Photo By Cpl. Ryan Mains | Marines practice their fast-roping skills Dec. 3 at the Camp Hansen rappel tower. The...... read more read more
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CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, Japan – “Dominant hand,” shouts an instructor as he grabs Lance Cpl. Cody Johannsen’s blouse and leads him to the fast-rope, then “weak hand over dominant hand!”
Johannsen grasps the rope. Upon hearing the final command, “hook the foot, spin, and go,” Johannsen confidently steps off the ledge over 50 feet above the ground and begins to spiral down.
Marines and sailors with Battalion Landing Team 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, honed the technique at the Camp Hansen rappel tower on Dec. 3. Marines will use fast-roping to insert into an area if an aircraft cannot land or if they need to board a vessel at sea.
“We practice all the time because practice makes perfect,” said Johannsen, an assistant patrol leader with Company F, BLT 2/4, 31st MEU. “We do it all the time because it’s part of our mission preparation.”
Every Marine fast-roped multiple times, progressively moving toward more realistic scenarios.
“We started off slick, (that means) wearing no gear,” said Johannsen, a native of Faribault, Minnesota. “Then we put on gear and finally we fast-roped with weapons.”
After the Marines fast-roped individually with their gear and weapons, the Helicopter rope suspension technique masters started sending teams of three or four Marines down the rope, one immediately after the other.
“The point of stacking up is to get as many people down the rope as fast as possible,” said Sgt. Devin Thomas Deweerdt, a fire directions chief with Weapons Company, BLT 2/4, 31st MEU.
“When you are inserting Marines on top of a building or in the middle of the jungle, you don’t want an aircraft to sit there and wait for (a Marine) to hit the ground and then wait to send another man down.You want to get as many people on the rope as safe and as fast as possible.”
It is crucial for the Marines to know how to fast-rope proficiently so that the MEU commander can use this insertion option in the execution of an assigned mission.
“This exposes the newer Marines to a new type of training,” said Deweerdt, from Riverton, Utah. “If we are tasked with a (Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel) mission then these Marines need to know how to do this, and getting them to do something they’ve never done before makes them overall better infantryman.”
The Marines and sailors of BLT 2/4 are assigned to the 31st MEU as the ground combat element and are conducting pre-deployment preparations for the regularly-scheduled Spring Patrol of the Asia-Pacific region.
| Date Taken: | 12.03.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 12.08.2014 23:48 |
| Story ID: | 149730 |
| Location: | CAMP HANSEN, OKINAWA, JP |
| Hometown: | FARIBAULT, MINNESOTA, US |
| Hometown: | RIVERTON, UTAH, US |
| Web Views: | 516 |
| Downloads: | 4 |
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