I was in the Marine Corps serving under Third battalion Eleventh marines Mike Battery in Twenty-Nine Palms California from 2009-2013. What our unit did was put rounds down range, oorah. We were an artillery battery, think modern day cannons. As far as twenty-nine palms all you have to imagine is sand in a five hundred square foot mile area. My job as Ammo chief was to insure the safe handling and transportation of hundred pound high explosive bombs. On one partially long training exercise I was instructed to take my marines and four ‘7-ton’ trucks and go to the rear to load up with more ammo. No problem, I’ve done this before but on this occasion when I was going to return the battery would have moved positions. So they gave me the grid number …show more content…
It is important to say that the HUMVEE had its own agenda and was not part of the resupply of ammo and it is also more important to the story to say that it had the map and radio. Getting to the FASP was easy, I’ve been there hundreds of times and after a certain amount of driving the closer you get to “home” the more terrain you recognize. Once at the FASP I do what I get paid to do, load up and strap down High Explosives. This is where the plot thickens. The Driver of the HUMVEE having his own agenda took one of my marines because he needed him and goes away to do whatever mission he had to do. So including myself I’m down to seven marines. After we finished loading up we stage the trucks getting ready to head out. So after a quick SITREP (review our gear and situation.) We realize that we are an A-driver down, we have no radio or map, its hours away from being dark, and the best part is we don’t even have close to enough gas to get there. These are 7-ton trucks strapped with about 16,000 …show more content…
is “mission accomplishment.” Above anything else accomplish the mission. Seeing how I’m in charge it lies with me to get the Ammo to the Battery tonight. Knowing I can’t sit around and twiddle my thumbs it’s time to move but first thing is first, I bow my head on the spot and say a very popular prayer I say, “Lord see me through this, amen.” Huddled up with my marines they ask me “what is the plan Mangan?” I say to them “well first thing is first, we a’int going anywhere without fuel.” On que like a scene out of a movie a gas tanker comes rolling into the FASP and with the voice of an angel he says, “Does anyone need Gas?” The irony of it is that Gas Tanker comes once a month to fill up a couple of generators. I tell him our conundrum that we’re in and he hooks it up with enough gas to at least have a dreamer’s chance of wondering through the desert at night in hopes of finding our battery. Fortune has it that my sergeant was big on making me learn the map of 29 Palms so I at least knew what direction to aim for. I confidently tell my Marines that I know the general direction and we’re going to go find the highest ground and survey the area with hopes of seeing our battery (and also hope we don’t accidently drive through a live fire Range and blow up and die, that was somewhat on our
SNC delivered a confident and complete order successfully addressing all paragraphs of the five paragraph order. SNC assigned primary and secondary tasks to subordinates and reiterated the Enemy Situation. SNC properly controlled the fire team’s formation utilizing proper dispersion and smoothly transitioned from column to wedge. Upon enemy contact SNC relayed a clear and effective ADDRAC and directed SNC’s fire team to provide suppressive fire. SNC maintained mission focus when SNC’s fire team took a casualty. SNC directed his fire team in a tactically appropriate manner as they evacuated the casualty. Upon return to MA-2A SNC submitted the map to higher without being prompted by the evaluator. SNC displayed suburb leadership potential
During participation in Operation Taylor Common near Quang Nam Province, Company I came under heavy fire by North Vietnamese Army forces. With disregard for his own safety, LCpl Prom repeatedly advanced his position to provide covering fire for his fellow wounded Marines. When no longer able to fire his weapon, LCpl Prom directed fire to the enemy position until he was mortally wounded.
Sergeant First Class Jackson was a very humble warrior. In his cubical, you would find American Flags, Daily Bread pamphlets from the chaplain, maintenance magazines and a candy dish which we all loved. He never boasted about his accomplishments, but you knew there was something special about this gentle giant. As he and I talked prior to him undergoing surgery, he told me that he was assigned to the 507th Maintenance Company during his assignment to Fort Bliss, Texas. This company stood out in my mind because it was the infamous Maintenance Company which Private Jessica Lynch was assigned to when she became a prisoner of war. Staff Sergeant Jackson was the responsible for the maintenance of the fleet of vehicles that were partaking in the in the convoy. The convoy departed Kuwait, led by the Company Commander, Captain Troy K. King, en route to Iraq on the first day of the war in 2003. When many of the vehicles had become bogged down by the sand (Michael Luo 2003), Staff Sergeant Jackson moved forward to execute his functions and keep the convoy moving. The convoy became disoriented and was immediately surrounded by the enemy in Nasiriyah, Iraq. Staff Sergeant Jackson immediately began to return fire to help defend the convoy and protect his fellow Soldiers (Jackson 2014). He continued to fire until he was wounded and unable to fire his weapon. During the fog of war, Staff Sergeant Jackson transitioned from firing his weapon to
Sergeant Major Valliant was happy to finally receive a tasking; he got Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 501st PIR to give up a platoon to escort himself and General Cook out to the transportation museum. They loaded up several of the armored Humvees that had M-249 MG mounted in their turret. The others were loaded in old M-35 2.5 tom trucks, each one of them had M-2 .50 Caliber MG mounted in their turrets.
Go back in time, prior to hitting those yellow footprints, whether it be in San Diego or Perris Island. You are sitting on your couch and the United States Marine Corps TV commercial, America`s Few comes on. In this commercial, as Marines run towards ‘the calling’ you hear in the background rifle cracking as the silent drill team handles rifles with bayonets with extreme precision. The cracking rifle sound serves as a “call,” ‘spiritually speaking. We might think of it, and the honorable President Obama has made this very timely, as the “call to service” or the “call less heeded” instead of “the road less traveled’. ‘You can’t just answer the call, you must also prove worthy of the title before you take your place in the line of America’s Marines–the purpose for which our protagonists began the journey and, importantly, issue the call to others down the generations.’’ Throughout a Marines career, drill and ceremonies are a constant because ‘‘the object of close order drill is to teach Marines by exercise to obey orders and to do so immediately in the correct way. Close order drill is one foundation of discipline and esprit de
We as Marines need to know when it is appropriate to ask questions. A sign of leadership is the ability to fill in the gray areas with intuition and without someone holding our hands at every turn. Another take away from this lesson is recognizing when we have Marines who we can delegate a mission or task to and they will be able to finish it quickly and correctly. As stated in the story these people are hard to come by and they are irreplaceable recourses. Leaders need to seek out these people and keep them close at hand. Most would say it isn’t what you are given but how you use what has been given to you. This would be a prime example that that isn’t always the case. Remember there are always exceptions to nearly every rule. We must never let our judgment get clouded we need to keep our ears and eyes open to developments taking places especially in our subordinates and leaders above us. Situational awareness caries onto our professional relationships as
The Marines heading east once out of Norfolk would hit country roads and townships. There had been several militias out this way earlier, but they were cleared out by Lt Colonel Luxon’s Marines and the Naval Special Weapon’s sailors, which the current Marine force found hard to believe. The LAVs and AAVs as well as the Humvees and trucks were split equally between the two forces. Fuel, rations and water were also split. They brought with them fuel pumping devices that would allow them to pull fuel from the underground storage at gas stations. It had been developed by the 19th Special Forces early on and
Vehicles were down, we need help, send QRF. This came from the 2nd Bradley Section on a different exfill route and they were caught in a large ambush in Sadr City. Battalion came over the Radio and said it would be 20 mic’s before they were there. I looked at my wingman and he looked back and said lets go get our brothers. Our drivers and gunners had already fully loaded the turrets and guns back up, even the Tow was up. I radioed up to Battalion and said we would meet them there at the grid that was given because it was 7 minutes
The Marines heading east once out of Norfolk would hit country roads and townships, there had been several militias out this way earlier, but they were cleared out by Lt Colonel Luxon’s Marines and the Naval Special Weapon’s Sailors, which the current Marine force found hard to believe, well about the Sailors, not their fellow Marines. The LAV’s and AAV’s as well as the Humvee’s and trucks were split equally between the two forces. Fuel, rations and water was also spilt, they brought with them fuel pumping devices that would allow them to pull fuel from the underground storage at gas stations. It had been developed
I joined the Marine Corps looking for a challenge. I wanted to open doors for a new career and longed to have a positive impact on the world around me. Looking back five years later, I realize I found all that I originally sought, but I’ve also found something profoundly satisfying and meaningful that I never knew I was missing.
It was a rainy morning in mid-October. My mortar platoon was able to do a week’s worth of dismounted patrols tasked with clearing compounds of interest of IED factories, weapons caches, and drug stockpiles (mainly marijuana). The patrol from the previous day ended with an hour’s worth of small arms and several IEDs. I knew that today would most likely be the same. At around 0600 we mounted in our MRAPs and Strykers and also picked up the Sappers and EOD. Before leaving FOB Zangabad we linked up with the ANA that we were doing a joint patrol with and then left our start point. We drove north on RTE Quebec and made a right onto RTE Hyena near checkpoint 17, which was an ANA checkpoint. My convoy continued down the road for another 500 meters
Once upon a time, there was a group of Marine reserves, 4th Division. Being given the some of the toughest training available by what they thought of as their "evil" superiors. Day after day they had to scrub the barracks, keep the grounds clean, stand on sentry duty all night long, plus having all their physical training for hours. Word was received that the 2nd, 5th, and 6th Marine division were to spearhead an attack on a castle which was being used as an enemy stronghold. The "Big Brass" knew through intelligence that there were between 5-7,000 troops in that castle, but the 2nd, 5th, and 6th had fought through much worse before. So no reserves were to be needed. When this news was heard the Marine reserves were sorely disappointed, for they were anxious to get in on the action. D-day was set for September 2; H-hour was 2400. Then the news came that the 2nd Marine division could not take part, and it was D-4. The Marine reserves were to be deployed immediately. At 2200 hours, D-day, they were completely prepared to attack. Assembled a quarter mile from the castle walls, the Marines had set up artillery pieces. Giant 155mm M114s, and 105mm M101s were ready to start pounding the walls. Meanwhile, inside the castle, all of the enemies top military Generals were gathered along with the King and the Prince to devise a defence plan. There was nothing the Marines wanted to do more than meet the Prince, who was an
“It’s worse than that I fret.” General Holcomb told him. “They were able to drop an entire division onto Fort Gordon as you know. The 3rd Infantry Division has been resupplied by airdrop. I received messages this morning that Fort Bragg has linked up with Camp Lejeune, the reports are hard to believe. One Army Military Police Company came roaring to the rescue in a huge black armored train, of a Marine Company that was attempting to link up with them. But, they ran into a well-armed Militia, together two companies wiped out an estimated five hundred Militia members.”
During the next day or so, we passed through additional small communities. In one of these towns, whose crooked side streets and back alleys we roamed, we landed in a narrow driveway behind several hotels and businesses. We searched their garbage cans for food and for anything else that could be useful for our journey. Across the street and perpendicular to the driveway was a jeep with four or five soldiers inside. When the vehicle began to move, one of the GIs stood up and
Then over the COMMS (a radio known as a PRC148) I hear, ‘Hey! We have guys in a burning in the trucks [MAT-V] at the god damn tents [Using my nickname DC or DOC COUNTRY], my TL, (who we will call STRETCH in this story), said, ‘Hey DC, we got to roll! So we get Oscar mike, and it’s just us two, a couple hundred rounds of ammo, medical bags, and two Toyota pickup trucks. It wasn’t very far away, maybe a 3-minute drive.