CAMP GONSALVES, OKINAWA, Japan -- Marines with Special Operations Training Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group, III MEF, trained instructors from the Jungle Warfare Training Center here in advanced knot-tying techniques during a nine-day course June 21 through July 1.
The JWTC instructors learned to master 12 knot-tying techniques used to improve movement over obstacles in the jungle terrain.
Every six months, new JWTC instructors arrive here and learn knot-tying techniques and receive the Helicopter Rope Suspension Training class. It is the same training they teach their students, said Capt. Standford Shaw, the operations officer for JWTC and the deputy camp commander of Camp Gonsalves.
“A lot of terrain in this area of operations has cliff-faces,” said Shaw. “It’s important to be able to overcome this harsh terrain.”
After completing the course, the students are expected to be able to use their newly-acquired skills in actual exercises and operations. The training helps build a foundation for Marines to act confidently in situations where these skills may be necessary.
“In the event that a unit in the real world has to rappel, it’s better to get them familiar in a setting that they’re more comfortable in,” said Sgt. John W. Hooser III, an instructor with the expeditionary warfare branch of SOTG.
The students were taught how to make a one-roped bridge, which provides units a means to travel across a river or gorge without swimming or climbing up and down hills, said Hooser.
Practical uses of the rope, like the one-roped bridge, allow JWTC instructors more maneuverability during search and rescue operations within the training area, said Petty Officer 1st Class Windell Kellogg, an independent-duty corpsman with JWTC.
“Each search and rescue team needs to be able to get down to the patient and assess them,” said Kellogg. “If they’re in a place where they can’t feasibly descend, they need to be able to rappel or hasty rappel to that casualty. If they’re going to be JWTC instructors, they need to know everything from this course.”
The students also learned the Marine Corps’ principles of using a rope in a field environment. A rope should always be inspected to see if it is safe to use. If it has been used before but there is no record of its use, then that rope cannot be used, said Gunnery Sgt. Ashton Benn, the chief instructor for HRST, SOTG.
A Marine should always use two ropes, he added.
“Anyone can be trained to rappel, but the intricate ins-and-outs of tying knots and all the safety aspects of it are very important,” said Kellogg. “In a training environment, safety is a key objective.”