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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 01/22/2003 6:27:32 PM PST by sonofatpatcher2
United States Marines Antiterrorism Force
Special weapons and tactics of this new elite brigade
BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY
Carefully adjusting the variable scope on top of the new sniper rifle, a unit marksman squinted toward the far end of the training site where a fellow Marine was removing his chemical protection mask. "This is sweet," he chuckled. "I can look down his ear canal with this thing." The next person whose ear comes in the crosshairs of the enhanced Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) will get more than an impromptu earwax inspection. Already field-tested in Afghanistan, the DMR version of the 7.62mm M14 is just one of the new tools being used in America's war on terrorism by the U.S. Marine Corps' 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade Antiterrorism unit. The 4th MEB has the distinction of being both the youngest and oldest terrorism fighting force in the U.S. military. It was created on Oct. 29, 2001, in direct response to the September 11 attacks on the United States by Egyptian and Saudi Arabian terrorists. But its roots reach back to the early 1800s when the U.S. Marine Corps was called upon to rout the Barbary pirates from "the shores of Tripoli" in North Africa.
Except for the ceremonial swords Marines wear with their full dress uniforms, there is nothing the fighters in that first war on terrorism would recognize at the 4th MEB. The 6000-strong Marine unit consists of four combat elements: an Antiterrorism Battalion, a Security Guard Battalion, a Security Force Battalion and the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force.
"Conventional warfare is looking toward wars like we have fought them for years," Capt. Matt Morgan, of the 4th MEB Antiterrorism staff, told POPULAR MECHANICS during our recent visit to Camp Lejeune, N.C., where we were invited to observe the 3rd Battalion, 6th Unit. The unit is shifting its training to adapt to the new tactics and weapons of the war on terrorism. "Our antiterrorism mind-set is a major shift. We're not fighting states anymore," Morgan said. "We're not fighting government forces any longer. These are small isolated groups within cultures." Instead of reacting to terrorism, the U.S. military's primary effort will be the prevention of terrorist actions. The new mission is to detect and deter terrorist activity and to defend American targets. "We don't consider that the best way to defend something is to put up a bunch of wire and stand outside," said Morgan. "We're much more proactive in surveillance, countersurveillance and limited offensive actions. This means that we can slap them where they lie.".
Special Weapons
Special weapons start with 5.56mm terrorist tamers such as the M4A1 carbine and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. The firepower quickly increases to the 7.62mm range and lethality of the newly enhanced M14 Designated Marksman Rifle that was field-tested in Afghanistan during early 2002. Some close encounters of the terrorist kind are best handled with the new M1014 12-gauge Joint Combat Shotgun..
Sensor War
To see how the Marines would take the fight to the terrorists, PM accompanied Sgt. Dave Cox and a group of instructors as they led a small "fire team" element through Camp Lejeune's 30-acre Military Operations in Urban Terrain Collective Training Facility. With 31 buildings enclosing 159,000 sq. ft. of indoor training space, the facility provides brigade members with a range of urban settings in which to hone their antiterrorism capabilities. Riding into the action in one of the Marine Corps' new M1511 Interim Fast Attack Vehicles (IFAV), equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun, we saw a familiar combination of firepower including M4A1 carbines, M1014 Joint Combat Shotguns, M249 Squad Automatic Weapons, M14 Designated Marksman Rifles and M240G medium machine guns. What makes this firepower more lethal is its sensor capabilities in the form of individual optical, image-intensification and thermal sights. "In the field, [we would have] a task force of 200 sensors focused on the detection, surveillance, sensing and stopping [of] terrorist activity," said Morgan. To make their force more survivable, the Marines have issued the 4th MEB a new utility uniform complete with ceramic body armor. Assuming they will be up against unconventional weapons, Marines assigned to the Antiterrorism Battalion have their M40 series chemical protection masks on their hip. Beyond the nuclear, biological and chemical warfare training received by all Marines, Antiterrorism Battalions are taught tactics that will enable them to fight more effectively in lethally contaminated environments..
Rapid Response
The brigade's second major component is the Security Guard Battalion, headquartered at Quantico, Va. The battalion includes all of the Marines currently guarding the U.S. Embassies in 131 countries..
Should events exceed the capabilities of the Guard Battalion, the third element of the MEB can be called into action. Known as the Security Force Battalion and based in Norfolk, Va., its ranks include Fleet Antiterror Security Teams. FASTs are on around-the-clock standby. At a moment's notice they can be deployed to secure diplomatic locations and military assets that have been attacked or are under threat of attack. In the days after the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, FAST units were the first on the scene..
Homeland Protection
Historically, the Marines have fought on foreign shores, but the attack on America means that one of the Corps' units could be called upon to defend the United States here on our own soil. This is the unique assignment of the fourth element of the 4th MEB, the Chemical Biological Incident Response Force (CBIRF) centered in Indian Head, Md..
Created under a Presidential Decision Directive in direct response to the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, CBIRF's mission is to respond to a credible threat of an attack involving chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons, or high-yield explosives. Working with local, state and federal agencies, this unit would be on the alert for threats. Should terrorists succeed, their mission would shift to helping with search and rescue, emergency medical care and personnel decontamination..
"We're essentially a rescue organization, lifesaving versus life taking," Col. Thomas X. Hammes, CBIRF's commanding officer, told PM. "Everybody in this outfit is a 'hot zone' person. Even our emergency room physicians [are equipped to] work in a contaminated environment.".
Incorporating approximately 340 Marines and 30 sailors, CBIRF maintains a 123-person Immediate Reaction Force (IRF) that is ready to go any hour of the day, any day of the year. Its members represent more than 40 different military specialties. In the aftermath of a terror attack, they could be at work within 1 hour, assisting civilian and military authorities. At the disaster scene, they could decontaminate up to 225 ambulatory and 75 nonambulatory victims per hour, and treat 1500 nerve-agent casualties and 150 trauma patients, plus an additional 24 respiratory distress cases..
Realistic Training
There is only one way to train for this type of action, and we saw it firsthand a few days before the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks, when PM was invited to observe a CBIRF training exercise near Washington, D.C. Within minutes of a request from a captain in the District of Columbia Fire Department, the IRF was rolling 30 miles toward the nation's capital, its gear crammed into nearly two dozen commercial vehicles, including SUV-based command posts, communications vans and 20-ft. panel trucks packed with medical and rescue gear. The most sophisticated part of the rolling menagerie was a reconnaissance laboratory. Capable of detecting and identifying 120,000 toxic industrial chemicals, every known chemical warfare agent and eight biological warfare agents, it is better equipped than many university science labs we've visited..
Under overall control of Lt. Col. Scott Graham, CBIRF executive officer and incident commander, Marine reconnaissance teams in Level A "moon suits" rapidly moved into action while casualty extraction teams began the removal of dozens of attack victims. To demonstrate how situations can quickly go from bad to worse, the exercise called for the simultaneous discovery of hostages and a bomb in a nearby building. The IRF's Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team swung into action and deployed Andros Mk V A1. The 700-pound robot is armed with cameras, a grasping attachment and a range of devices including the Jet Remote Operated Disrupter, or jay-rod, which is powerful enough to fire a blast of water completely through a steel ammunition can..
After rescuing the hostages for decontamination and treatment, EOD members encountered another surprise, a second bomb. This time they employed one of their portable X-ray systems to identify the type of bomb and to help determine disposal processes. Unit capabilities include sending digital X-ray images back to FBI laboratories for real-time analysis..
Back at Camp Lejeune, Morgan reflected on the balance between CBIRF's defensive capabilities and the brigade's offensive antiterrorism elements. "The key thing is having it all under one brigade," he said. "We not only can provide things like low-key diplomatic security, but we can also turn right around the same day and conduct limited offensive operations. So, if we learn that there's a terror cell operating and we need to act in order to prevent an attack, we can do it."
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
Some good photos at Popular mechanics URL above.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Yes, the ole 14 could reach out there and touch someone-- touch 'em good and dead!
If anything ever yelled Semper Fi it is this thread. It seems very similar to the FAST teams you once told me about.
A great read i am certain you will enjoy. Take care and God bless.
Spetz!
from an old 82d ABN. dogface- "ALL THE WAY"
Semper fi!
Thanks Spetz.
This is the logical beefed up and multicapable extension a of FAST Company. They went ahead and canibalized a Battalion [if I am not mistaken it was 3rd Battalion 8th Marines....a unit I was a member of after my stint at FAST] and based it at Lejeune. I believe they are going to make strides at linking it with JSOC.
It would be great to be back there...I am positive they are training daily on my old stomping ground. It would be so much fun.
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