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RCT-8 prepares in mobile firepower

US Marine Corps News

10/21/2010
By Lance Cpl. Clayton L. VonDerAhe, 8th Marine Regiment

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION YUMA, Ariz. -- A large military vehicle with an aggressive demeanor rolls past a small strip of buildings. Silhouettes can be seen rising through the windows. A turret on the vehicle locks on to the shapes and a flurry of bullets takes them down nearly as quickly as they come up. After the target has been neutralized, the vehicle pulls up to the next Marine waiting for his chance to get some trigger time and complete his machine gun training.

The Marines and sailors of Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division rose early in the morning, Oct. 20, to perform a convoy assault course here.

Before the sun could be seen on the horizon, Marines withRCT-8 were eagerly waiting in full battle attire, anxious to climb in the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All Terrain Vehicle (MATV) and get their chance to shoot the mounted M240B light machine gun.

“I’m just happy I get to shoot at stuff,” said Cpl. Kevin Danekas, a motor transportation mechanic with Headquarters Company, RCT-8. “Shooting a mounted gun from a vehicle is a change.”

The regimental headquarters approached the training with a crawl, walk, run method by performing a dry-run machine gun course two days prior, then a live fire exercise the day before from static positions, and took their recent training a step further by engaging targets from a moving vehicle.

The MATV approaches a strip of buildings, as an operator remotely controls targets in the windows of the buildings making specific targets visible. As soon as the targets come into sight the turret gunner makes positive identification and fires a stream of bullets, every fifth a round a tracer that streaks across the range.

“This convoy assault course is going to make sure the Taliban won’t mess with 8th Marines,” said Cpl. Brett Burton, an engineer with Headquarters Company, RCT-8. “We have a lot of qualified people out here.”

This course is only part of a larger training operation being run by the regimental headquarters in preparation for a deployment to Afghanistan.

“This is probably the best look (at deployment) they’re going to get prior to going,” said 1st Lt. Joseph Newman. “This is going from (junior varsity) to varsity. It’s crunch time.”

As the last Marine climbed out of the MATV, every one present did their part in cleaning the empty shells and links from the range, leaving the grounds cleaner than before. The Marines and sailors with RCT-8 geared up and prepared to move on to the next training evolution.

The machine gun bursts and showers of hot brass end as the last Marine climbs down from the turret. The repetitive drills from the past two days of disassembly and reassembly of the M240B machine gun has been replaced by true “shoot and move” action and smiles have spread to everyone’s faces.