What can make Sailors or Marines that guard some of the nation’s highest value assets better? What can make them more
prepared, both mentally and physically, for an adverse situation?
The answer is training, training and more training.
A platoon of Sailors and Marines from Marine Corps Security Force Battalion (MCSFB), Bangor recently retuned from a two-week
trip to the United Kingdom as a part of Exercise Tartan Eagle. The team conducted weapons training with the British Royal Marines
that offered a wider variety of combat scenarios, which improved their confidence and marksmanship.
“This training comes from a bilateral agreement for the protection of high value assets,” said British Royal Marine Maj. Kian
Murphy. “We need to have a comparable capability and therefore, we need to do cross training with our American counterparts
to ensure we have this.”
Tartan Eagle is a training exchange program with the British Royal Marines in which they train with the U.S. Marine Corps for
approximately two weeks in each location. The Marines of MCSFB., Bangor, and the British Royal Marines have similar missions
and both can benefit from training with each other.
“I thought the UK phase was awesome,” said U.S. Marine Master Sgt. Jared Barela, MCSFB. “It was probably some of the best shooting
these young Sailors and Marines will have all year. We don’t get nearly as much shooting as they got during this trip. They learned
a lot from the Royal Marines.”
The training focused on many different firing techniques and ways to move and fire their weapons at the same time.
“It’s important to have this cross-cultural pollination,” said Murphy. “Lots of ideas the Americans have are relevant to what we do
and vise versa. I think we can learn a lot from each other just by coming out and doing this. We are not just doing this job, but we
are also operating very close with each other in Iraq and Afghanistan. This close training pays dividends for future operations.”
Some of the ranges only allow shooters to stay in one spot and shoot at a stationary target, but the range in the UK where these
Sailors and Marines had the opportunity to train allowed for moving and shooting as well as shooting at moving targets making
the training more realistic.
“This was motivating, because we had great training with a military we don’t normally get to train with,” said Master-at-Arms 1st
Class (SW) Eric Arp, MCSFB. “We built a lot of camaraderie with the Royal Marines and there were a lot of friendships made. This
was also a great team building opportunity for these Sailors and Marines.”
“This was an all around great experience,” said Marine Lance Cpl. Josh Russell. “This training helps to center and realign you to do
your job and it helps you perform better it also boosts your confidence.”
The British Royal Marines will be coming to Naval Base Kitsap, Bangor to train with their US counterparts at the MCSFB. on close
quarters combat in September.