CAMP SANTIAGO, SALINAS, Puerto Rico -- It’s annual training time again for soldiers with 448th Engineer Battalion and 313th Postal Group of the 65th Readiness Command of the Army Reserve, but instead of their usual training, they got ‘down and dirty’ with the Marines of the Foreign Military Training Unit (FMTU), Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) at Camp Santiago, Salinas, Puerto Rico, during an Operational Readiness Exercise.
The ORE conducted by FMTU’s Team-5 was the final one before their deployment to South America and it coincided with the soldiers’ training. The reserve soldiers served as the students for the event.
The ORE is the Certification Exercise (CERTEX) for the FMTU team designed to evaluate their abilities in a realistic and dynamic environment that simulates the conditions they will encounter during a deployment. It also allows the team to build confidence in its abilities and verify their deployment readiness to the commanding officer.
“The timing was right and they actually got to train another military unit,” said Capt. William M. Eaton, assistant ORE officer. “This was closest to the actual mission as it gets and we are excited about this opportunity.”
FMTU’s 11-man “scholar-warriors” teams consist of 10 Marines and one Navy corpsman. Training the team takes months and is finalized with an ORE before their deployment. Each team is designated a language to learn for upcoming deployments and must undergo intense language and cultural training. Team-5 trains in Spanish and consists of native language speakers as well.
Even though this is the third ORE of four scheduled per fiscal year, it’s the first held outside of the United States and with an actual military unit.
“Up until now, we have been using foreign language role players and School of Infantry (SOI) Marines to fill in during our training evolutions,” said Eaton, a 28-year-old Chagrin Falls, Ohio native. “This opportunity to train an already established military unit is truer to the actual mission these Marines will take and the experience is invaluable.”
Leaders of Team-5 and the 65th Readiness Command began planning for the training two months before the ORE began.
“We conducted a PDSS (Pre-Deployment Site Survey) a month before coming here and saw the opportunity to work in an environment which is similar to our mission,” said Capt. German E. Duarte, Team-5 assistant team leader. “After that, we told them what our capabilities are and they told us what they wanted to be trained in and we set up a schedule.”
Team-5 and 65th Readiness Command decided on Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT), patrolling tactics and techniques, Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP) training, demolition and medical training. The communication between students and instructors and periods of instruction (POI) would only be in Spanish to get the team more practice on their language skills.
“They were very receptive to the training,” Duarte, a 35-year-old Houston native, said proudly. “We will continue to get better in our skills so that we can train them or anyone else more efficiently.”
As the soldiers received their training and the instructors carried out their instruction, Capt. Matt V.L. Brigance, the ORE officer-in-charge, setup unplanned events to see how the team would react.
“The MESLs (Master Events Sequence Lists) were set up to test and evaluate the team’s force protection in a high-threat environment,” said Brigance, a 28-year-old Hubbard, Texas. “We used Marine reservists from the 3rd Longshoreman Platoon, 4th Longshoreman Battalion in Puerto Rico to act as a ‘red cell’ or insurgent group for this event.
“We had a command visit from the FMTU and MARSOC leadership, along with a simulated medevac, enemy surveillance, escalation of force among warring factions and we finished with a simulated escape and evacuation plan.”
The weeklong event provided the team and their command a way to recognize and correct any mistakes before the actual deployment.
“This ORE was as real it gets,” Brigance said. “This is like the Thursday afternoon practice before the big game on Friday night.”
Like at any practice before the big game someone watches from the sidelines and notes all the highs and lows. At this “training practice”, it is evaluators from FMTU who moved quietly around the sidelines noting everything and preparing to give their report, which will ultimately influence the command’s decision on if the team is ready to deploy and how this knowledge can be applied to future training.
“Our job is to evaluate, not critique the instructors on professionalism, competency, communication, confidence, teaching techniques and force protection,” said Gunnery Sgt. Edward A. Smith, an evaluator with FMTU. “We are not here to pass or fail them, we are just here to make sure they can do their job efficiently.”
The evaluators rotate around every POI and MESL and note how the team handles all the situations. At the end of each day, they discuss what they saw and what improvements are needed for this team and teams in the future.
“We do not sugarcoat our comments, we just call it like we see it,” said the 36-year-old Smith native Huntington, Texas. “These guys are held to a high standard and they achieve it.”
Through all the sweat and stress endured by both the students and instructors, the motivation was high as the soldiers and Marines all left the camp, many with the same thought running through their minds.
“I would love to make this a permanent part of our training,” Eaton said with a smile. “Because of the overall benefits [for both commands], it was just perfect.”
The team successfully completed their ORE and is scheduled to depart on their first deployment, one of the first teams from FMTU to do so, to South America in the next few months.