Combat Assault Battalion Engineers tear up targets at Range Two
Marine Corps News
Release Date: 4/7/2004
Story by Cpl. Ryan Walker
CAMP HANSEN, Okinawa, Japan (March 25, 2004) -- Marines from Combat Engineer Company, Combat Assault Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, conducted machine gunnery live-fire at Range Two here to hone their combat fighting skills March 24-25.
The combat engineers fired 7.62 mm rounds from the M240G medium machine gun and 5.56 mm rounds from the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon familiarizing them with each weapons system.
"It's a unique and unreal experience firing (the M240G) because of the amount of firepower and the damage you can do with it," said Lance Cpl. Kendall S. Boyd, combat engineer.
"Tearing things up is the best part about firing machine guns," Boyd added. "For two days this is all we'll be doing."
The combat engineers fired at silhouette-shaped targets in the rolling hills of the Central Training Area to effectively train for mobility and counter-mobility breeches.
"We usually use machine guns for suppression if heavy firepower is needed," said Cpl. Sean C. Jenkins, combat engineer. "We use the M240G so we can move under cover fire during our breeching operations."
Moving under cover fire in a real combat situation, the combat engineers create obstacles to prevent the enemy from making it to entrenched fighting positions.
"Our obstacles are not used to stop the enemy, but to channel them," Jenkins said. "All of our obstacles are covered by sustained fire."
Jenkins said he and his fellow Marines learned several important skills during their live-fire exercise.
"These skills we practiced out here are all necessary to master machine guns," Jenkins said.
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