[VNIS]- United States Marine Corps News 12/30/96 [1/2]

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Subject: [VNIS]- United States Marine Corps News 12/30/96 [1/2]
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Division of Public Affairs, Headquarters, United States Marine
Corps, Washington, DC 20380-1775
Commercial: (703) 614-1492/4/5 DSN: 224-1492/4/5 FAX: (703)
697-5362

In this issue:
'BEARMAT' MARINES HELP KEEP RANGES SAFE DURING STEEL KNIGHT
22ND MARINE EXPEDITIONARY UNIT BEGINS WORKUPS
BRINGING DOWN THE CLOUDS WITH A .50 CALIBER
DETERMINATION HELPS RESERVIST REACH GOALS
EQUIPMENT ALLOWANCE POOL GEAR RIDES 'DRAGON OF CHANGE'
MANY RESOURCES AVAILABLE FOR SEXUAL
HARASSMENT PREVENTION TRAINING
MARINE HONORED IN NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT
MARINES OF CHERRY POINT USE JOINT EXERCISE TO PRACTICE CSAR MISSIONS
MLK BIRTHDAY OBSERVANCE
NCO OF THE YEAR WILL TAKE SUCCESSES TO OCS
PROFILES: COURAGE IN THE CORPS
ROAD SIGNS: NOT FOR THE MARINE NAVIGATORS
ROBOT ASSISTS EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL MARINES
SQUADRON COMMANDER FOCUSES ON MISSION
SQUADRON TOPS 35,000 SAFE HOURS
UNITED STATES MARINE BAND CONCERT SCHEDULE

Date: 12/30/96 Release #: Byline: Cpl. David Brock, 22nd MEU
(SOC)

Headline: 22ND MARINE EXPEDITIONARY UNIT BEGINS
WORKUPS

52TANK.JPG -- An M1-A1 tank is driven onto a landing craft unit
(LCU). The tanks were a tight squeeze when they reached USS Carter
Hall and had less than six inches of clearance after stored. (Photo by Cpl.
David Brock)

ABOARD USS KEARSARGE (Dec. 17) -- The Marines and Sailors of
the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit recently got a taste of what's in store
for them during their upcoming six-month Mediterranean float by
participating in Phibron MEU Integration Training (PMINT).

The large unit boarded USS Kearsarge, USS Ponce, and USS Carter
Hall to practice their loading and offloading procedures while giving the
individual Marines a chance to explore life at sea.

"PMINT allowed us to validate our load plan," said Maj. Lawrence
Ryder, MEU logistics officer. "Actually getting the gear on deck is
different than putting it on paper."

Although the exercise gave the Marines an opportunity to practice their
embarking procedures, it presented several problems.

"Because this is Carter Hall's first float, a lot of questions were raised,"
Ryder said. "We weren't sure if we'd be able to load the tanks where we
wanted,
but it all worked out."

Despite less than six inches of clearance, the tanks were loaded aboard
the new ship and the MEU's load plans were proven successful.

"We only took a small sampling of the equipment we'll deploy with to test
the capabilities of the ships," Ryder said.

PMINT offered the Marines an opportunity to get accustomed to
amphibious life and gave them their first look at how they'll live and work
aboard the ships while deployed. During the six-day exercise, the Marines
concentrated on finding their work spaces, living quarters, and other
important
areas critical to performing their jobs on a full-scale. While on board, the
leathernecks also learned what gear they'll need for the cruise and how to
operate in the close quarters of a ship.

"We were told to expect a little confusion," said Lance Cpl. Patrick Burk,
mortarman. "That was an understatement. We were right on top of each
other."

Burk, who is the oldest of six in his family, said he got used to the tight
spaces quickly, but noticed others who needed more time.

Perhaps the most important training accomplished during PMINT involved
safety. As always, the Marines took into consideration the welfare of all
those involved. Not only during the exercise, but in preparation for their
upcoming cruise. While working, they conducted training designed to
teach everyone how to react in critical situations by practicing man
overboard and abandon ship drills.

PMINT ended safely with the leathernecks landing on Onslow Beach.
Now, with their first shipboard operation under their belts, the Marines
begin preparing for their next exercise. January brings a new year, and
with it, a full-speed ahead training schedule. (Cpl. David Brock, 22nd
MEU)
-USMC-

Date: 12/30/96 Release #: Byline: Cpl. M.S. Cross, MCAGCC, 29
Palms

Headline: DETERMINATION HELPS RESERVIST REACH GOALS

MARINE CORPS AIR-GROUND COMBAT CENTER, Twentynine
Palms, Calif. -- A Marine Reserve administration clerk with the Reserve
Support Unit recently proved that with determination, she can stand
side-by-side with her active-duty peers in all aspects of Marine Corps life.

Lance Corporal Audrey J. Griffith took first place on the Headquarters
Bn. Marine of the Quarter Board Dec. 5., and is determined to take the
Combat Center Marine of the Quarter Board as well.

"If I didn't believe I was going to take the board, then I would be selling
myself short," said the London-Ontario, Canada native. "I know my abilities
and
I'm completely confident that my best will be good enough to beat my peers."

Her determination and drive to prove herself was part of the reason she
decided to join the Corps in the first place.

"One of the reasons that I joined the Marine Corps is because everyone
told me not to. I wanted to prove to everyone that I could succeed and I
have," she said.

Although very confident in her abilities as a Marine, Griffith said that she
has
areas that she feels she could improve upon.

"Running was one of my weaknesses," she said. "I had to prove to
everyone that I could do it so no one looks at me if I fall out of a run."

She realized that running was one of her weak areas before she left for
recruit training in March 1995.

"I've never been a runner, I'm more of a sprinter," the 28-year-old said.
"Before I went to boot camp, I wanted to be able to run at least five miles.
Then, when I got to school and began to run with the men, I started falling
behind in the runs."

She said she became discouraged the first time she began to fall behind
during her Military Occupational Specialty school formation runs, and
vowed she would not let it happen anymore. She began running on her
own time and started hitting the gym; and kept at it until she stopped falling
behind during runs.

"At all the [Headquarters] battalion and company runs, you will never see
me fall behind," she promised.

Griffith is now running three-to-six miles a day, five days a week. She is
trying to work up to a 1/2 marathon that takes place in Las Vegas in
February, she said.

She is also preparing for the Corps' new Physical Fitness Test program.
She currently runs about a 10:55 on the 1 1/2 mile run.

"Right now I could not max it, but hopefully by the time it comes around I
can," she said. "Everything else I can still max, including the 80 sit-ups in
two minutes."

Although she would like to continue her life in the Marine Corps, she said
when her husband, a gunnery sergeant, retires from the Marine Corps and
her term is up, she will head back to Canada to live.

Basically, the Marine Corps is my life right now," she explained. "It's the
way
I am from the time I get up to the time I go to bed. I lacked the sense of
belonging growing up that you have in the Marine Corps. Even as a lance
corporal, I know that what I do makes a difference." (Cpl. M.S. Cross, MCAGCC,
29 Palms) -USMC-

Headline: EQUIPMENT ALLOWANCE POOL GEAR RIDES
'DRAGON OF CHANGE'

MARINE CORPS AIR-GROUND COMBAT CENTER, Twentynine
Palms, Calif. -- Vehicles and generator sets from the Combat Center's
Enhanced Equipment Allowance Pool began a ride on the "dragon of
change"recently when the equipments' oil filtration systems were outfitted
with a modification which could lead to large monetary and environmental
savings.

The Enviro Filtration Company of Gary, Ind., has provided these
secondary filters for the Garrison Mobile Equipment Division's truck and
heavy equipment fleet in the recent past.

The company is now using the EEAP equipment, which is provided to
visiting units during Combined Arms Exercises, to test secondary oil
filtration systems on tactical vehicles.

The test is not to see if the systems work, said Kendal Smith, Enviro
Filtration chief engineer. The idea is to find out just how efficient the
systems are on tactical vehicles.

"The idea of the secondary filter is to extend the life of oil in an engine,"
he
said. "By extending the oil life, we use less oil, fewer filters and spend
less
time with oil changes."

The long-term goal of this test is to save money and the environment, said
Leon Bowling, environmental affairs officer for the Natural Resources and
Environmental Affairs Directorate.

"Last year the Combat Center spent $35,000 to get rid of oil waste," he
said. "We also spent $5,000 on oil filters. None of these figures include
the money spent by CAXes (Combined Arms Exercises)."

If the Combat Center can reduce these costs, the Marine Corps will have
more money to spend on equipping its Marines, Bowling said.

"My intention is to take this data inside the beltway (Washington, D.C.)
and see if we can get into some long-term studies," he added. "If the
system works here, tests will have to be done in other climates before the
Department of Defense adopts secondary filtration for all of its tactical
vehicles."

The Combat Center, according to Bowling, is required by executive order
and the State of California to reduce both the amount of toxins produced
and the toxicity of its oil. Bowling, who is responsible for pollution
prevention and reduction aboard the Combat Center, undertook this
project as yet another Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs
initiative to save our environment and save tax dollars.

"We're shooting for this to work," he said, "but even if it doesn't, we still
have some benefits. We've been able to have commercial technicians come aboard
the base to help us with some problems at a low cost. If the system doesn't
prove itself on the tactical vehicles, at least we'll have learned more about
the idea and maybe in a few years the technology will have improved to the
point
where it will work."

The Garrison Mobile Equipment Division placed secondary filtration units
on some parts of its commercial fleet under their own initiative, Bowling
said. "It seems to be working out quite well for them."

Enviro Filtration engineers will return to the Combat Center between
CAXes to take oil samples from the modified equipment and send them to
an independent lab in Denver for testing, Smith said.

"We've established a test group and a base group by not modifying all of
the vehicles. The Marines and Enviro Filtration will be collecting a lot of
data
over the next year so that we can determine how cost effective this measure
will
be."

Although he doesn't have any solid figures yet, Smith said he hopes to see
substantial savings per vehicle per year. "I think the secondary filtration
systems will pay for themselves early on and then the real savings will add
up."

Smith said he is happy to find the Marines here understand the importance
of the test.

"They realize we're not here to make a sale but to perform testing," Smith
said. "They are working hard to give this technology a chance. It's a
pleasure to work with folks who have that kind of attitude."

According to Smith, the Combat Center is the only Marine Corps base
currently delving into secondary filtration, but the Air Force is also
working with Enviro Filtration in order to place secondary filtration
systems in its commercial fleet.

"The Marine Corps, however, is breaking new ground," said Smith, "by
testing these on their tactical vehicles," he said. (Cpl. Jay Lamborn,
MCAGCC, 29 Palms)
-USMC-

Date: 12/30/96 Release #: Byline: Cpl. Bryan Lieske, 2d MAW

Headline: MARINES OF CHERRY POINT USE JOINT EXERCISE
TO PRACTICE CSAR MISSIONS

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION, Cherry Point, N.C. -- Marines, or
any other servicemembers for that matter, never leave each other behind.
That's the reason behind a combat search and rescue mission, or CSAR.

Several squadrons from the Army, Navy and Air Force swarmed to
Cherry Point Nov. 20 for the opportunity to gain important experience
flying CSAR missions with the Moondogs of Marine Tactical Electronic
Warfare Squadron 3.

"That means you do a strike, and, during the strike, somebody gets shot
down," Lt. Commander Vinny Lamolinara, Navy helicopter pilot with
HS-11 of Jacksonville, Fla., said. "You have an aviator on the ground,
and now you have to fly a mission to go in and get him."

According to Lamolinara, CSAR missions have been around for a while,
but their effectiveness has been under serious scrutiny since the beginning.
CSAR missions were attempted frequently during the Vietnam War; but in
Vietnam,
"these missions were killing more people than they were attempting to rescue
on
the ground."

Squadrons like HS-11 are the center of focus during a CSAR mission
because they have SH-60 Seahawks, which are specifically designed as a
combat search and rescue helicopters. SH-60s have several types of
equipment for protection, such as infrared jamming equipment and a radar
early-warning system; but, more protection is necessary to ensure the
highest probability of success.

Enter the Marines, (along with the Army and Air Force).

"We're working with joint assets now -- A-10 Thunderbolts from the Air
Force, AH-64 Apaches from the Army and Marine EA-6B Prowlers --
so now we have a completely integrated team," Lamolinara said. "We can
also add SEALs or other special operations teams as the need arises.
We've found that we've developed some pretty neat tactics which we
didn't have the capability of doing before."

The CSAR team concept pivots around the SH-60, which is the pick-up
platform. The other aircraft serve as layers of defense to protect the
Seahawk from various types of attacks.

"We're inherently vulnerable because we're slow, and we don't have the
weapons to attack a radar site or an anti-aircraft gun," Lamolinara said.
"The Apaches have that capability, and they stay right in there with us.
Prowlers can jam or destroy any type of radar system that could pose a
threat to us. The combination of the whole is pretty significant."

HS-11's commanding officer, Commander Michael Mulcahy, is primarily
responsible for the idea of the integrated, joint-service team.

"He's really the visionary in the whole organization -- especially the
contingency operations," Lamolinara said. "He's made all of this possible,
and his tactics are pretty much on the leading edge. Nobody else has
achieved the level of complexity and joint-service coordination in this
organization."

Thanks in part to the creativity and foresight of Mulcahy, and the hard
work of all servicemembers involved, the CSAR team can react with
different contingency plans for different situations.

"Our aircraft can land while an Apache covers us from the air, or both
aircraft can land and use special forces personnel to lay down a security
perimeter," Lamolinara said. "We can drop special operations troops
inland or have them fast rope out of the helicopter. Once they patrol and
find the survivor, then we come back in at night with night vision goggles
and pick them up."

The CSAR can use different means to pick up survivors as well.

"We can land and perform a standard pick-up, or we can load an injured
survivor onto a Stokes litter and pick him up on a hoist," Lamolinara.
"There are basically no restrictions on how we can get somebody out --
from the deepest jungle to a wide open area."

To achieve this level of competence, the CSAR constantly practices in
real-life scenarios.

"I'm absolutely convinced that it's exactly the same thing we're going to do
in
combat," Lamolinara said. "The way you train is the how you're going to fight,
and this is the best training we've had. We have real threat emitters out
there
-- I mean this is the real McCoy that we're going to see in combat. We've been
able to develop tactics on how to defeat them, how to defend ourselves and how
to utilize all of the other assets."

To complete a mission successfully, a CSAR team must evade and defeat
the most highly advanced IAD (integrated air defense) systems. IADs can
use any combination of surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft guns and
shoulder-fired rocket launchers.

"Right now, we're going up against the most densely combined IADs --
more coordinated than anything that's out there right now -- and we're
beating them," Lamolinara said. "We're going in and picking up people
successfully, and we're getting out." (Cpl. Bryan Lieske, 2d MAW)
-USMC-

Date: 12/30/96 Release #: Byline: Lance Cpl. Erik Suthrland Svihla,
MCB Camp Lejeune

Headline: NCO OF THE YEAR WILL TAKE SUCCESSES TO OCS

MARINE CORPS BASE, Camp Lejeune, N.C. -- The responsibilities
that come with being a Marine noncommissioned officer are often great
and numerous. The NCO must not only make sure that he is in good
keeping of the standards set by the Marine Corps, but must also be able
to ensure that his subordinates are following his example.

Sergeant William Morrison of Headquarters and Service Company, 2nd
Maintenance Battalion, 2nd Force Service Support Group was selected to
be an example of examples, and given the award of NCO of the Year for
2nd FSSG in an early December ceremony. His selection marked the third
time that a Marine from 2nd Maintenance Bn. had been awarded this
honor.

Brigadier General Harold Mashburn, Jr., presided over the ceremony and
presented Morrison with the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal
and the 2nd FSSG NCO of the Year Award. Morrison also received
numerous plaques and certificates, including an NCO of the Year award
from the Noncommissioned Officers Association.

The road to earning NCO of the Year was very strenuous, according to
Morrison.

"First I had to go before the board at the company level to compete for
NCO of the Quarter. Then I had to do the same at the battalion board.
Finally, I was selected as NCO of the Quarter for 2nd FSSG. After that,
all that was left was NCO of the Year, which involved me going up against
all of the NCOs of the Quarter from all the other divisions, and I took that
one, too.

Morrison said there were numerous criteria reviewed by the selection
board members.

"First, they look at our record book to make sure that we're qualified for
the award on paper. They also fire a lot of Battle Skills Training
knowledge and other questions pertaining to our rank at us," he said. "But
most importantly, they look at our bearing, the way we present ourselves,
and our uniforms."

According to Morrison, the way you present and handle yourself at your
job on a day-to-day basis is most important.

"You don't necessarily have to score a 300 PFT or be an expert on the
rifle range. That helps, but it's how you handle yourself and your people at
what you do. Know your people, and take care of everything they need. You have
to make yourself the very best that you can be, and do everything you do to
the
utmost of your ability," he said.

According to Sgt. Maj. Ronald Kirby, 2nd Maintenance Bn. Sergeant
Major, that's just what Morrison does.

"He's a heck of an NCO. Everything is always done right when Sgt.
Morrison handles it," he said. "Ask anyone around here, and they'll say,
'Hey, Sgt. Morrison is squared away and he can do his job.'"

Doing his job is leading Morrison to bigger things in his career. He already
has
an acceptance to Officers Candidate School and will soon begin his training.

In Kirby's opinion, this couldn't be better for Morrison. "I really hate to
lose
him. He makes a superb NCO, but I know he'll make an even better officer.
There's just no holding him back." (Lance Cpl. Erik Suthrland Svihla, MCB Camp
Lejeune) -USMC-

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