Photo By Cpl. Angel Serna | A Marine with Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, fires an FGM-148...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – Marines with Combined Anti-Armor Teams 1 and 2, Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, conducted TOW battle drills with heavy machine guns and anti-armor weapon systems aboard Camp Pendleton, Calif., Aug. 28-29, 2014. The Marines performed basic TOW drills using live fire and maneuver to ensure they were ready for future deployments.
“Today we’re doing the live fire portion of what we’ve been building up to in the last month,” said 2nd Lt. Nicholas Boire, platoon commander of CAAT 2. “We’re using heavy machine guns along with anti-tank guided missiles [to confirm] we’re ready at the basic level, so we can move on to harder levels.”
This training is important because it’s the basic immediate action they will apply in a combat environment, said Boire.
The Marines’ primary objective is being able to find and destroy enemy tanks whether they’re in a deployed or training environment.
“This really helps them because it’s live fire training,” said Boire. “The live fire proves to them their abilities because they do a lot of dry runs and backyard training. Actually being able to see the rounds impact, understand the effects they’re trying to use, and seeing how it all comes together with real weapons manipulation, demonstrates their proficiency.”
During the learning process, the Marines have a few challenges they need to understand and deal with when engaging a target with heavy machine guns and anti-tank weapon systems, explained Boire.
“The biggest obstacle is understanding where their targets are,” said Cpl. Michael Darakjian, a section leader with the same unit. “It forces the [Non-Commissioned Officers] to really be able to paint the target for their gunners, because if they shoot their missile at the wrong target it’s a big deal.”
Throughout the training, Marines were able to use teams in tandem and identify strategies when engaging targets to effectively accomplish each TOW battle drill.
“I hope everyone gains an appreciation for the capabilities of rockets and missiles,” said Boire. “I also hope that they gain an appreciation in the power of a team.”
The Marines gained the basic knowledge of TOW battle drills and they also gained experience seeing the requirements of their jobs in combat scenarios. They plan to continue training with heavy machine guns and anti-tank weapon systems so they can always be prepared to bring Combined Anti-Armor Team capabilities to the ground combat fight.
| Date Taken: | 09.04.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 09.04.2014 18:10 |
| Story ID: | 141165 |
| Location: | CAMP PENDLETON, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 568 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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