I'm not sure if this is the right spot for it, but I did see an article about it in a recent hunting magazine:
Video Link: http://marines.feedroom.com/?fr_story=931853d0ea396d999112cce6d4973a0df07f17c8&rf=sitemap
Google search for Combat Hunter: http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&a...=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images
Every Marine a Hunter: Support Marines take Combat Hunter Course
4/27/2008
By Staff Sgt. Bryce Piper, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit
http://www.marines.mil/units/marfor...nterSupportMarinestakeCombatHunterCourse.aspx
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — "What really appealed to me was the observation tactics," said Lt. Col. John Giltz, "Patience is a big thing. This training teaches Marines to make the right decision at the right time."
Giltz is the commanding officer of Combat Logistics Battalion 26, the Combat Logistics Element of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. He made his comments while observing his Marines – the first support Marines here to take this class outside of recruit and Marine Combat Training – at the final day of their Combat Hunter course April 25.
Fifteen CLB Marines teamed up with 15 2nd Marine Logistics Group Marines to take the modified course, taught by Marines from the School of Infantry - East. Up to this point, it had been completed almost exclusively by infantry Marines here, not because of segregation, but simply because the training is so new. The Training and Education Command approved implementation of the Combat Hunter course in August 2007.
"Many of our country's great explorers were hunters," said Capt. Michael Murray, officer-in-charge of the Combat Hunter course with the SOI - East. The observation and pattern analysis skills inherent to hunting help Marines better identify friend from foe, reduce risk to non-combatant casualties, and contribute to the success and survivability of Marines in combat, according to Murray.
"Now we offer elements of tracking similar to recon and sniper training to the average Marine," Murray said. "Our current generation has lost the skills as hunters previous generations took for granted. This training instills those skills and fosters that mindset again. It puts these skills back into people to reiterate situational awareness to make legal, moral and ethical decisions," he said.
"When I heard about it, I immediately started pursuing this training for my Marines," Giltz said. "The CLB provides tactical security, which requires an understanding of geometry of fires and so many other concepts taught here. Everything causes an exponential increase in lethality and capability. Tactical patience empowers Marines to make good decisions and increases their confidence."
"This course develops critical thinking," said Murray. "That is a byproduct that will benefit the Corps as a whole."
Combat Hunter teaches Marines to analyze highly complex environments and act decisively, said Murray. Marines study specific, universal implications of how people act both by themselves and toward each other to profile behavior. They learn to recognize geographic and ambient signals that indicate something out of place. It teaches them to proceed using a simple formula: baseline + anomaly = decision.
"This training takes the best components of law enforcement and the military," Murray said. "It draws on expertise of law enforcement and applies it in a way not done in the past," he said.
"The way people walk and act gives hints that something is wrong," said Pfc. Sean Cowick of CLB-26. "They stick out and I'll see it faster. The training provides an ID guide to who is a threat before they can cause damage."
They also learn to use their gear like never before.
"Without the training I wouldn't have thought about using the equipment this way," Cowick said. "It was very helpful. I increased my proficiency. In addition to profiling and identifying, we leaned more about using (night vision goggles), (thermal sight systems), and binos, how to focus on windows, how to zoom in. It helped a lot doing (Military Operations Urban Terrain). It gave clarity," Cowick said. "It will really be useful when we deploy." The 26th MEU deploys this fall in support of the Global War on Terror.
"This Combat Hunter course," said Giltz, "the Escalation of Force training many of these same Marines just took – this all gives Marines tools to do this effectively, makes them free to act with confidence vice encumbering them to inaction."
"I think this training is advanced because we're not dealing with tactical movement, that wasn't the biggest issue," said Cpl. Josue Velney, also of CLB-26. "It was seeing past that, what's really out there, how to find IEDs with binos, how to use our optics better. As Marines, we run the night ... We have the upper hand."
In combination with the equipment, the biometrics training truly allows Marines to win both tactically and humanely, Velney said.
"Reading on people's body language," said Velney, "the area around you, the atmosphere, in order to see what's really there, you need those things to identify a threat. It's also easier to articulate at the debrief and say why you did things you did.
"We'll talk to people," continued Velney. "When we approach people, we want to see how they feel, their posture toward us, if they're hostile, if they like us. We can be sure of ourselves. We don't want to escalate the situation, we want to deescalate the situation. This was a good course," Velney said. "It really set us up for success."
Video Link: http://marines.feedroom.com/?fr_story=931853d0ea396d999112cce6d4973a0df07f17c8&rf=sitemap
Teaching Marines to be like hunters
Unorothodox war training emphasizes 'primal skills'
By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 29, 2008
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20080229-9999-1n29hunter.html
Trying to become predators instead of prey, Marines headed to Iraq will go through training built on advice from big-game hunters, soldiers of fortune and troops who grew up around firearms in the woods or the inner city.
Combat Hunter, a program begun at Camp Pendleton and now being rolled out nationwide, is designed to help Marines stalk and kill insurgents by using their senses and instincts. It emphasizes keen observation of Marines' surroundings and meticulous knowledge of their foes' habits.
“This is the most comprehensive training of its kind in our history,” said Col. Clarke Lethin, chief of staff for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton.
“These are primal skills that we all have but that we evolved out of,” he added. “We are going back in time. The Marines who go through this program will never be the same. They'll never look at the world the same again.”
The Marine Corps had not paid much attention to this low-tech combat approach since the Vietnam War. Like the other service branches, the Corps has generally gone high-tech by creating increasingly advanced weapons and developing virtual reality training.
Combat Hunter grew out of a concept by Gen. James Mattis, who has spearheaded the formation of various training programs for the Marine Corps. He saw the need for greater focus on hunting-related skills while overseeing combat forces at Camp Pendleton in 2006.
At the time, the Marines had recently turned the corner on roadside bomb attacks that killed and maimed so many of them in Iraq. They became better at detecting improvised explosive devices and blunting their impact.
Then the insurgents changed tactics. Instead of blowing up Marines, the enemy increasingly turned to shooting them as they patrolled neighborhoods or drove by in convoys.
Mattis, known for out-of-the-box thinking, weighed his options. He considered adding Marine snipers to protect his units, but he rejected the idea because it would take too long to train and field them.
Then he hit upon the idea of Combat Hunter, a strategy that squared with the Marine Corps' aggressive fighting style.
“One of the things that Gen. Mattis said is that he wanted a quick turnaround for this project. There was a sense of urgency,” said Maj. James Martin, the project officer for Combat Hunter.
Lethin recalled the reason for that urgency: Too many troops felt fear when they left their bases in Anbar province, the vast western region of Iraq where Marines hold the lead combat role for the U.S. military.
“Fear is a terrible thing. The Marines felt they were being hunted. They felt they were bait for the insurgents,” Lethin said.
“How do we teach our Marines to be the hunters? How do we bring the confidence back?” Lethin said. “Sometimes technology is not the answer. We think we have the answer in Combat Hunter.”
The unorthodox program draws on the expertise of an eclectic mix of consultants. There are the tracking abilities of David Scott-Donelan, a former officer in the South African Special Forces and a veteran of civil wars in Africa. Then there's African guide Ivan Carter, as well as others who would rather not be identified by the Marine Corps.
Training drills also reflect the hunting skills of Marines from rural areas and, as an unclassified Marine briefing said, the life experiences of those “who have lived in disadvantaged areas of large cities.”
Some of the training was on display yesterday in an area of Camp Pendleton called the K-2 Combat Town.
Marines usually train among its prefabricated buildings and in its dirt-lined streets. But for Combat Hunter, they perch in the green hills and watch what goes on in the mock village.
From a distance of eight or more football fields away, teams of Marines learned what to look for downhill. As they peered through binoculars, the Marines tried to catalog hundreds of details to form a baseline of knowledge. Then they looked for telltale signs of insurgent behavior.
The scenario they watched yesterday involved a mock sniper shooting an Iraqi police officer. The Marines had to tease out clues to ascertain who did what and from where. The exercise was one of 15 scenes that they will scrutinize in the next two weeks.
One goal of the training is teaching troops to unleash deadly force only after they have determined that it's warranted.
“Just because someone is a jerk does not mean we can kill them, do you got me?” said Greg Williams, a former police officer and big-game hunter as he debriefed 55 Marines from the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.
“Rrrr,” the Marines replied in agreement.
“We never do trigger time unless we do brain time, do you got me?” Williams emphasized.
“Rrrr,” the Marines responded.
After a lunch break, the trainees started analyzing more complex attacks.
Some of them praised Combat Hunter for teaching them to more effectively spot insurgents – as well as roadside bombs and weapons caches – while giving them confidence to patrol day in and day out.
“I think it is absolutely critical training,” said Cpl. Andrew Moul, 25, from Hart, Mich., who will deploy to Iraq in the fall. “In Iraq right now, it is more of a security situation, and we need this skill set to keep civilians and Marines alive by making better decisions.”
Unconventional thinking about an unconventional war might make a lot of sense, said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer for the Lexington Institute, a pro-defense think tank in Arlington, Va.
“What we are learning in Iraq is that the demands of warfare in the new century are so widely different from anything for which we were planning. We have to look in unexpected places for the skills that will serve us best” Thompson said.
“It may be that a combination of better hunting skills, language skills and cultural anthropology serves us better in Iraq than some gee-whiz wireless network,” Thompson said.
New training hones Marines' visual skills
Updated 6/26/2008
By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY
"This log has a piece that's broken off," he says, pointing with his machete so other members of the patrol could see a tiny chip on a rotting log. He studied it a few more seconds.
"Yeah, they looked like they stepped here," concludes Cardona, 19, as the Marines and Navy corpsmen resumed the pursuit of their quarry, a group of fellow Marines who had taken off into the pine forests earlier that morning.
Faced with an alarming increase in sniper attacks in Iraq, Marine commanders in late 2006 began looking for ways to turn the tables on an elusive enemy. Among the experts they consulted: a renowned African big game hunter and a former big city cop.
The result is the combat hunter program, an experiment in training Marines to fight insurgents by making the Marines as wily as the enemy they face. The training combines outdoor skills culled from hunting and tracking with the street smarts developed by police and Marines who grew up in cities.
"The motto we … try to instill in these guys is Marines are always the hunter, never the hunted," says Ivan Carter, the safari guide and hunter — born Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe — who helped the Marines develop the program.
The program's supporters say it goes to the heart of why al-Qaeda has proven a resilient enemy and what the U.S. military needs to do to win. U.S. superiority in technology and firepower can't stop a resourceful enemy that attacks at will and makes deadly bombs from simple household items.
"We need to get down to their level," says Marine Sgt. Jose Ramirez, a 26-year-old from Mission, Texas, who was learning tracking skills here last month.
While much of the military has focused on technology and improved armor to give soldiers an edge in Iraq, the Marine Corps embarked on a different approach with this program, aimed at developing new mind-sets and skills.
"It's a great example of outside-the-box thinking to defeat an adaptive and wily enemy," says Army Lt. Col. John Nagl, a leading counterinsurgency expert.
The military establishment is watching the new training carefully. "If this works, I guarantee the Army will be doing the same thing, only calling it something different," says Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based think tank.
The training has already been incorporated into boot camp and in operational units.
"They look at the entire world differently when they come out of this," says Marine Gen. James Mattis, an early proponent of the program. "That is where we're going to win this war — by having people who can look at the world differently. It's not going to be through technology — a new radio or new tank or new gun."
Some experts say the military's infatuation with counterinsurgency has gone too far, leading it to embrace training that distracts from preparing for conventional battles.
Army Lt. Col. Gian Gentile, a professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and former battalion commander in Iraq, says programs like combat hunter reduce the amount of time spent on more conventional training, such as clearing trenches or squad tactics. "You only have so much time and resources," Gentile says.
More than footprints
On a steamy day at Camp Lejeune last month, Marines and Navy corpsmen from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines searched for broken twigs, litter, footprints, depressed grass and other signs of their quarry. When they found footprints in mud at the edge of the woods, they sketched the patterns on paper with a ruler.
Then they walked slowly into the woods, looking for the smallest sign that humans passed before them. It is slow, often frustrating, work.
"We're programming them to see things you wouldn't normally see," says Randy Merriman, a civilian tracking instructor at Camp Lejeune. "It's more than just following footprints," he says, pointing at the ground where someone stepped. "See that: Grass doesn't grow sideways."
Marines also learn how blood or broken branches look when they're fresh and how they age. By learning the time it takes a spider to weave a web, they can determine when someone moved through an area.
America's affluence has diminished some of the skills needed in an unconventional war. "We have bred out of ourselves — suppressed is probably a better word — the primordial skills for survival," says Col. Clarke Lethin, chief of staff of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, headquartered at Camp Pendleton, Calif. "Fight or flight."
Previous generations of Marines and soldiers entered the military with outdoor skills honed by childhoods spent hunting and fishing. Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of World War II, perfected his marksmanship as a kid in rural Texas, where he hunted rabbits and squirrels to help feed his family.
"This is a generation of Marines that has grown up primarily inside" with television and computer games, says Col. Fred Padilla, commanding officer of the Marine Corps' infantry school at Camp Pendleton.
On the battlefield, Marines and soldiers are facing a resourceful enemy that makes bomb detonators from washing-machine timers, garage-door openers or cellphones. They run around the battlefield in nothing more than dishdashas — or tunics — and sandals.
Yet, they have proved their ability to frustrate America's technological advantages. Insurgents continually found ways to build larger and more lethal bombs that would get around American technological fixes, says Patrick Lang, a retired Army Special Forces officer and former Middle East specialist in the Defense Intelligence Agency.
"Insurgents tied us in knots with these roadside bombs," Lang says.
Marine commanders were also looking for ways to overcome a key advantage insurgents have: They can easily hide among civilians.
"Finding is the problem," Mattis says. "Our soldiers, SEALs and Marines are quite capable of killing these guys. It's how do you find them."
Commanders turned to cops for advice, but they also looked within their own ranks — to Marines who grew up in inner cities.
"The inner-city kid has a unique perspective," says Greg Williams, a retired Detroit area police officer who was recruited by the military to help develop the program. "They have a stronger urban survival instinct. The inner city kid … will see the world a little differently, a little more opportunistically."
To assist with building the training, Williams said he relied on a couple Marine sergeants who grew up in the city and chose the Marine Corps over a life of gangs.
It may be the first time the military has considered growing up in a poor neighborhood as an asset. Some of the colonels and retired officers were initially skeptical that they would learn war fighting skills from young Marines who grew up in the inner city, Lethin says.
During a conference at Camp Pendleton last year, Williams and a sergeant took a group of skeptical senior officers for a walk in a nearby town. The sergeant pointed out dangerous neighborhoods based on where cars were parked, whether there were toys in the yards and other signs that they noticed but the older officers did not.
"When they came back, all the naysayers were thoroughly convinced we were on to something," Lethin says.
Marines can be taught to pick out criminals and insurgents trying to blend into a crowd, if they know what to look for, Williams says.
Lt. Patrick Zuber, whose platoon was the first unit to get combat hunter training in a pilot program last year, said the training made Marines better able to sniff out trouble before it happened.
The combat hunter Marines were able to spot patterns on streets that had formerly only appeared noisy, chaotic and strange. In one instance, Zuber's Marines were manning a series of checkpoints outside Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad. They received reports of a man illegally charging residents to enter the city, so the Marines carefully watched the throngs of cars and pedestrians that appeared every day. They noticed a man who moved among the crowds and regularly talked to people trying to enter the city.
After the man was detained, Marines discovered he was carrying a list of people who he had been charging and the amounts they owed. Marines determined he was working for the Iraqi police.
'We're trophy hunting'
The idea for the combat hunter program formed in late 2006, when enemy snipers in Iraq's Anbar province were growing more effective. They were hitting soldiers and Marines in vulnerable spots despite the heavy armor they wore.
"They knew exactly what we were wearing and where to shoot us," says Jack Sparks, a retired Marine officer who helped develop the combat hunters program at the Marine Corps' Warfighting Laboratory in Quantico, Va.
"Marines said, 'When we leave the (main bases), we know we're bait,' " Lethin says.
"They're good Marines — bait or not, they're going out there to do their mission," he says. "(But) when you feel vulnerable, you don't go out there with the necessary confidence."
Commanders began to consider how best to counter the attacks. Marines were already weighed down with protective equipment, including vests and helmets. More armor would further reduce mobility and alienate Marines from the civilians they were supposed to protect.
The typical Marine rifleman carries about 97 pounds of equipment, including protective gear, a weapon and ammunition. The recommended load is about 50 pounds, according to a Naval Research Advisory Committee report called, "Lightening the Load."
Instead, commanders were looking for a solution in keeping with the Marines' offensive spirit.
Today nearly all Marines are exposed to the training, either in boot camp, infantry school or when they join operational units.
"It doesn't mean we're going out there to kill everything we can," Lethin says. "We're hunting the enemy — those insurgents … hiding among the people.
"We're trophy hunting," he says.
Google search for Combat Hunter: http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&a...=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images
