives to teach that preparation can make all the difference. A driver needs to know all the right moves before-hand in order to make the most of the precious split seconds that can make the difference between life and death during an incident on the road.
Freddy slams on the gas going down a straight away.
“Can you guess how many feet per second we’re moving right now?” he says as orange cones and trees blur past at what turns out to be 88 feet per second. It takes the average human about half a second to notice something and react to it, he explains. “That’s 44 feet where you’re not driving, you’re being carried.”
*Writers note: As per U.S. Training Center policy, instructors’ full identities cannot be revealed.
| Date Taken: | 09.16.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 09.16.2011 13:11 |
| Story ID: | 77150 |
| Location: | MOYOCK, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 4,258 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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