Det One - Force Recon Association

Training 35
Photo courtesy of Patrick J. Rogers
GySgt Jaime Maldonado and SSgt Jaime J. Sierra prepare
for a mission during the Capstone Exercise in
Nevada, December 2003. Every Marine in Det One
was issued with the same equipment and weapons,
and every one was expected to master the basic skills
such as gunfighting, communications, first aid, and
driving.
We had one guy kicked off, one guy kicked, and one
guy bit.” 15 Despite the hardheadedness of the beasts,
they could carry substantial loads. The detachment
subsequently used a mule train for resupply during
one phase of the tactical problem. As strange a military
event as mule-packing might seem, Gunnery Sergeant
Genegabus, for one, did not see it as
far-fetched at all, given the U.S. Army Special Forces’
recent experience in Afghanistan.
The Bridgeport exercise served as the welcomeaboard
package for a new member of the fires liaison
element, Captain Daniel B. “Shoe” Sheehan III,
brought on board as the forward air controller after
the original table of organization was augmented to
give the battle staff more depth. A Bell AH-1W Super
Cobra pilot just returned from Operation Iraqi Freedom,
Sheehan was not only a new-join but also new
to the ground operations business. He had not served
in an air and naval gunfire liaison company (AN-
GLICO), nor in reconnaissance units, nor in a Special
Operations Training Group. He had two Marine expeditionary
unit deployments under his belt, the second
involving both a substantial period in Djibouti
working with a joint special operations task force, as
well as combat flying in Iraq. He had tried but not
succeeded to gain entry into another arm of Special
Operations Command. That unit’s loss became Det
One’s gain.
The final week at Bridgeport was a memorable
navigation and “terrain appreciation” exercise with
“visits” to the highest peaks, where units normally do
not train. 16 The experience level of the detachment
as a whole made training in the roughest parts of the
center possible, as did Major Kozeniesky’s recent
service there as operations officer. Captain Thompson
of the reconnaissance element described the last
seven days as “half mountaineering skills and half gut
check, to make sure that we had the right crop of
guys that could march up and down mountains with
70-pound rucks, operate in the high altitude, and not
have a total mental meltdown.” 17 He saw it as a “Man-
Ex,” a straightforward test of each Marine’s manliness.
Colonel Coates described the Bridgeport exercise as
the detachment’s “selection,” revealing something of
his intent for the exercise beyond the utility of a tactical
problem. 18
The “terrain appreciation” exercise was a two-day
hike by element and team. Major Kozeniesky chose
the route with his intimate knowledge of the base
and designed the exercise to test each man’s ability
not only to hike at altitude with a heavy load, but
also to negotiate the terrain with tactical and technical
expertise. Major Dolan, who had trained there
many years earlier as an enlisted Marine, called this
particular phase “very, very difficult, hard stuff.” 19
Master Sergeant Padilla—former Bridgeport instructor,
Royal Marines mountain instructor, and trained
mountain leader—said it was “probably the hardest
training” he had ever seen a unit do at the Mountain
Warfare Training Center. 20 The last phase of the
Bridgeport exercise also illustrated the line separating
special and conventional operations: in special operations,
the performance expectations increase rather
than decrease, even as the conditions get tougher.
The culmination of the “Man-Ex” was a direct action
mission, preceded by another route march. The
Marines—two teams for reconnaissance and surveillance,
and then the task-organized assault force—
were inserted approximately 20 miles from the
objective. The mission, according to Major Dolan,
“required a two-and-a-half day movement, across
two ridgelines, going over 10,000-foot passes.” 21
Groups of Marines from an infantry battalion training
at Bridgeport were out looking for the reconnaissance
and surveillance teams, adding to the realism
of the exercise. Then, as the helicopters arrived to
extract the force after the successful strike, the training
cell had one more “kick in the nuts,” as Major
Kozeniesky put it. The aircraft set down unexpectedly
in separate landing zones, and the pilots
handed the Det One Marines notes that read: “The
helicopters have just crashed; execute your evasion
and recovery plan.” The evading Marines linked up
according to plan, with counterintelligence teams