Barksdale welcomes Marines’ Lone Star Battalion for training

  • Published
  • By Senior Airmen Benjamin Raughton and Mozer O. Da Cunha
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. – --  Team Barksdale welcomed United States Marine Corps Reservists, March 18 to 20, who spent drill weekend conducting small unit and platoon training exercises on the East Reservation here.

Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, conducted a 9-mile ruck march, moved a platoon behind enemy lines, and engaged opposing forces.

“We start out in small groups of Marines and they perform training as fire teams and squads,” said 1st Sgt. Bradley Driver, Bravo Company inspector instructor 1st sergeant. “This month they’re doing training as platoons. Next, they’ll train as a company. This training they receive here is patrolling. As an entry unit, you send out patrols throughout the area looking for the bad guys.”

The Marines brought everything they’d need to patrol and survive in the wilderness behind enemy lines: rifles, Meals Ready-to-Eat, canteens, navigation equipment, first aid kits, communications equipment, armored vests, helmets and more.

“This is what ground infantry does,” Driver said. “This environment provides Marines a wide open space where we’re unrestricted. Maneuverability makes a big difference for us.”

The training will help keep the troops at peak performance when deployed in a contingency environment.

“We get limited opportunities to go to the field and do training of any sort, so this is an opportunity for us to hone skills we use in annual training,” said Maj. Timothy Kronjaeger, Bravo Company inspector instructor. “Patrolling is a basic skill most of our other warfighting skills rest upon. The units moved through an area and looked to identify adversaries and destroy enemy positions to launch larger scale attacks as necessary.

Additionally, patrolling provides general security and maintains a friendly presence in the area, thereby ensuring there are no enemies nearby in the area, he said.

“We use this in areas where there are known or unknown enemy positions,” he said. “We can identify the entire battle space and determine what we need to do.”

Each year, the 23rd Marines’ training plan is specifically tailored to targeting skill sets from non-combatant evacuation operations to full-scale combat contingency operations.

As a reserve unit, over 80 percent of Bravo Company Marines live more than 50 miles from Shreveport-Bossier City region.

“It’s great to train on Barksdale,” Kronjaeger said. “The Air Force units here have facilitated our training with logistical support, vehicles and using their training area. It’s a good step in a working relationship in the joint environment.”