Photo By Lance Cpl. Phillip Patten | Sgt. Dustin Knight praises Lance Cpl. Sean Swarthout and Lance Cpl. Christine Vavra on...... read more read more
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TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. - More than a dozen Marine officers and pilots took their seats and pulled out their notepads, all in need of information on targets and enemy operations. They fixed on a young junior Marine delivering her first “air-intelligence brief.”
Lance Cpl. Christine Vavra had rehearsed enough that she didn’t even appear nervous as she stood in front of the crowd with a large map behind her at the Assault Support case band at Camp Wilson, here.
“Important aspects of briefing are being confident in what you’re saying, making sure what you’re saying is accurate, and communicating the information effectively” said Vavra, Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 774.
Vavra presented information on enemy whereabouts for the mock mission, and Lance Cpl. Sean Swarthout, Marine Aircraft Group 41, described the enemy’s weapons systems during the brief.
Briefs preceded every mission the pilots flew during the Integrated Training Exercise. These concise meetings informed and instructed the pilots, making them very dependent on junior intelligence Marines.
“You’ve got to realize the officers and pilots aren’t there to judge you,” said Sgt. Dustin Knight, Marine Aircraft Group 49. “They are trying to get information from you and if you give them bad intel, you could cost lives.”
Knight, a native of Charlottesville, Va., supervised the Marines during the brief and said they performed quite well considering the ITX was their first real briefing experience.
“It’s important for them to take these exercises seriously so they get practice with ‘real-world’ scenarios,” Knight said.
The scenario Vavra presented resulted in a successful mission for the pilots. They used her brief to successfully take out a mock enemy target, and Vavra said she learned from the experience.
“I can improve on taking my time…and making sure that I get all the information across the first time,” Vavra said. “I could do a little bit better, but I think for the first time it didn’t go bad.”
| Date Taken: | 06.15.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 06.16.2014 16:24 |
| Story ID: | 133281 |
| Location: | TWENTYNINE PALMS, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 193 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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