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> Features > Exclusive: Embedded with The Marines > Part II: Marines prepare for war
Part II: Marines prepare for war
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Marines ride in a 7-ton truck with their weapons ready. Reminder Publications photo by Natasha Clark
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Editor's Note: This is the second installment of Reminder Publications' series covering local Marines' training at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Reminder Publications staff members Natasha Clark and Sarah M. Corigliano embedded with the 1/25 Marines March 9 and 10 as they reached the culmination of their Mojave Viper training, preparing them for deployment to the war in Iraq this April.
By Sarah M. Corigliano
Assistant Managing Editor
TWENTYNINE PALMS, CA It's about 1730 on our first day in the field with Charlie Company and as they finish their chow, which features some kind of meat and pink noodles, the sun begins to set. We retire to the medical tent, which is where press members who are embedded with Charlie Company sleep.
Inside the tent, which has front and back openings, and the desert as a floor, we are issued the same cots the Marines use to elevate their sleeping bags off the ground.
Our tent is situated at the entrance to the FOB (Forward Operating Base) and is pretty close to a couple of the latrines, one of which has been designated "Ladies," even though there are only three of us out of more than 250 men.
Other journalists in our tent represent The Hartford Courant and The New London Day. We also share quarters with "Doc," Navy Hospital Medic Second Class Paul Errico of Groveland, Mass. His is the only tent with power and lights, which are connected to a generator. It's a popular place for people to stop in.
I go over my notes from our first day as the reporter from the New London Day, Kyn Tolson, and Staff Sergeant Fredy Tellocastillo marvel at how Doc can listen to his "iPod," read a book, and shave his head at the same time. He has a very Zen approach to the way he does it, and to the way he cleans his gun, like it's a long-established routine.
Hospital Medic Josh Balter, a corpsman with Charlie Company, stops in the tent and introduces us to the M-4 gun, the successor to the M-16, which is issued to every Marine. He makes sure it is empty of any ammunition and allows us to hold it and look through the scope. It's got to weigh about 10 pounds.
Marines, he says, are trained to look through the scope with one eye and still use the other eye for surveillance.
Our next visitor is First Sergeant Ben Grainger, who we recently learned has been assigned Company First Sergeant. He sits at the end of Tolson's cot and talks about the training, some of his travels, and about Charlie Company's mission for the next day.
Once he wishes us good night and warns he'll be back before dawn to be sure everyone is awake, we all eventually turn in to our bags for the night. On a personal note, I am thankful that the weather has been too cold for any bugs and put to rest any fears of waking up with a tarantula on my face or a rattlesnake in my boot.
Halfway through the night the winds start up, and they sound like they're going to carry us all away. When I wake up in the morning, I'm surprised to see that the tent is still in place.
March 10
By 0530 we are up and getting ready to start our second and last day with the Marines of Charlie Company. The training begins officially at 0700, but there is much preparation for the Marines before they leave the FOB.
At about 0600 we leave the medical tent and look for local Marines near their quarters about 100 feet away. They are gathering ammunition, planning for the day, and grabbing whatever breakfast they can. One Marine eats a "Pop-Tart" while he listens to his platoon sergeant.
One of the other journalists says he met someone from Chicopee in 2nd Platoon, so we head over to see if he'll talk to us.
Corporal Sean Livingstone of Chicopee is with the 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon, preparing for the day out in the field. He tells us he has been a Marine for six years.
"I wanted more of a challenge in life," he explains of why he became a Marine. "I wanted more than 13th grade."
He explains that, while this is his first time being deployed to Iraq, he has also served in Okinawa, Japan and Bahrain.
Second Squad has learned that their mission for the morning is to take down a house suspected of bomb-making.
Grainger explains the goal is to capture the suspect(s) alive and find out who is helping him, or who he is helping. In addition to capturing the suspect(s) alive and gaining intelligence, they have to focus on securing the building and the area around it so they can do all this without getting hit by any insurgents in the area.
"We'll go in kind of soft," Grainger says. "We can escalate [the situation] a lot better than we can de-escalate it."
He meets up with different platoons, offering Marines a cup of coffee, encouraging them in ways only a Marine first sergeant can. He sees me shiver and says, "Cold is a state of mind." I smile and try to believe him. He's a perpetually positive guy. One line I hear him say at least twice: "There is nothing but happiness in my house."
We observe the Marines as they plan their approach. Sgt. Jason Hermenau tells Natasha and me that we can ride along in the truck, and to stay "on his hip" during the exercise.
Thankfully, Marines in the 7-ton truck we are boarding give us a hand up -- the truck's bed is about six or seven feet from the ground and the ladder hanging off of it is a joke. Someone yells to "let the reporters get in the back of the truck," before the Marines load in for the ride to the village.
Marines load in to the truck and take their positions, rifles pointing out the sides and at the ready for any hostility that may await them on the way to or while in the village.
Reporters and photographers have already been instructed that they must wear flack vests at all times, and that helmets must be worn in the vehicles and when following Marines on a mission in the village -- once the truck begins to roll, and bounce, I understand why.
Nadil Easa, who we met yesterday, sits across from me in the truck. He will serve as a translator on this mission.
Entering and searching the house
Following Hermenau and his men as they leap off the truck and move into the section of the village where they suspect a bomb-maker lives, we observe as they put into action the cordon and search skills they have been practicing. Once they gain access to the interior of the house of interest, Hermenau tells the two teams of reporters-photographers: "One of each of you follow me."
Despite his orders, the other team goes in together. Natasha follows alone as she is the photographer. I remain outside and, except for the presence of the orange-vested trainers, called Coyotes, I feel really exposed. The village is quiet except for the activity inside the house.
Marines are posted at the corners of the building, providing cover for the Marines inside. I can hear them and Nadil Easa, the interpreter, working with the Iraqi family inside, then I hear louder voices: "Marines coming up."
I assume they make these announcements so Marines in other parts of the house know where their comrades are going and to avoid friendly fire. I see a Marine inspect the balcony above, then look over the edge to check if there is anyone on the ground.
After returning to the inside of the house, someone yells "Shut the door!" in an attempt to keep the premises secure during their interview with the family.
As I wait outside and listen to what's going on inside the house, one of the Coyotes communicates with others via radio. He orders a sniper to add to the mix.
From somewhere in the village a blank round is shot and one of the Marines providing cover about five feet from me receives a red card from a Coyote, stating his injuries. The Marines must respond to this by keeping the area secure, quickly providing transport for the victim and returning to their vehicles before they take more fire.
The first thing they do is grab the "wounded" Marine and bring him into the house. Then a humvee is backed up to the door of the house and the "wounded" Marine is put in the back. Another Marine gets in to ride along with him.
Hermenau and his men return quickly to the truck and we begin the ride back to the FOB. As we reach the outskirts of the village, the second truck (behind ours) is hit by a fake IED (Improvised Explosive Device) and the Marines in our truck stop and back up to them. A few Marines get out and provide cover for the area as others run back to the second truck to assess the damage. I recall that, earlier, a Marine said there must always be room in the trucks to take on more men in this type of situation. They can't leave Marines stranded if they lose their vehicle to an IED or other attack.
A break "Inside the Wire"
Back at the FOB senior staff members discuss the exercise and platoon sergeants debrief the Marines. Then it's time to grab some chow in the form of MREs, or meals ready to eat, and relax for a little while before moving on to the next exercise.
We meet Staff Sergeant Davis, one of the platoon sergeants, who has to move to Connecticut soon and has a limited amount of time to find a house for his family.
He's not very excited about moving -- he's from Texas and is accustomed to riding his motorcycle throughout the year. The farthest north he's ever been? South Carolina, he says.
He recently returned from Iraq and is not expected to return yet but he volunteered to go with the 1/25. During his last deployment, he explains, he lost five of his good friends. They all lived on the same street and he says his wife doesn't understand why he wants to return.
I comment that it must have been a complicated decision to decide to leave his family again and go back to Iraq.
"No, it wasn't," he says.
He returns to the tent and we grab a snack and sit on a bench some Marines have constructed of wooden pallets, trying to soak up some warm rays from the sun in between strong gusts of wind. We meet up with Private First Class Ryan Czepiel, who we met briefly this morning.
He grew up in Holyoke and South Hadley, graduating from South Hadley High School. He joined the Marines in July.
"I didn't know everything would happen so quickly," he reflects. Since joining in July, he has been in constant training with only a few days off. He's not sure if his family will be able to get a flight to come visit him before he leaves, either. Their break will only last 2-3 days, and the Marines are discouraged from returning home at that time. They will be deployed shortly thereafter.
Natasha and I talk with Czepiel for about 25 minutes. We shiver in the wind while he stands with his back to it. His mother just bought a house in Holyoke and he won't see it until he gets back in September. At that time, he says, he told his mother he's going to buy a "Tempurpedic" mattress, no matter the cost.
He explains that, prior to Mojave Viper, he slept in his sleeping bag on the ground. The Marines now have cots, but he looks forward to sleeping in a comfortable bed again.
We ask what he's thinking about as he prepares to leave for Iraq -- what he wants people back home to know.
"I think people don't realize how lonely you get out here," he says. He hasn't seen friends, family, or his girlfriend, in months.
He invites us to come into his sqaud's tent to get out of the wind, but we retreat to the medical tent to make sure our things are together for our departure later today. Another reporter returns and says he was just talking to some Marines in third platoon and, when they heard there were reporters from Massachusetts, they said to send them over.
We meet Lance Corporal Justin Torrey, of Belchertown, and Gene Roux, of Springfield, in their quarters.
Cots are lined up tightly along the length of the tent on both sides. Marines relax on their cots or sit on the side and clean their weapons.
Torrey explains he has been a Marine for just over a year.
"I always wanted to be in the military," he explains. "It's a good opportunity."
This will be his first time deploying with The Marines. He's been in training since January, and says it takes a long time to learn all the skills at Mojave Viper. The Marines will begin a three-day intensive end to their training after our departure tomorrow. Media were not invited to stay on for that.
Before we can finish the interview, someone calls "company formation" and all the Marines rush to assemble in a central area of the FOB.
They line up and begin a march out of the FOB, practicing their Arabic with prompts from their platoon sergeants as they go.
Natasha and I trail a little behind with Nadil Easa, who offers us some crackers as we walk. We decline, as we are focused on keeping up with the Marines.
VCPs and car searches
Back in a different part of the village, Charlie Company Marines attend classes in vehicle check point (VCP) protocol and car searches. They also will learn how to deal with and search the people inside the cars.
There's a little time before the class begins, and Gunnery Sergeant Pete Walz checks in with us. He finds Lance Corporal Justin Torrey, who I lost in the company formation, and I resume our interview, only to be interrupted again. We follow his squad to their class, planning to finish the interview once it's over, but one of his superiors shouts, "Hey, Torrey, will you get over here and talk to this freakin' reporter!"
I learn that Torrey's brother, James Torrey, is already in Iraq with the Marines. He says they will probably see each other while there, but that James will return home before him.
With both of them being deployed, he says, "It's real hard on my sister."
He says he misses his family a lot, and his nieces are having a hard time with both of them away.
"They miss their uncles," he says. "So, that's hard."
He also leaves his job as a martial arts teacher at Jeremy's School of Defense in Wilbraham, which he says he'll miss.
He adds that he wants people to know that Marines are going to Iraq "to help, not hurt."
"We have good training, and we're going to come home safe," he says.
As they sit or stand for the hour-long class, the wind is relentless. It's beginning to feel personal. Nonetheless, Marines take notes, respond to questions, grab a snack, smoke or spit the same as they did in the pleasant weather yesterday.
The class in VCPs lasts about an hour. The coyote covers the pertinent details of where and how to set up the VCP, how to give proper warnings to drivers so they do not proceed to a restricted area, how to read drivers' behavior, and so on.
Once this class is through, they attend another on searching vehicles, then they move on to put their recently acquired knowledge to work.
On the way to practicing vehicle searches we get to talk with Springfield native, Lance Corporal Gene Roux, for a minute. He has time to share with us that he's been a Marine for 3.5 years, is a Cathedral High School graduate and a Criminal Justice student at Westfield State College. When he returns from Iraq, he'll have one semester left to finish his program. This will be his first deployment.
He talks about the knowledge he is gaining about the Iraqi culture and about his training.
"We're doin' just great," he says.
The cars on the range are beat up, but we hear someone say that this is what most cars in Iraq look like. Parts might be attached with a bent wire hanger, pieces may be missing or replaced with pieces of wood or other material.
Marines then must go through the entire vehicle, looking for materials that could be used to make a bomb or other weapons. It seems like a tedious exercise, but it's vital to their safety to thoroughly check the vehicle.
Marines learn they must approach the driver, ask him to step out of the vehicle, and maintain "positive control" of him physically while doing an initial search to be sure he does not have a weapon.
Next, they learn how to search people. They have a special lesson just on how to search Iraqi women without touching them, because to do that would be very insulting or threatening. The Marines are instructed that, unless the car's occupants pose a threat, there is no reason to treat them with hostility.
Nonetheless, they also must proceed with caution and their search lessons highlight many methods that will keep the Marines in control of the situation, friendly or otherwise.
Going home
All day the clouds have been moving in, but seem to stop at the edge of the desert and re-organize miles away. The wind never stops. Someone talks about snow, which has been forecast for the overnight or next day. It's probably just the desert and the cold, and the sore muscles after a long day of following these guys around, but things feel bleak to me.
Back at the FOB, Staff Sgt. Tellocastillo has already loaded our gear into the back of his SUV and is ready to bring Natasha and I back to the civilian world.
We drive out of the FOB and we see two Marines "bringing out the trash," so to speak, at the end of their long day. Sgt. Tello comments, as someone who has been there before, "Poor guys, they have to leave soon. Doesn't it make you want to cry for them?"
I think about how I would have liked to stay longer and get an even more in-depth glimpse of these Marines, especially the local guys.
And about the fact that Natasha and I are heading off base and will be on a plane heading home tomorrow, while the Marines begin the most intense three days of their training.
I hope Pfc. Czepiel's family gets the chance to come see him.
I hope Sgt. Kiendzior gets some decent snack food in the mail.
I hope Sgt. Davis can find a house for his family before he leaves.
I hope they all come back home safely.
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