Marine Corps Base Quantico -- Marines and military police within Marine Corps Base Quantico’s Security Battalion, as well as Marines in the base’s Security Augmentation Force, participated in active shooter training exercises on Nov. 17. The training was scenario-based and consisted of force-on-target and force-on-force situations.
This type of training is held every six months, said Master Sgt. Richard Bolin, Security Battalion’s operations chief, who organizes the training.
“The greatest threat to us at this point in time is an active shooter,” Bolin said. “There have been too many recent events [lately]. I’d much rather we be prepared than not.”
The Marines used Simunition, non-lethal training ammunition that leaves either a blue or red mark when it strikes a target. Bolin said there were 250 of each color round for that day’s training.
During a security brief prior to the first scenario, Dan Bertrand, one of three contracted instructors from Homeland Security Solutions, Inc. who led the training, told the Marines that if they got shot, they shouldn’t assume they were dead.
“The only time an instructor will tell you you’re dead is if you just give up,” Bertrand said. “You have to go into a scenario like this thinking, ‘Hell no, I’m not going to die today, not because that piece of garbage put a bullet in me. Not today, not in this school, not in this building.’”
The first scenario for Security Battalion was a force-on-target exercise in which the Marines and officers practiced moving together as small units to find and neutralize a threat inside a building.
Simultaneously, Marines with Quantico’s Security Augmentation Force practiced breaching a door and clearing a room. For many in SAF, who have a primary military occupation aside from being part of the force, this was the first time they had practiced this kind of maneuver. Instructor Matt Koziol told them to enter the room smoothly, without blocking their partners at the door behind them. Once inside, they were to go in opposite directions. They practiced this over and over throughout the day.
A third scenario was nicknamed “the nightmare scenario” by the instructors. The trainees had to enter a dark multi-level building strewn with wounded people, find two active shooters on an upper level, and neutralize them.
“Get information from the wounded [in the building] as to the shooter’s location. You have to get to the shooter and stop the bad stuff from happening before you do anything else,” trainer Steve Poe told the Marines.
“The guys who do this kind of thing — they don’t have plans for 5 p.m. this evening. They came here today to die. So you have to be as aggressive as they are.”
Lance Cpl. Emilio Gonzalez, Security Battalion, said he found the training useful.
“Muscle memory!” Gonzalez said. “We’ve gotta stay sharp. People depend on us to know our job and to respond quickly. We can’t let them down.”
— Writer: auphausconner@quanticosentryonline.com