The Makin Island Raid

Makin Island as seen from the periscope of USS Nautilus during the raid of August 17-18, 1942.

The Makin Island Raid (occurred on 17–18 August 1942) was an attack by the United States Marine Corps on Japanese military forces on Makin Island (now known as Butaritari Island) in the Pacific Ocean. The aim was to destroy Japanese installations, take prisoners, gain intelligence on the Gilbert Islands area, and divert Japanese attention and reinforcements from the Allied landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi.

The raid was among the first American offensive ground combat operations of World War II. The force was drawn from the 2nd Raider Battalion and comprised a small battalion command group and two of the Battalion's six rifle companies. Because of space limitations aboard ship, each company embarked without one of its rifle sections. Battalion headquarters, A Company and 18 men from B Company—totaling 121 troops—were embarked aboard the submarine Argonaut and the remainder of B Company—totaling 90 men—aboard Nautilus. The raiding force was designated Task Group 7.15 (TG 7.15).

The Makin Atoll garrison consisted of the Japanese seaplane base led by Sgt. Major Kanemitsu with 73 naval air force personnel with light weapons.

 

Execution of the raid 

 

The Marines were launched in LCRLrubber boats powered by small, 6 hp(4.5 kW) outboard motors shortly after 00:00 (midnight) on 17 August. At 05:13, Companies A and B of the 2nd Raider Battalion—commanded by Lt. Col. Evans Carlson—successfully landed on Butaritari. The landing had been very difficult due to rough seas, high surf, and the failure of many of the outboard motors. Lt. Col. Carlson decided to land all his men on one beach, rather than two beaches as originally planned. At 05:15, Lt. Oscar Peatross and a 12-man squad landed on Butaritari. In the confusion of the landing, they did not get word of Carlson's decision to change plans and land all the Raiders on one beach. Thus, Peatross and his men landed where they originally planned. It turned out to be a fortunate error. Undaunted by the lack of support, Peatross led his men inland.

At 07:00, with Company A leading, the Raiders advanced from the beach across the island to its north shore before attacking southwestward. Strong resistance from Japanese snipers and machine guns stalled the advance and inflicted casualties. The Japanese then launched two banzai charges that were wiped out by the Raiders, thus killing most of the Japanese on the island. At 09:00, Lt. Peatross and his 12 men found themselves behind the Japanese who were fighting the rest of the Raiders to the east. Peatross's unit killed eight Japanese and the garrison commander Sgt. Major Kanemitsu, knocked out a machinegun and destroyed the enemy radios; but suffered three dead and two wounded. Failing to contact Carlson, they withdrew to the subs at dusk as planned.

At 13:30, 12 Japanese planes—including two flying boats—arrived over Butaritari. The flying boats—carrying reinforcements for the Japanese garrison—attempted to land in the lagoon, but were met with machinegun, rifle and Boys anti-tank rifle fire from the Raiders. One plane crashed; the other burst into flames. The remaining planes bombed and strafed but inflicted no U.S. casualties.

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Stabilizing the wild southwest of Afghanistan

A Marine assigned to the 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion from Camp Pendleton works with the local Afghan Local Police in Puzeh.

Marine special operations forces realized the security situation had changed dramatically in their stretch of the upper Sangin river valley this summer when village boys started playing policeman instead of Taliban insurgent.

Matt, leader of the team from Camp Pendleton’s 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion now stationed in Puzeh, compared it to the old days of the American West.

Back then, “it wasn’t cool to be a sheriff. It was cool to be a bank robber until Wyatt Earp came along and started making a name for himself and for lawmen. That’s kind of what we saw here,” said the team leader, who couldn’t be fully identified because of the sensitive nature of his mission. “You see kids running around now trying to play ALP (Afghan Local Police). So it’s catching on.”

Puzeh flanks a dirt road cutting through desert hills in what might be described as the wild southwest of Afghanistan. The district it’s in, Sangin, has been among the bloodiest of the war for U.S. and British forces. Yet Puzeh is the successful poster child, at the moment at least, for a unique, bottom-up approach to stabilizing the hinterlands that U.S. military commanders describe as probably their most important endeavor.

At its heart is recruitment of Afghan Local Police — villagers armed and paid to protect their hometowns — but the overarching “Village Stability Operations” spearheaded by special operations forces throughout Afghanistan have broader ambitions.

After recruiting the sons and brothers of tribal leaders to serve as local police, the special operators also aim to strengthen governance and economic development by linking them to regular police forces and local councils planning for community needs like roads or wells.

Amid the special operations forces’ more well-known missions — such as raids like the one that killed Osama bin Laden and mentoring of national security forces — the elite troops started opening “platforms” for village stability operations throughout Afghanistan about two years ago.

Lt. Col. Michael Brooks, a Camp Pendleton Marine commander in charge of Special Operations Task Force-West, said the first time he visited Puzeh early in its development, special operations forces were getting shot at by rocket-propelled grenades. The task force oversees special operators from all branches of the armed services stationed in six provinces of Afghanistan.

Several factors contributed to Puzeh’s newfound calm and the strength of its local police program, including tribal dynamics and geography, but the most important was developing strong relationships with the people, he said.

“If they’re just dealing with you and following your routine and your agenda, when you leave it’s going to revert back to what it was before you got there. But if you establish a relationship and they understand what’s going on and they see the opportunity in front of them, they truly do mobilize,” Brooks said.

The special operations forces do that by living among the Afghans, growing beards like the locals and sometimes even fasting during the day in respect for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that started in late July.

But no matter how closely they work with the villagers, the program has little chance of success in areas where there is no connection to the central government, Brooks said. For instance, after special operations forces stepped back from one of their sites established in 2010 in Badghis province, dozens of local police surrendered last month to the Taliban.

The joint special operations command has not shied away, however, from village stability operations in the most violent areas of the country. Although the chances of success may be better when they are invited by a community, commanders said, they also have fought their way into areas appearing to be unrelenting insurgent strongholds.

One of their newest sites is in Nahr-e Saraj district — the most violent in all Afghanistan. In late June, about 800 troops, including British and U.S. infantry, tankers, engineers and both American and Afghan special operations forces, moved into the Qala-e Gaz area of the upper Gereshk valley in Nahr-e Saraj to establish a new base for village stability operations and local police. Several Marines were killed during the operation, which included the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment out of Twentynine Palms.

The idea is to eliminate irreconcilable insurgents, convince the half-hearted that there’s another way and help the Afghan government arm the rest against Taliban attacks and infiltration.

Maj. Gen. David Berger, the commanding general overseeing conventional Marine ground forces in southwestern Afghanistan, said the local police are critical to rehabilitating the country’s most war-torn areas. They are more effective at spotting signs an American might overlook, like the Pakistani sandals on a militant’s feet, he said, and they have more credibility than coalition or even Afghan national forces who usually hail from other areas of the country and don’t speak the same language as the villagers.

“What probably was a tight-woven fabric has been broken apart. Where that fabric has frayed, some of the glue is the local police. Because if the three of us are nominating our sons, we have some skin in the game,” Berger said. He cautioned, however: “It’s not a quick process. People want to wake up tomorrow and have nirvana, but it takes many months.”

New ones are still being established, but many of the existing programs are reaching maturity, commanders said, and are being transferred to Afghan control as the local police are put on the Ministry of the Interior payroll.

Critics deride the local police as militias susceptible to human rights abuses and warlordism of the kind that spawned the Taliban takeover. But Marine commanders say this approach may be the best hope for long-term peace in a country with a weak central government and strong history of tribalism.

About a year and a half after the forces moved into Puzeh, the area has about 120 local police, a functioning community council that interacts with the district, a refurbished school and a mosque under construction. Three civilians were injured by insurgent bombs in the last couple months — historically a low number for the area — and the main road is regularly trafficked and long since cleared of explosives.

Insurgents remain an active threat on the outskirts, as the memorial under construction last month in Puzeh to seven local policemen killed in action attests. But the program helping the village secure itself is virtually on auto pilot now, with U.S. special operations forces remaining on site as a quick reaction force and Afghan troops handling most recruit training to replace ones fired by local elders.

Puzeh is so calm that Matt and his Afghan counterpart, a 27-year-old special forces commander named Qurbaan, don’t wear body armor when they roll in their all-terrain vehicle out the metal gates of their compound to take the pulse and chat with villagers.

Qurbaan stands on the road wearing rubber slippers, bouncing a baby girl on his hip as he grips hands and grins and fobs off pleas for gasoline. “My daughter,” he jokes in English, with perfect political pitch.

The Puzeh local police scored two of their biggest victories this summer. In June they repelled an attack by upwards of 75 insurgents. Then in mid-July they tracked several Taliban commanders and pinned them against a cliff with gunfire until a coalition air strike finished them off.

One of the insurgents, a 30-something named Zahid easily recognized by the metal brace on his leg, had terrorized the village. After being wounded 11 times, “he had kind of taken on a boogie man persona,” said Ryan, the Marine special operations team chief.

When the Afghan local police paraded his body through town on a donkey, hundreds of people thronged the road. Afghan men approached the gates of the special operations forces compound with tears in their eyes and fired guns in celebration.

“The boogie man was dead,” Ryan said, and it wasn’t the Americans who found him. “It was Afghan Local Police.”

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Special forces make leap of faith

Service members prepare for their jump over Ie Shima July 26. The service members worked with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 265 to conduct parachute training and sustain readiness. “We practice jumping quite regularly to maintain the skill, so we are always ready to deploy,” said one of the jumpers. The service members are with 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne).

OKINAWA, Japan - As cold air rushed through the CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter, Army special forces and their Navy team members prepared themselves for a leap 5,000 feet above their landing zone.

Soldiers and sailors with 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), practiced their parachuting skills with the help of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 265, Marine Aircraft Group 36, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, III Marine Expeditionary Force, July 26.

Pilots with the squadron flew two CH-46Es in the skies over Ie Shima, Okinawa, Japan, enabling the service members to conduct parachute training.

“We enjoyed helping the unit with this (training),” said Capt. Vladimir Y. Yarnykh, a Marine Corps CH-46E pilot with the squadron. “We have taken them out several times to help with parachute (training), and we plan to help with future (training) as well.”

The service members practiced static-line parachuting, during which a static line is attached to one end of the aircraft while the other end is attached to the pilot chute inside the jumper’s backpack. This opens a jumper’s parachute automatically upon exiting the aircraft.

In addition to static-line parachuting, the service members also performed free-fall parachute jumps.

“Though people may think it’s not a perishable skill, it really is,” said one of the Navy jumpers. “If we don’t practice jumping constantly, then we won’t be able to do all our formation landings and jumps well.”

The unit’s airborne group frequently conducts parachute training evolutions to ensure its service members can perform their jumps safely when called upon.

“Safety is our number one priority with the jumps,” said the Army senior medic for the battalion. “Wind, weather and location all play a part in a successful jump. If the wind is too (strong), then we may not be able to control where we land, and if there are thick clouds, we won’t be able to see.”

To help ensure safety, Marine pilots communicated with Army Special Forces support personnel on the ground at the drop zone.

“Communication between people on the ground and the pilots is paramount to ensure a safe jump,” said an Army jumper. “If we go to jump, and there are clouds (obscuring our view of the drop zone), we have to be sure everything is safe on the ground. If it’s not, then we have to cancel the jump.”

As the training came to an end, the service members gathered and discussed the training evolution.

“The training went well,” said the battalion’s senior medic. “Everyone did their part and landed in formation like they were supposed to. Some had a few problems with their parachutes at first, but the important thing is that we know what improvements can be made, and we make (future jumps).

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MARSOC Marines Get Immersed in Training

Sixty-nine Marines hit the beaches at the Ranger Amphibious Assault Course during the second phase of the Marine Corps Special Operations Command’s Individual Training Course in Key West, Fla., March 19 - 30.

This is just one of the many courses these Marines must complete in order to become a Critical Skills Operator and join the ranks of the Marine Corps special operations forces.

Ten years of land-locked warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq, MARSOC has not strayed from its amphibious roots, according to Staff Sgt. Chris Dowd, Marine Special Operations School Ranger Amphibious lead instructor.

Capt. Stephen Detrinis, class 1-12 officer in charge of phase 2, stated that sustaining the Corps’ amphibious doctrine directly ties to the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James F. Amos’, priorities for the Corps, and getting back to this core mission is also important to SOF.

“[Hitting the beach utilizing Zodiacs] is just an insert technique, but it makes us more well rounded and more employable worldwide with some of the partner-nation forces we train with down range, and the skill is inline with our commandant’s priorities,” said Detrinis.

During this course, the students accomplished basic amphibious training with the Zodiac, a rigid hull inflatable boat. The Marines going through the course are also taught scout swimmer techniques, confined space maneuvers, and small craft operations, to include beach reconnaissance type reporting.

The scout swimmer instruction taught the students how to maneuver without detection while operating under clandestine insertion, and some of the small craft operations skills included the ability for the students to right a capsized Zodiac, the ability to quickly put the Zodiac together and learning to navigate the craft as a team.

Each day the students were required to swim 2 km of open water in full gear and ruck-sack, using only their dive fins. To successfully pass this portion of training, they were required to complete the distance within one hour by the end of the two-week course. They also received classroom instruction on a variety of topics, to include nautical navigation, piloting, how to conduct surveys and how to conduct reconnaissance on a beach. After the classroom instruction, the students hit the water and put the learned techniques into action.

The course culminated in a final exercise where the students demonstrated their proficiency on all of the concepts taught.

“This is a very labor intensive block of training, not only for the students but also for the instructor staff,” said Dowd. “I just can’t get that out enough that these guys are working hard and they are putting out maximum effort at all times, both students and instructors.”

The training is difficult and consists of long days, and this is just one course in more than seven months of intensive training, but according to one student, “it’s a no-brainer” as to why he chose to try and become a Critical Skills Operator.

“I see this as being the next step in my progression,” said Staff Sgt. Richard Powell, ITC student. “I want to work with the most professional Marines that are out there, [and] this is where I believe to be the place where they are at.”

The instructors have high expectations for the students--they expect them to grasp the concepts in the classrooms and then have the wherewithal to apply these concepts in practical application exercises.

“I think it’s important for the Marines to grasp the concept initially and I think that’s where the structure in the classroom comes in, but it is the Individual Training Course, and they’re not going to hold your hand when you’re in a team, especially in combat,” Sgt. James Glendening, ITC student, said of the instructors. “So I think it’s important they show you the ropes, but I think it’s also important that you can carry your own, to be an independent thinker.”

The skills these Marines learned during this portion of ITC provide a unique capability they will take back to their teams and provide another tool for the SOF community.

“Once all of this training is complete, these Marines will be basically trained in amphibious operations that give the SOF community an increased advantage,” Dowd said. “Right now, a lot of SOF units aren’t training for amphibious operations, but these guys will be trained and will be ready to conduct follow on training; to increase MARSOC’s ability to support SOF as a whole.”

The different skill sets that the students are taught in this course have a lineage in the Corps that dates back to the Marine Raiders during World War II, whose job it was to conduct amphibious light infantry warfare.

“When the Marine Corps established the Raiders, that’s what they were utilized for. The Raiders went ashore, prior to any amphibious operations, and conducted reconnaissance on the beach, which we teach the students here, and secured that beach for that follow on force,” Dowd said. “This course has the hallmark of the Raiders throughout.”

 

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Marine Raiders

The Marine Raiders were elite units established by the United States Marine Corps during World War II to conduct amphibious light infantry warfare, particularly in landing in rubber boats and operating behind the lines. "Edson's" Raiders of 1st Marine Raiders Battalion and "Carlson's" Raiders of 2nd Marine Raiders Battalion are said to be the first United States special operations forces to form and see combat in World War II.

Four Raider battalions served operationally but all were disbanded on 8 January 1944 when the Corps made the doctrinal decision that the Raiders had out-lived their original mission. The changing nature of the war in the Pacific, with many large-scale amphibious assaults to come against well-defended islands, negated the requirements for small light units that could strike deep into enemy territory.

However, most combat operations saw the Raiders employed as regular infantry, and combined with the resentment within the rest of the Marines that the Raiders were an "elite force within an elite force", led to the eventual abandonment of the experiment.

On 1 February 1944 the 1st Raider Regiment was redesignated the 4th Marine Regiment, thus assuming the lineage of the regiment that had garrisoned Shanghai in the interwar years and fought so gallantly on Bataan and Corrigedor. The 1st, 3rd, and 4th Raider Battalions became respectively the 1st, 3rd, and 2nd Battalions of the 4th Marines. The 2nd Raider Battalion filled out the regimental weapons company. Personnel in the Raider Training Center transferred to the newly formed 5th Marine Division. Leavened with new men, the 4th Marines went on to earn additional distinctions in the assaults on Guam and Okinawa. At the close of the war, the regiment joined the occupation forces in Japan and participated in the release from POW compounds of the remaining members of the old 4th Marines.

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MARSOC Marines shift focus beyond Afghanistan

CPL. KYLE MCNALLY / MARINE CORPSA member of 3rd Marine Special Operations Battalion gives a "thumbs up" during parachute training. Operations with 3rd MSOB have spanned the globe, from the Arctic Circle to the Brazilian rainforest.

By Gina Cavallaro 

The boomerang rotations to Afghanistan that most Marine special operators have been on for years will soon shift as operations there shrink and the special operations community turns its attention to the rest of the globe.

For Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, the other-than-Afghanistan deployments have long been the purview of 3rd Marine Special Operations Battalion out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., whose critical skills operators quietly have gone about building foreign relationships and gaining military and cultural experience.

Except for sporadic support for the Afghanistan mission, 3rd MSOB’s operators have deployed in small teams to remote locations, without benefit of the established military logistics supply chains and mobility resources in Afghanistan.

Marines going to the war zone “are husbanded all the way to a point in Kabul, or wherever they’re going,” said 3rd MSOB commander Lt. Col. Darren Duke, whose battalion consists of about 350 troops. “Our guys are on a team level — a captain and 11 or 13 Marines and sailors, and that captain will take his small band of merry men and make his way to a small Pacific island or small base in the middle of the rainforest in Brazil.”

The teams’ deployments are training evolutions that fall under the Joint Combined Exchange Training program, or JCET, a U.S. Special Operations Command program in which special operations forces from each service component work and train overseas with foreign military forces, a traditional SOF mission.

It is more than likely that as things wind down in Afghanistan, greater numbers of operators from 2nd MSOB at Lejeune and 1st MSOB based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., will deploy in support of the JCET mission.

What that means for MARSOC is the growth of a deeper bench of operators and support personnel who understand the ways of the world’s military forces and the particularities of the way their countries do business.

“As our cultural immersion capacity increases, so will our reach,” said MARSOC spokesman Maj. Jeff Landis.

Operators assigned to 3rd MSOB have spent up to two months at a time in Brazil, the Philippines, Malaysia, the Dominican Republic, Thailand and Indonesia. Marines are teaching and learning.

The Philippines, for example, “is a wonderful opportunity for us to get out as amphibious creatures and practice our amphibious capabilities in terms of boats and working in and around the water,” Duke said.

Operators may deploy to an austere base in Africa, where the nearest military support facility is 3,000 miles away, or to a remote Pacific island with no airfield, forcing the team to move equipment and personnel via barges or boats.

The mission, Duke said, “matures our operators and our Marines who provide support.”

“It makes them more cosmopolitan in a military sense,” he added. “Somebody who’s traveled the world makes better decisions.”

Training for JCET deployments, Duke said, takes place in locations all over the country, and in some overseas locations, such as the Arctic Circle. Marine operators were there in 2010 to train with British and Norwegian forces.

To get them ready for that event, the Marines conducted survival training in Alaska.

“We wanted them to show up capable of integrating into combined forces, like the Brits and Norwegians who operate routinely in those locations,” Duke said.

Language and cultural understanding also is learned up front, with native role players who work with the Marines in the U.S. in anticipation of JCET deployments.

MARSOC recently sought to contract Tagalog speakers to act as role players in scenarios intended to simulate the Philippines. The training was to take place at Camp McCrady in Eastover, S.C.

“We give them training on the region and culture before they go,” Duke said, “When they get there, they are not starting from scratch.

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3rd Annual Recon Challenge Kicks Of

AMP PENDLETON, CA – Reconnaissance Marines pride themselves on being “swift, silent and deadly” and demonstrated it by competing in this year’s 3rd Annual Recon Challenge, May 21, at Camp Pendleton’s School of Infantry.

During the two-man team challenge, which began at 4 a.m., the 18 teams of Recon Marines fearlessly hiked up some of the base’s most intense hills, swam through ice-cold waters, conquered the Corps’ traditional obstacle course, conducted circuit course exercises and then finally displayed what every Marine is known for, marksmanship.

The event kicked-off with a 7-mile hike up Pendleton’s infamous Recon Ridge while carrying a 50-pound pack. Upon completion of the hike, which led them to the beach’s coast, the Marines swapped their boots for fins and plunged into the waves to start their two-kilometer swim out to sea.

“Swimming out to sea was the most difficult portion of the event because of the intensity of the waves,” said Gunnery Sgt. Ryan Cullen, one of the winners of this year’s challenge. “You couldn’t stop pushing against the current because if you did, the waves would take you back to the beginning, and in this event you need every ounce of strength your body can produce.”

Together, Cullen and his teammate Gunnery Sgt. Collin Barry underwent more than 4 months of constant physical training to help prepare for the challenge.

Cullen and Barry finished the challenge in first with a time of 9 hours, 24 minutes and 8 seconds.

“We trained together very religiously and were always there to push one another,” said Barry. “We both knew the harder we pushed ourselves during training the more it would pay off in the long run.”

Following the swim, the Marines were given the order to drop their packs, but only to run through Camp Horno’s obstacle course … twice. And just to make this tougher, they were required to disassemble a M249 Squad Automatic weapon light machine gun at the end of the first run and reassemble it after their second pass.

Then, with little rest, the packs went back on for a hike where the teams participated in a qualification course, utilizing M4 carbine assault rifles and a M9 Berretta pistols that required high levels of accuracy.

“My partner and I pushed each other every step of the way,” said Cullen. “We laid it all out on the line and gave it our all the whole time, not only because we wanted to win but because we never quit.”

Coming in at second and only 15 seconds behind first, was Staff Sgt. Kirby Fanus and Staff Sgt. Luke Fuchs. In third place were Sgt. Duncan Shuler and Sgt. Lucas Chaffins with a time of 10 hours, 4 minutes and 29 seconds.

At the conclusion of the challenge, competitors’ family, fellow Marines and friends congratulated them on their efforts and joined them for a celebration, which offered free food, music and an award ceremony.

“The odds were against us and I believe that is what gave us the drive to finish this challenge on top,” said Cullen. “This win definitely makes me proud to be a Marine but even more so, a Recon Marine.”

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Force Recon Takes on Dynamic Assault

Reconnaissance Marines are conducting marksmanship training drills as part of the Dynamic Assault Course taught by the Special Operations Training Group on Camp Hansen’s Range 16 April 25 to May 27.

The Marines, with Force Reconnaissance Platoon, Force Company, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, III Marine Expeditionary Force, are participating in this training in preparation for an upcoming deployment.

The Dynamic Assault Course is a five-week course, with the first two weeks focusing on marksmanship, said Staff Sgt. Jason Adkins, the lead instructor for the course. The next three weeks focus on tactics, where the students learn insertion, breaching objectives with explosives, and the proper techniques used to secure an objective.

Dynamic Assault Course instructors are all reconnaissance Marines from SOTG, III MEF Headquarters Group, III MEF.

This class is important as it pushes a force reconnaissance platoon’s skills to a high level and provides the Marines with the required certification to be part of a force reconnaissance platoon, Adkins said. With the training, the platoon can be employed by its commander to carry out direct-action missions, he added.

During the first week of training, Marines fired the M1911 .45 caliber pistol and M4A1 service rifle while training at ranges simulating different urban environments.

“(The training) is very important for the type of mission(s) we do,” said Staff Sgt. Lin Barrios, assistant platoon sergeant for the platoon.

As part of the MEU, the Marines need to know how to operate in different environments, said Barrios.

After familiarizing themselves with their weapons and zeroing in their aiming points, the Marines moved to live-fire shooting in a close-quarters situation.

“I like all the tactics,” said Cpl. Angel Robles, a reconnaissance Marine with the 31st MEU and a student in the course. “There’s all kinds of stuff going through your head. (When entering a room), you have to remember if you’re one man, two man or rear security.”

In close quarters situations, teams of four to six Marines enter a room using proper room-clearing techniques, identify the threats and use the proper method to take them down.

You have to have a certain mindset for it, said Barrios.

“(There’s) a thousand ways you can take over a house, and there’s a thousand ways to mess it up. At this level, you have to be in the correct mindset to do the job.

“Most of the Marines are responding very well to (the training),” added Barrios. “It’s very important to throw them in this kind of environment early.”

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Marine Special Operators Rely Heavily on Hand-Launched Drones

If every marine is a rifleman, then every marine special operator is an unmanned aircraft system pilot.

The newest component of U.S. Special Operations Command has quickly embraced drone technology, particularly the small hand-launched aircraft that weigh less than 20 pounds and fly at speeds under 100 knots.

“They are being used actively in theater by our guys. We’re having a lot of success with them,” said Jon “Blade” Hackett, unmanned aircraft systems program manager at Marine Corps Special Operations Command.

Every marine in the command learns how to fly the Raven B and the Wasp III, which are tossed up by MARSOC units to provide overhead coverage when larger systems like the Predator or Reaper are unavailable.

“We’re rapidly gaining experience and competencies and discovering what a great asset they are,” said Hackett, a former commanding officer of Marine Light-Attack Helicopter Squadron 269.

Though MARSOC comprises 2,000 marines, or 1 percent of the entire Marines Corps, it receives 25 percent of the service’s fleet of small UAS.

Both the Raven and Wasp are considered team assets. The Wasp is a small, light aircraft that an operator can stash in his backpack while on foot patrols. The Raven, on the other hand, is larger and must be transported in a vehicle or stationed at a forward operating base.

The Wasp’s quiet nature and small size make it ideal for covert surveillance missions. “If you saw one of these vehicles in the air, unless you knew it was a Wasp UAV, you’d think it was a bird,” said Hackett. But its size means that it is susceptible to turbulence and high winds. “If the weather’s not right, the Wasp isn’t going to fly,” he said.

The Raven is not as vulnerable to weather and winds, but it looks and sounds like a small airplane in the sky. There are ways to mitigate the motor noise to enable the plane to fly covert missions, Hackett added.

Each team deploys with a set of the two systems, which come with a number of vehicles and a ground control station. An operator could go downrange with one controller and fly multiple vehicles at the same time, said Hackett. But if troops wanted to conduct sustained operations with the aircraft tag-teaming for persistent surveillance, they require more than one station. Depending on the mission, they would receive an additional UAS system, or even a third one.

Though software makes it possible for an operator to fly a Raven solo, it is configured to fly with two operators at the controls. One functions as the pilot, the other acts as the mission operator who keeps track of the aircraft’s position and manipulates the payload.

“Even with Wasp, it’s better to have two operators than to just have one,” said Hackett. “All of our operators are trained to fly the Wasp as a single operator, but it’s much more effective to split up the duties.”

Normally the two operators sit next to each other. Before they launch the vehicle, they conduct mission planning and make sure the airspace is clear of other aircraft just as traditional pilots would for larger planes.

“There’s a certain amount of training overhead that these guys have to have before they can operate these systems. It’s not in the same league as the guy who’s flying Reaper halfway around the globe through clouds, airways, and navigating with manned aircraft. But it’s more than the weekend model airplane guy who’s just flying it casually over his grass field,” said Hackett. “It is definitely a skill, and a very perishable skill.”

Keeping operators trained is the command’s biggest challenge.

“We don’t have a dedicated UAS operator. All of these guys, they have a primary job. This is a collateral duty,” Hackett pointed out.

Marine special operators already have to juggle and maintain expertise in skills including parachute jumping, diving, breaching, surveillance and reconnaissance. On top of that, they now have to learn how to fly a small airplane.

To maintain their skills, an operator has to fly sorties every 60 days and pass written and oral tests. Then he’s evaluated annually. “He actually gets a check ride with a formal evaluator,” Hackett said. “All that is geared to make sure the operator is proficient, and still has the skills necessary to safely go out there and operate the vehicle.”

Some of the flight time can be done in simulators. But operators have to hit the training range and physically fly the aircraft.

Despite the training pressure on marine special operators, the UAS missions are expanding.
“When people think of a UAV, it’s the eye in the sky. I’m collecting video or taking pictures,” said Hackett. “We’re looking at a lot of different ways to use the real-time capability of the aircraft to affect other mission areas, to make them better,” he said.

In Afghanistan, marines are employing them beyond base and checkpoint security missions and using the systems to detect enemy mortars and rockets.

“Normally [the launchers] are on a timer, and sometimes they’re manned by someone who drops the mortar in the tube. So the UAV overhead can be used to look for the launch sites,” said Hackett. “If [enemies] hear the motor, it’s a deterrent. They know they’re being watched.”

That’s an effect that is not typically considered by special operators who often discount a system that can be heard and seen. “What we’re learning is that visible presence actually has a significant deterrent effect,” said Hackett. “It’s that psychological effect on Tommy Taliban out there shearing a goat. ‘There’s that buzz again. They’re watching me.’”

MARSOC is leading efforts to expand the small UAS mission into other areas, to include control of indirect fires and mobile target tracking.

Traditionally, when troops are shooting artillery or mortars, they have a spotter on the ground to see where rounds strike. If operators had one of these UAS overhead, they could attain coordinates on the targets. That would yield more accurate firing and faster adjustments on the fly, said Hackett.

The first remotely piloted drones were designed to spot naval gunfire, he pointed out, so the aircraft’s birthright is control of indirect fires. “This isn’t anything revolutionary. I think we just forgot we could do that, for a while. Now we’re rediscovering that great utility,” he said.

Sometimes marines do not want to expose their location by standing up and launching or recovering the UAS. The command is experimenting with a concept called remote launch and handoff, where the aircraft would be sent airborne elsewhere, flown over to the covert operators who would then take control and collect imagery from their hidden position.

“Flying these little guys is great, because you always have them. You always have control, so you always have some capability available, no matter what’s going on around you,” said Hackett.

As the Marine Corps at large evaluates current UAS in the inventory and charts their future direction, officials are developing a family of systems to include a range of small- to medium-sized aircraft.

“We’re remaining aligned with them now, because the systems they provide meet our needs,” said Hackett. If at some point, the service stops fielding the small “group 1” UAS or the current drones do not provide the capabilities that special operators need, then officials would look to U.S. Special Operations Command to field new aircraft to cover the gap, he added. “As of right now, there are no problems,” he said.

But officials are always on the lookout for technology improvements — for more range and endurance, greater speed and better payload in existing platforms. 

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