Corps mulls training for Afghanistan fight

Lance Cpl. Tommy Bautista, a 1/3 assaultman, provides security while other Marines escort mules through the mountains of the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center in Bridgeport, Calif.


Corps mulls training for Afghanistan fight
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 1, 2008 6:05:41 EST

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The planned shift of combat forces from dusty Iraq to mountainous Afghanistan will reshape predeployment training for many Marine battalions, according to the Corps’ top officer.

Soon, units will spend more time training in expeditionary and mountainous environments, Commandant Gen. James Conway said Nov. 20 during an interview at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Commanders and training officials want to concentrate the new training at one of two places: the Corps’ desert training base in the Mojave Desert or its mountain training camp in California’s High Sierras. They’re assessing the pros and cons of using each facility, Conway said, and a decision was expected “in the next few days.”

“You can’t match the Afghan environment in many places , except for the Mountain Warfare Training Center or maybe at … Horno Peak here,” the commandant said, referring to Pendleton’s coastal range. “It gets close to it, but it’s still not 7 or 8,000 feet.”

The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., hosts monthly “Mojave Viper” training exercises, considered the capstone for battalions heading to Iraq. The Mountain Warfare Training Center near Bridgeport, Calif., offers high-altitude terrain, live-fire areas and mock villages for unit and individual combat training and mountaineering.

Conway has asked commanders at both sites to provide him with the number of battalions that can train at one time, range requirements and daily garrison needs.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/11/marine_conway_113008w/%2e