Photo By Cpl. Eric Dmochowski | U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Jonah Hollis, an Annapolis, Indiana native and team leader with...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – How do you perform reconnaissance with a nearly 9 foot tall, 28,100-pound armored, amphibious vehicle with a 25mm chain gun? The turbocharged diesel engine in the light armored vehicle-25 is not ideal for sneaking around a battlefield. 2d Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2d Marine Division, answers this question with a few Marines called scouts.
“Scouts share a symbiotic relationship with the LAV-25, they’re ultimately the eyes and ears of the vehicle because it's a 14-ton, large signature vehicle,” said Gunnery Sgt. Alec Buschang, the battalion master gunner of 2d LAR Battalion. “Every LAR line platoon of 4 LAV-25’s has a squad of scouts consisting of infantry riflemen Marines in the back supplemented by provisional infantry, who can be anything from an LAV maintenance mechanic, a corpsman, a combat engineer, I have even seen working dog handlers.”
The complexity of reconnaissance, especially from an LAV-25, requires specialized training not offered by the normal infantry training pipeline. Scouts working with LAR battalions go through Scout School, a 5-week course focusing on basic individual skills and core competencies, live-fire training, advanced skills, and team-to-squad level events.
“The scout school that we designed bridges the gap between the riflemen and what we expect in the LAR scout role,” Buschang said. “We identified the individual training events that we needed these Marines to know from understanding all of the weapons systems, communication, equipment and then all our optics. We focused a lot of our efforts on really honing their skills on high frequency data and high frequency voice, being able to communicate on the move, the brilliance in the basics of land navigation, ultimately getting them to advanced land navigation.”
Scout School consists of numerous basic skills training events including weapons training, reconnaissance, and small unit leadership courses. “Essentially we designed scout school to our battalion since there is no specific Training Command level training school that is designed to teach infantrymen to work as a scout within the LAV,” said 1st Lt. Caleb Sowalskie, the training officer of 2d LAR Battalion. “We train them on all weapons systems that are organic to an LAV company. So, we made them all knowledgeable on the M240B, having them work as a machine gun team and then working them up to a machine gun section. We also made them weapons system capable on the M31 MAAWS along with the M320 grenade launchers.”
With the transitions of light armored reconnaissance in the Marine Corps as a result of Force Design 2030, the new lists of tasks and capabilities continue to grow. 2d LAR Battalion has begun implementing lighter armored mobile reconnaissance platoons, with enhanced radar capabilities, to continue to increase the effectiveness of multi-domain reconnaissance capabilities.
“We had 3 infantrymen and 2 of our communication Marines that went through scout school from the mobile reconnaissance platoons, and they went back there to act as team leaders,” said Sowalskie. “They will still employ their radar capabilities but now they will have that knowledge of the weapons systems and their capabilities to be able to employ them in that platoon.”
Force Design 2030 proposes many solutions to long range reconnaissance capabilities in the LAR community, all with greater reach and lethality, and promises to effectively address the requirement for multi-domain reconnaissance.
“Normal ground reconnaissance is not going to be able to cover 30 or 40 kilometers or conduct an area reconnaissance anywhere near the amount of time that LAR is going to be able to do with the mobile reconnaissance platoons,” Buschang said. “What we are going to be integrating next year is that mobile reconnaissance platoon attaching to one of our LAV companies and if they didn't know how that vehicle operates or how to support the vehicle, they probably would have struggled without Scout School.”
After the last Marine Corps scout snipers graduated in December of 2023, the development of new capabilities has continued to be a focal point in the Marine Corps. With the changing tides of the LAR community, 2d LAR Battalion’s Scout School ensures the lethality and capability of the scouts they bring into battle.
“I know right now the role of a scout in the Marine Corps, with the divestment of scout snipers has been a main talking point and I know school of infantry has been testing a scout course,” said Buschang. “However, until we see something tangible, we are going to continue to train our scouts and even if there is a scout course that is approved and funded through Training Command, it is still imperative, at the battalion level, that we introduce these Marines to the roles, and capabilities that LAR brings to the battlefield.”
| Date Taken: | 11.25.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.06.2024 09:00 |
| Story ID: | 486714 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 75 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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