Su Sung Ri Range, Republic of Korea -- Marines with Headquarters Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, at Su Sung Ri Range, Republic of Korea, for Exercise Key Resolve, attended familiarization training for the MK-19 grenade launcher, 50-caliber machine gun, M249 squad automatic weapon and the M240B medium machine gun, March 3.
The purpose of the training was for Marines to be able to respond in a combat situation and be comfortable with whatever weapon assigned to them.
“The key to the training today is that a headquarters battalion has a lot of heavy machine guns the Marines in the battalion aren’t necessarily trained on,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 David Bednarcik, 3rd Marine Division.
Some of the Marines participating in the training recognized it as out of the ordinary for their unit.
“It’s good to be out here,” said Lance Cpl. Luther Ransom, intelligence specialist. “A lot of us are doing stuff that Marines in a headquarters unit wouldn’t normally do.”
In combat the use of machine guns by a headquarters battalion is a rather common thing, said Bednarcik, the training planner and designer.
“Headquarters Marines provide security for assigned areas and also go on convoys,” he commented. “Both of those employ machine guns.”
Most of the Marines attending the training saw the value in it for themselves and others.
“I wanted to walk away from this training and be able to say as a Marine I can fire any weapon in any situation that I am thrust into,” said Lance Cpl. Agnes Sagina, chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear defense specialist. “I also wanted to feel confident that I could protect myself and others.”
The Marines were instructed in a classroom setting at the beginning of the training and coached while firing.
“I’ve gotten a lot of good training from the instructors here,” Sagina commented. “They were helpful and precise with everything. They also made sure we could perform immediate and remedial action correctly by ourselves.”
The day was a success in the eyes of the instructors for the goals they set.
“I wanted the Marines to get some good familiarization with the weapons they fired,” Bednarcik said. “I think we’ve achieved that; learning has occurred today, and the Marines’ performance was outstanding.”
Most students were also satisfied at the end of the training evolution.
“I now have the knowledge that I could use any of these weapons in a combat situation,” Ransom said.
Some Marines that attended the training got a whole new perspective on what it means to be combat ready.
“Being in Korea has made me realize that field and garrison lives are totally different,” Sagina said. “I need to train more and not take knowledge that I have for granted. Some of this has been a blast from the past, because I learned it at Marine Combat Training, but I didn’t remember it because I don’t use it in garrison. Now I’m going to work on keeping my mind ready for any kind of situation.”
The Marines conducted this training in preparation for Exercise Key Resolve 2010 which began Monday, along with other Marines from the III Marine Expeditionary Force slated to participate.