Photo By Terrance Bell | Mariners students undergo culmination training at Joint Base Little Creek-Fort Story...... read more read more
JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS (May 4, 2017) – Soldiers storming a beach via watercraft is an action closely associated with the Navy and Marine Corps, not the service that has earned mention as a superior land force.
It is an image, however, familiar to those who call themselves mariners, the name for the Transportation Corps Soldiers who man and operate the Army’s vast fleet of vessels.
A variation of the prior statement warrants repeating: the Army boasts a large number of vessels (mostly logistical) and trains personnel in seafaring operations, least known of TC’s land-based capabilities and fairly unknown to the Army in general.
The Army’s maritime hub is located at Joint Base Langley-Eustis (Fort Eustis) where the Transportation School’s Maritime Training Division is located. It is responsible for training vessel crew members – the 88K watercraft operators and 88L watercraft engineers (advanced individual training) as well as warrant officers who command watercraft.
Sgt. 1st Class Heath McManama, a watercraft operator for more than 19 years, is an AIT instructor at the schoolhouse. For more than two years, he has been training would-be 88K mariners how to storm beaches among other tasks, during the student training exercise held in the sixth and final week of the course. On April 27, he oversaw yet another iteration of the culmination event.
“This is pretty much called the ‘run phase,’” said the Charlotte native. “They should be able to do everything without guidance. They should be perfect.”
The run phase refers to a period in which students put to use skills learned throughout the course. Among the skills crewmembers must demonstrate: watch-standing procedures – being the eyes and ears of the vessel; helms-watch – piloting the vessel; and handling lines – ensuring the vessel is secured to piers, McManama said.
“They are also responsible for vessel preservation, which means painting it and getting rid of the rust and making sure everything is clean,” he continued. “There are also firefighting duties where everyone is trained and proficient in firefighting; and drills for abandoning ship, damage control, man overboard and battle stations.”
April 27 was the last of four days out at sea for 22 students. They deployed from 3rd Port at Fort Eustis on the U.S. Army Vessel Brandy Station, a Runnymede-class large landing craft that can haul several tracked and wheeled vehicles, as well as containerized cargo. The 174-foot vessel, which can sustain a crew of 13 (including two culinary specialists and a medic) for up to 18 days and 10,000 miles, traveled to Joint Base Little Creek-Fort Story for the beach landing under a hostile enemy scenario.
With blue skies and temperatures in the low 70s, the student crew of Brandy Station made preparations to land on the beach. With full gear including weapons, they lined themselves up alongside the walls of the bulkhead in separate columns as the vessel approached the shore. After the bow ramp was lowered and the signal given, the watercraft warriors dashed off into the water and onto the shore taking up defensive positions.
McManama and fellow instructor SFC Jonathan Reid oversaw the action but was dissatisfied with the outcome. The student crew was instructed to repeat it. The second attempt was more to the NCOs’ satisfaction. Once the Soldiers were ashore and executing cover techniques, the scene was more reminiscent of the conventional Army.
“We tried to bring back some basic training skill into AIT, and I thought they did very well,” McManama said.
For Pvt. Micah Rodriguez, a 22-year-old AIT student from Waco, Texas, exercise completion brought some relief from a challenging experience.
“I’ve noticed with this course they try to cram as much information in the shortest amount of time,” he said, comparing it with some of the aviation maintenance courses taught at Fort Eustis. “Some of the aviation courses are 28 weeks long, and I heard with this course they try to stress you out as much as they can.”
Nonetheless, Rodriguez said he learned many technical skills as well as the intangibles not listed in the program of instruction.
“I learned how to live in a confined space with people you wouldn’t want to be in a confined space with,” he said with a smile.
Pvt. Isaac Greene, who earned the title of honor graduate for his class, said the exercise went well, but there were some surprises.
“I liked it a lot, but a lot of people got seasick,” he said. “Everybody was like, ‘We’re not going to get seasick,’ but after the second day when we got farther out into the (Chesapeake) Bay, we’re waiting in the chow line, and everyone is leaning up against the wall or sitting down and ‘ahhh.’
“A lot of us didn’t anticipate that.”
Following the exercise, the Brandy Station headed back toward Fort Eustis. The students were scheduled to take their final tests the next day, McManama said.
Once the students graduate, they will be assigned to one of three locations if they are active duty: Fort Eustis, Hawaii or Kuwait. Reserve 88Ks have a wider variety of potential duty stations.
All mariner-graduates will require additional licensing to qualify them as crewmembers on the specific ships to which they are assigned. The fleet of Army vessels also include tug boats and logistical support vessels of varying sizes.
| Date Taken: | 05.04.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.04.2017 13:50 |
| Story ID: | 232575 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 766 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Seafaring Soldiers: Army mariners-in-training tackle culmination exercise, by Terrance Bell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
