MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO -- With 51,000 acres of forests, ranges, roads, trails and facilities to patrol on the west side of Marine Corps Base Quantico, the eight patrolmen with the base’s Range Management Branch have a big backyard to manage. Some of their work is visible to the Marines and many other units that train on the base’s ranges, but a lot of it is not.
“We periodically go by and check on [units], make sure everything’s good, make sure they’re not doing something they haven’t requested, make sure no one’s where they’re not supposed to be,” said Sgt. Matthew Tobler, one of the patrolmen’s team leaders. “We report everything we see, and we go check out places [Range Control Facility operators] need information on.”
After a group leaves a range, the patrolmen check to see that it’s been cleaned up properly.
They carry out search-and-rescue missions for Marines and others who get lost during land navigation exercises, and they also escort first responders to any medical emergencies or fires, as they did during the fire that burned more than 3,400 acres on the west side of the base last month.
It was the patrolmen who locked and manned the gates around the burning area to keep anyone from getting trapped there, and some of them stayed with the firefighters, keeping the Range Control Facility up to date on the situation, Tobler said. Outfitted with small-scale firefighting equipment, they also assisted as they were able to.
The patrolmen also provide security for the west side of the base, said Staff Sgt. Keith Dailey, Range Management Branch’s staff noncommissioned officer in charge of operations, noting that they check hunting, fishing and woodcutting licenses for those they encounter on patrol and routinely check all the 126 gates on the roads of the west side of base. Every gate is inspected daily, especially those around the perimeter, and many have to be opened or closed depending where live-fire training is taking place.
This is one of the jobs that has less visibility, but is no less essential, than representing the base to the many agencies that train here.
“Just a simple mistake and people can end up in an area where live rounds are impacting,” said Sgt. Carl Dobrotka, the other team leader for the patrolmen.
Another of their duties is simply to patrol. And patrol, and patrol.
“These patrolmen patrol every road, and trail,” said Dailey, adding that trails that aren’t passable by truck have to be patrolled on foot.
Since the first of the year, each of the patrolmen has put roughly 4,500 miles on his truck, said Sgt. John Eversley, Range Management’s motor transport chief. Given that most of the roads are unpaved, he said they keep the vehicles in remarkable condition.
Every vehicle carries chainsaws and tree trimmers in case of trees blocking the roads, and Tobler said they would easily cut up 40 or 50 trees after a violent storm. If a road is washed out, they may have to clear an alternate route, so it helps to know where old, overgrown roads are. “If we don’t have a lot going on, we’ll just go out and clear old roads,” Tobler said.
Spring weather makes the job more pleasant, but it has also brought out the snakes and ticks.
Eversley noted that Tobler had recently pulled 15 ticks off himself after a day of clearing brush. “And if there are wasps attacking a unit out there, they’ve got to go out and fight them,” he added.
It’s a job that operates 24 hours a day, 360 days a year. Even in the dead of night, there are patrolmen in the training area and other patrolmen on call, Dailey said.
“They’re out there rain, sleet, snow or shine,” said Capt. Craig Olszta, Range Management’s head of Projects, Plans and Policies. Although it’s a large area to cover, Quantico is relatively small in comparison with other Marine Corps training installations, Olszta said. “These guys are the boots on the ground who enable us to maximize the space we have here to train the future leaders of the Corps.”
“Some days we’re here until midnight fighting fires,” Tobler said. “You’ve just got to be flexible.”
“This job is a lot of fun, seriously,” said Dobrotka.