Iraq-bound 2/23 has packed training schedule - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Iraq-bound 2/23 has packed training schedule

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — When the Corps hands you lemons, a good CO won’t settle for lemonade — he’ll bake a lemon soufflé.

Two months before 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marines, was officially activated for its spring deployment to Iraq, the Reserve unit’s commander, Lt. Col. Joseph A. Cabell, launched an ambitious — albeit compressed — training regimen to prepare his Marines for the counterinsurgency mission that awaits them in the desert. It’s beginning to pay off

“We’re trying to cram 270 days of training into 90,” said Cabell, who oversees a battalion of 1,100 plus nearly 200 Marines with attached units, from his temporary command post on Camp Horno in January.

Beginning in October, Cabell had most of the battalion blanket Camp Pendleton’s ranges and spread out to other sites and schools for individual courses and small-unit level training. The clock was ticking, he thought, and there would be little time to rest.

One by one, the reservists began to knock off their pre-deployment requirements, from gas chamber and egress training to qualifications on new weapons and lasers. They delved into Arabic language and culture training.

“That way, when we did [officially] come together, all of the individual schools and training were done,” Cabell said.

Now, as they wrap up a series of training exercises at Pendleton’s ranges and urban training facilities, the 2/23 reservists await the beginning of battalion-level Mojave Viper exercises at Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif. And they’ll do that, too, with a shorter workup time than most active-duty battalions bound for Iraq.

But as many of these Marines attest, they have hit the ground running and haven’t looked back. The breakneck training schedule includes working weekends and few days off, and various specialized mobile training teams have helped equip and familiarize them with their full load of gear, weapons and vehicles.

The unit was last activated in 2003, when it participated in the Iraq invasion — a lot has changed since then. Their workup at Pendleton has addressed many of the differences.

The Kilo-2 Combat Town, for example, allows platoons to split off on different training “lanes” for mounted patrols and raids in the mock Iraqi village. There, several dozen Iraqi men and women work as role players, making the exercises more akin to the conditions that await the Marines in theater.

During this “stimulus response training,” Marines experience loud, chaotic situations before they first encounter real Iraqis on the ground, said Maj. Kevin Charter, Echo Company commander.

“It’s multitasking, I think, to the extreme,” he said.

And that’s exactly what these reservists want.

“The quality of training, what’s going on these ranges, is much better,” said Sgt. Bill Dorshkind, an Iraq veteran and 1st Squad leader with Echo Company’s 2nd Platoon. “Just putting us into the worse possible situations they can imagine is the best thing they can do for us.”

Cabell said 2/23 has received “unbelievable” support from higher commands, which have allowed him to send about 360 Marines to various schools and courses since October, including more than 50 to the coveted Squad Leaders Course at Pendleton and eight to the Operational Tactics Instructor Course.

The battalion rarely gets to build unit cohesion during normal drills — a symptom of its geographic disparity. The Headquarters and Service Company, for instance, is based in Pasadena, Calif., but the line companies are dispersed across three states. Echo Company is located in San Bruno, about 400 miles up the California coast. Fox Company is split between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.

The experience these past few months has helped the unit overcome much of that. It’s been hard work, but 2/23 is beginning to gel.

“It’s been busy training. It’s been a tough schedule,” said Echo Company’s Gunnery Sgt. Edward Guerrero, “but I think it prepares [us] more for what’s over there.”