Marines from Bravo Co. at The Basic School aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico exercised convoy leadership at the Virtual Combat Convoy Trainer at Camp Upsher on May 21, 2013.

The VCCT, a virtual exercise program, tests TBS students’ decisions while serving together in a convoy.

“We have been here for roughly four months,” said 2nd Lt. Joe Orskey, 6th Platoon, TBS student. “It is important to do this training so we can familiarize ourselves with procedure.”

Marines used the combat simulation to prepare for combat.

“There’s a lot of problem solving in convoys,” said Capt. Jennifer Kukla, staff platoon commander, 6th Platoon, The Basic School. “We want to make critical thinkers who can take a problem and think out of the box for solutions.”

The VCCT provided an atmosphere for the Marines to make real-life decisions in an economical way. The Marines had separated into different groups and operated mock humvees while communicating with each other as they travel in a convoy. The groups interacted while the program simulated different scenarios. The students fired simulated weapons and called for medivacs. They even rolled a humvee, when they weren’t careful.

Because of the virtual side of the program, the Marines could do things that would otherwise be very expensive.

 “We can do some robust stuff here,” said Nate Scenario, electronic maintenance technician. “The VCCT saves the Marine Corps around $50,000 per scenario.”

The convoy training is important for all TBS Marines, because of the various Military

Occupational Specialties that Marines serve in.

“Support roles may not see this again until deployment,” said Kukula. “This is what they see before they go out of country.”

The instructors measured the students success in the following ways:

“To be successful, the Marines need to apply lessons they have learned in classes, stay in the scenario and take as much from the scenario as they can,” Kukula said.