Rifle Accountability

A few weeks ago, the TBS A Class of 1967 had a reunion and I was lucky enough to eat lunch with a Former Marine from that class. As an artillery officer during the Vietnam War, he had a lot of interesting stories to share and he also regaled some times he had at TBS. I excused myself at the end of lunch and he stopped me and said that he had one piece of advice for me as a 2ndLt. I thought he was going to pass on some wisdom and advice on how to lead Marines, especially in the face of combat. He looked at me and said, "When you're out in the treeline here in Quantico and you set your rifle down against a tree for a second, always, always make sure to pick it back up."

Fast forward to my FEX I story, which isn't about me but I think its pertinent to all future lost Lts and drives the "pick up your rifle" lesson home.

At 1900 on the evening of the second day of FEX, a platoon heads out in the treeline to discuss combat related things. They have with them only their uniform and their rifle. A Lt in that Plt realizes that he needs to relieve himself in a way that requires a hole to be dug, so he headed back to his pack to get his E-Tool (shovel) and then farther out into the treeline to dig his hole. At the end of his business, he went back to his Plt only to get there and realize that he had set his rifle down next to a tree and forgotten to pick it back up. He raced back to the tree but saw quickly that it wasn't the tree and then spent the next 30 minutes running back and forth through the woods looking for his rifle. He had thought he stayed relatively close to his starting point, however when he tried to bite the bullet and go back to admit he lost his rifle and have everyone look for it, he realized that he no longer knew where his platoon was, nor where he was. He had been swallowed whole by the Quantico Jungle and was now alone, potentially afraid and facing a setting sun.
Knowing he now only had 30 minutes until sunset, said Marine executed "THE LOST MARINE PLAN". It was orient yourself to the N, run until you hit road and then turn right. At this point, he's running his butt off in 90 degree heat because by then he figured that his platoon realized that they hadn't seen him in the past ninety minutes and the whole company would be out searching for their lost Marine. Not the case, but I can only imagine how one must feel being 'that guy.' He found himself on the hardball road, turned right and ran until he finally reached Weapons BN. He sought out the duty NCO and bursting into the office, he panted "You have...to call...Charlie...Company...and [pant pant] let them know...where I am..."

The Cpl looked at him and said, " Calm down Sir, this kind of thing happens to Lts all the time." He then called the C Co XO and said, "Sir, I have one of your Lts here all ready for war with his E-tool."

The Lt was then able to head down the roads back to the LZ where the company was at and his platoon was able to track down the rifle a little while later. So no harm, no foul.

But, it was apparently true in 1967 as it is true today: If you set down your rifle, make sure to pick it back up.

FEX I

FEX I (Field Exercise 1) is a two day field exercise that puts individuals in charge of squads, 12-16 Marines, and tests their ability to brief a 5-paragraph order and then execute an attack. The third day is called R-5 (Range 5) and there are two squad sized attacks down a live fire range. I.E. We get real bullets and run down range and get to shoot at dummy targets that pop-up and down.

Under the old POI (Period of Instruction), you would do FEX I on Monday/Tuesday, and the company would take turns going back to the barracks or going to R-5. So, one half would be in the barracks on Wednesday while the other would be at R-5 and then they would switch on Thursday. However, under the new, "field-centric" POI, we stayed out in the field the whole time and did Land Nav 2 when we used to go back to the barracks. Here's how my week pretty much went:

The weekend prior was Memorial Day weekend so I had a lot of time to prep my order. I was really hoping that I would have a chance to go during the FEX. There would be only 32 billet holders for the FEX out of my Plt of 49. Day 1 we got fully loaded up and walked across the street to the open field across from the barracks. It was a little disappointing to start the field exercise less than 200m away from where I comfortably sleep each night but at least I didn't tire myself out walking there.

Let me interject with a quick story about the guy who was the first billet holder for my squad. Over the weekend, his contact got stuck in his eye and somehow he ended up seriously scratching his cornea trying to get it out and ended up in the ER. He ended up writing, briefing and executing his order high on painmeds and half blind. He ended up getting an "average" so you can get a good idea of the level of expectation on these orders. He also ended up getting medivac'd out at the end of the day because his eye started oozing again and spent the week sleeping in his room while we were out struggling with the heat and sleeping in the dirt. He has a scar on his eye. They have him scheduled for PRK to remove the scar at the end of TBS and oh, by the way, since we're already there, we might as well correct the vision in your eyes. Let me see, poke your eye out and get to spend a week in relative relaxation on drugs in bed, AND get to jump into the front of the PRK wait list to remove a tiny scar? Sounds like a deal to me. I'm seriously debating whether or not to wear eye protection, ever.

The first two days were seriously hot and humid, like 95+ degrees. We took long breaks in between our attacks and the guys who were starting to struggle took turns being the "enemy" by going to the next position with the instructor. As the enemy, you got an extra break and didn't have to 'rush' or run through the fighting position. After the first billet holder went, our instructor let us know who was next and they got to move ahead to prepare their terrain model, prep their order and then wait for everyone to catch up.

I was the billet holder on the second day and, I'm not going to lie, I hit it out of the park. I was happy because I had spent a lot of time prepping it and then did really well briefing it. However, I accidentally set off on the attack in a slightly wrong direction but was able to turn it into a quasi success since the 'enemy' wasn't expecting me to attack from that direction. It was really fun being a billet holder and getting to make decisions as apposed to just wandering around in the woods as "joe-rifleman".

There was a platoon that had someone lose their Night Vision Googles somewhere in the woods. Unfortunately, nobody had been doing periodic checks on their gear so they didn't have a clue where it was lost. They ended up spending every spare second looking in the woods for it and eventually had to come back in on Saturday to try to find it. They ended up finding it on Saturday. It was a bad week for that platoon because they also lost a spare SAW barrel, a bolt for a rifle, a Marine and that Marine's rifle (funny story).

At the end of day 1, we walked about 2 miles to LZ Raven, where we would do Day 2 FEX1 and also Land Nav 2. While it was only 2 miles, the heat of the day caught up to all of us and it felt like a death march. We all passed out under the trees, soaking wet with sweat and only a poncho liner for warmth.

Land Nav 2 and R-5 deserve their own posts. I'll sum up FEX 1 by saying that if you are heading out to the event, do yourself a favor and read your order out loud to someone else. It helps tremendously, even if they know nothing about what should be there.

Combat Hunted

Alright! Its been a while since my last post and a lot has happened. The biggest reason I haven't updated the blog is because I was in the field for a week and unfortunately they wouldn't let me take out my laptop, nor would wi-fi be available if I did. Clearly, the Marine Corps is not up to date in the high speed world of social media and blogging. I plan on bringing this up in my end of course critique. Or would if it wasn't a multiple choice scantron critique.

Anyway, lets back track a few weeks to my Night Combat Hunter. This event was back near the barracks after the Squad Weapons field exercise event and began at 2030 (8:30pm). We headed out to a big field with our NVGs. There were three platoons out there and we split up into 3 different sections. We first spoke with a Sgt who was a scout sniper and he discussed the importance of "owning the night" as Marines. The enemy likes to operate at night and we, with our superior technology, should be able to seek them out, hunt them down and take them out. However, we must have the ability to actually USE that superior technology effectively. So, we, as leaders of Marines, must take on the task of forcing Marines to use the NVGs until they get comfortable with them. And as teachers of future leaders of Marines, they must do the same for us...[queue: absolute darkness]

The next event, we put on our NVGs, which attach to the kevlar, or helmet and then can be adjusted to fit in front of one of your eyes. Again, I decide that I don't need eye protection because I have this nifty gadget that will help me see all the razor-blade leaves that poke me. I'm not sure when I'll learn. I'm adjusting my NVG when I notice that the time-out feature that automatically turns off the NVG to save batteries keeps getting faster and faster. Finally its to the point where if I take a step, my NVG turns off. That's when I turn to the person next to me and ask if they're having problems with their time-out feature. They responded that there, in fact, was not a time out feature. "No, no," I say. "The screen-saver thing that saves the batteries on your NVG after its been idle for a while." From the blank look on their face it dawned on me that not only have I been working with computers for too long, but also that my NVGs were probably broken. How would NVGs know they've been idle?

Anyway, so I played around with the battery and finally took it to my SPC (Bossman) who gave me his NVGs for the next exercise. It involved splitting into fireteams (5 people for my group) and using the NVGs, walk through a path in the woods looking for items that could potentially kill us. We were supposed to be "hunting" these items out being as stealthy as possible in the Quantico highlands before they hunted us. My fireteam was the last group to go and we worked out a plan that involved moving in a Fireteam column and using the IR flood light to signal when we hunted out an object.

Let me be honest, as quickly as I was stabbed in the eye with one of those pointy leaves, that fireteam plan went to crap. That is to say, it lasted all of 20 seconds. In my right eye, without the NVG, I saw only black. And in my left eye, with the NVG I saw only green with a few shadows. Kind of like this:

The whole team moved with all the grace of a two year old in ceramic plate shop. How was I supposed to see anything when not only did I barely have night vision capabilities with my right eye, but I was being blinded by green with my left? We spent literally an hour crawling, tripping, clawing our way through the jungle and through a creek bed trying to just survive. All I could think was that the experience turned me into the hunted, not the hunting. I had no idea what was in the woods set up that could kill me. BUT, I did trip over an RPK about 20 m away from the exit. I can't decide if that was dumb luck or not, but I'm taking it as one point for me.

The last event was talking with a Capt about how to signal at night which was fairly neat.

Up in the discussion queue: FEX1, Land NAV2, R5 (Range 5, Live Fire Assualts), and the Gas Chamber.