MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- Running and biking on the roads and trails of Marine Corps Base Quantico are popular and effective ways to stay fit, but Range Management Branch wants base employees and residents to be aware that using some roads in training areas can have a seriously negative impact on one’s health.
The road network on the west side of the base, where live-fire training and other potentially dangerous activities are carried out, has a system of 127 gates that are routinely locked or opened according to the day’s activities.
“The vast majority [of locked gates] are to prevent access to surface danger zones during live-fire training,” said Chris Thompson, range safety specialist.
However, he said, the gates are not always taken as seriously as they should be by joggers and bikers, who too often bypass them and unwittingly end up in serious danger.
“For example, if you bypass a locked gate on MCB-3, and ranges 15 or 15A are hot, you would literally come around the corner and find yourself directly in the line of fire,” added James Woodfin, range operations officer. “We really, really mean don’t come past the closed gate because there’s a reason those signs are posted and the gate is locked.”
Range 15 and 15A aren’t the only ones with roads downrange. For example, MCB-6 passes behind the targets on Range 11, with no berm or buffer between, Thompson said. “The last targets on Range 11 that you can engage from the firing line are literally less than 200 yards from that road.”
And the unpaved Road 609, which runs parallel to MCB-6, actually threads between the last targets on the range.
Thompson and Woodfin emphasized that range patrolmen open and close the gates every day, and sometimes throughout the day, to allow access to safe areas and prohibit entry into areas made dangerous by training.
“Those gates are closed because Range Control knows something that you don’t,” Woodfin said.
In fact, he said, there are eight gates on MCB-3 alone to permit as much access as possible, depending on how much of the road is in a surface danger zone at any given time.
Thompson said there are times when roads are closed due to training activities other than shooting, such as those that involve pyrotechnics and smoke, or perhaps nighttime convoy operations using blacked-out vehicles and night-vision goggles. “We obviously don’t want that going on while somebody’s driving their Honda down the road.”
Occasionally, RMB encounters people trespassing from off base, bypassing locked perimeter gates to enter the installation and ride motorcycles, walk dogs or exercise, Woodfin said. “What they don't know is that, not only is it illegal, but bypassing most of the west-side perimeter gates will lead you right into the impact area and directly into a surface danger zone if those ranges are hot.”
Thompson noted that there are also roads that may be open to allow access for government vehicles supporting training, but that are not to be used by joggers and bikers.
Marine Corps Base Order 6100.2, signed last August, designates the roads in the populated areas of the west side of Quantico that are available for physical training when their gates aren’t closed. These include Smith Lake Road, Application Trail and others. Any road not specifically designated in the order is not to be used for physical training, regardless of whether it’s blocked by gates.
For example, Thompson said, no one should be using Washboard Road, located behind Camp Barrett, for exercise, dog walking or other non-training purposes.
In the event that a unit should find a gate blocking the route it planned to take to a training area, they can call 703-784-5321 or 703-784-5322 for an alternate route, Woodfin said.
— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com