PMO negotiates Schwab obstacle courses, learn weapons systems
CAMP SCHWAB, OKINAWA, Japan (Oct. 20, 2005) -- Marines from the Camp Butler Provost Marshal’s Office have been battered, bruised, waterlogged and caked in mud and sand every Tuesday for the past month.
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/AD959550155533B38525709F0081CB02?opendocument
Submitted by: MCB Camp Butler
Story Identification #: 20051019193741
Story by Lance Cpl. Cathryn Lindsay
CAMP SCHWAB, OKINAWA, Japan (Oct. 20, 2005) -- Marines from the Camp Butler Provost Marshal’s Office have been battered, bruised, waterlogged and caked in mud and sand every Tuesday for the past month.
About 70 Marines each week participated in day-long training exercises at the Engineer Course, Reconnaissance Course 1 and beaches at Camp Schwab.
“The purpose of this training is to motivate the Marines, change up their daily routines, and most importantly, get them experience handling the weapon systems that they may use in a combat environment,” said 2nd Lt. Ryan T. Bailey, the officer in charge of training for PMO.
The training began around 7 a.m. each morning with the Marines completing both obstacle courses that totaled three miles.
The courses included obstacles such as climbing and descending steep, muddy hills, low crawling through mud under barbed wire and crossing rope bridges.
“The Engineer course is an endurance course that contains several high obstacles, several hills and uneven terrain the Marines have to negotiate,” Bailey said. “The Recon Course is very similar to the Engineer Course minus the obstacles. It is more of an endurance run up hills and through the tree line.”
This is the first time the PMO Marines have done this training. However, PMO conducts monthly, military occupational specialty training, Bailey said. Every month, PMO conducts training applicable to current operations and their everyday duties.
“The Recon course gave the Marines the opportunity to exercise the fundamentals of Marine field training,” said Pfc. Peter J. Mayne, an operations military police officer with PMO. “All Marines should have this type of training.”
Following the courses, the Marines practiced knife-fighting techniques in one-on-one matches with plastic training knifes. They also grappled in one-on-one matches on the ground and in waist-deep ocean water.
At the Schwab landing zone, the Marines attended weapons classes on the M-240G medium machinegun, M-249 Squad Automatic Weapon, M-2 .50 caliber machine gun and the MK-19 40mm heavy machine gun.
Bailey said the weapon training familiarizes the Marines with the types of weapons they might find themselves using if they are deployed to real world places such as Iraq.
“It’s imperative the Marines get their hands on these weapons, and learn how to properly employ them,” Bailey said. “PMO would be doing these Marines a disservice by not giving them tools to learn these weapons, which could save their lives. The time to figure out how a weapon works is not when rounds are coming down range. It’s important for the PMO Marines as well as others to get this kind of training to help build esprit de corps and cultivate a warrior spirit.”