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VOLUME 75, EDITION 17
The
GL BE SERVING CAMP LEJEUNE AND SURROUNDING AREAS SINCE 1944
Marines, sailors
Marines participate in weapons weapons, tactics instructor course | 6A
conduct livefire company exercise| 3A THURSDAY APRIL 25, 2013
WWW.LEJEUNE.MARINES.MIL EUNE.MARINE ES.MI MILL MI USS BATAAN, NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, MASSACHUSETTS
Marines, sailors, coalition partners begin Bold Alligator COURTESY STORY 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade
Marines and sailors with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Expeditionary Strike Group 2 and Carrier Strike Group 12 along with coalition partners began Exercise Bold Alligator 2013 aboard the USS Bataan April 22.
Bold Alligator 13 is a synthetic, scenario-driven exercise designed to train staffs from each unit in an effort to continue revitalizing and improving their fundamental ability to integrate and execute large-scale operations from the sea. The Navy-Marine Corps team consistently puts their amphibious skills to the test at the
Marine Expeditionary Unit and Amphibious Ready Group levels. However, exercises like Bold Alligator 13 present opportunities to refine tactics, techniques and procedures at a much larger scale. “This exercise offers us a tremendous opportunity to increase our amphibious proficiency at a level beyond how our routinely
deployed forces operate. We’re looking to increase overall knowledge of amphibious operations, across the Navy and Marine Corps, across all ranks” said Brig. Gen. John K. Love, commanding general, 2nd MEB. Thirty commands, to include seven ships, and approximately 3,500 personnel from 16 countries
and Strike Force NATO are participating in the exercise. The scenario represents a fully operational MEB, ESG and CSG consisting of 17 amphibious ships and more than 16,000 Marines prepared to land as a crisis response force. The scale of this operation SEE ALLIGATOR 7A
Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station
CLB-6 performs live-fire
LANCE CPL. DEVIN NICHOLS 2nd 2 dM Marine i LLogistics i ti G Group
Target spotted–at a distance of 1,000 meters, it waits. A Marine sights in on the objective, plans to fire and takes the shot. The service member was not in a shooting position looking through a scope. This was all done through a computer screen and a push of the button. Approximately 40 Marines with Combat Logistics Battalion 6, 2nd Marine Logistics Group conducted a live-fire exercise with the M153 Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station April 18. “It feels like I’m in a virtual reality game when operating it,” said Sgt. Christopher R. Miller, digital wideband transmission equipment operator with the battalion. “It is just like a video game.” The Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station allows the service member to remain protected in a military vehicle while firing at the enemy and still maintaining positive identification on the target. The Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station will be provided for the CLB-6 Marines when they deploy to Afghanistan in the near future. “I have been on two deployments and the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station have saved many lives,” said Donald O. Nelson, training specialist of the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station. “It is designed for the Marines not to be exposed and save their lives by keeping them in an armored vehicle.” The Common Remotely Operated Photo by Lance Cpl. Devin Nichols Marines with Combat Logistics Battalion 6, 2nd Marine Logistics Group conduct a laser Weapon Station is divided into four bore sight on the M153 Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station before conducting sections, the display control panel, a live-fire during a training exercise aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune April 18. control grip, weapon station and main
processing unit. “I definitely can see a lot further with the display control panel,” said Miller. “You can focus a lot better on the target you are about to engage on.” Before firing the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station, the Marines with CLB-6 participated in approximately 40 hours of classroom instruction learning how to apply the .50-Caliber and M-240B machine gun to the weapon system, as well as the assembly, disassembly and nomenclature. “I am very pleased with the Marines participation,” said Nelson. “They come in early and they are ready to work and learn. I have to force them to go eat because they are so interested.” Finally, after a long week of classrooms and hands-on training, the Marines got to perform a live fire of the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station. Marines with CLB-6 used armored piercing incendiary rounds and 7.62 mm caliber rounds to fire at targets from distances between 397 meters to 1,000 meters. “It was awesome firing it and feeling the high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle move from the recoil and seeing the rounds destroying the targets,” said Lance Cpl. Ryan M. Morrissette motor transportation operator with the battalion. Marines spent approximately 7 hours of live-fire exercises familiarizing and getting comfortable operating the Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station. “It was hard to get used to at first,” said Morrissette. “Once I started shooting and getting acquainted with it, I had no trouble with it.”
After 30 years Beirut Embassy not forgotten
Inside
LANCE CPL. JACKELINE M. PEREZ RIVERA Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune
In a sullen and rain-soaked remembrance ceremony at the Beirut Memorial April 20, former Marine sniper Andy Mull recalled how Marines stood at attention amidst the rubble of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut 30 years ago as the deceased body of Cpl. Robert McMaugh was carried out on a stretcher draped with an American flag. Mull, from Cleveland, was among a small group of Marine veterans who travelled to Jacksonville, N.C., from as far as 700 miles to share their memories and honor the lives of those killed in the explosion. Mull recalled the blast vividly, something bigger than most he had witnessed throughout the conflict. He described McMaugh as the friendliest embassy guard. Mull also remembered other victims, like a local child with a fondness for Twinkies and embassy employees Monique and James Lewis, a married couple who were meeting at the embassy for lunch when the bomb struck. Many survivors admit the embassy bombing is often overshadowed by the bombing of the Marine barracks months later when hundreds were killed. But to the veterans who witnessed the destruction first hand, the embassy bombing is a moment they continue to acknowledge and remember separately. “We were affiliated with the Marines who lost their lives that day,” said Dave English, the president of Liberty Run Foundation, the group that organized the re ceremony. “The embassy was the very first of a series of
Marines bowl Armed Forces Championship 1B Photo by Lance Cpl. Jackeline M. Perez Rivera
Marine veterans pay repects to the victims of a the Beirut Embassy bombing during a remembrance ceremony at Lejeune Memorial Gardens, Jacksonville, N.C., April 20. bombings that has affected our generation. It was the first time we ever witnessed anything like that first hand.” Mull, English and some of the other veterans present are planning to return in October to commemorate the bombings at the Marine Barracks. “It was a noble thing we tried to do in Beirut,” said Mull. “We were trying to bring peace and stability to a war-torn country. Those who were lost in the effort should be remembered. They were trying to bring hope to a city that needed it.” The men who returned to remember the
embassy bombings were in their 20s as corporals and sergeants in the Marine Corps. Some retired years later and some got out not long after the events in Beirut. However they celebrated their common bond as Marines in making the trek to Jacksonville thirty years later to commemorate the lives lost in the bombing. “(McMough) was 20 when he was killed,” said Mull. “I was the same age at the time. I got to grow old and he didn’t. I’ll be 50 this year and he’s still 20. If I could talk to him again I think he would want me to remember him.”
Lejeune Theater Guild performs ‘Godspell’ 1C