THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 6, 1996 TAG: 9605060040
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FORT PICKETT, VA LENGTH: Long : 127 lines
It's a still and starry spring night, with almost no moon. The cool blackness is a relief after an 85-degree day.
Just one thing disturbs the peace: the pops and sparks from M-16 rifles and machine guns firing blanks at live but nearly invisible targets.
A good 10 hours into their monthly drill, Marine reservists from the 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion have just begun ``night ops.'' They're in for several more hours of maneuvers in the 50,000 thickly wooded acres of Fort Pickett, south of Petersburg.
Six ``amtracs'' - assault amphibious vehicles - crawl over dirt and gravel roads that snake through underbrush and forest.
The exercise rules say no lights allowed, only a tiny glowing red spot on the back of each vehicle. To stay in line, follow the glow.
It's a little like driving down a pitch black country road and turning off the headlights, just to scare yourself. But these drivers will do it for the next six hours.
Amtrac drivers, crew members and mechanics operate landing craft that leave the well decks of amphibious ships, churn through seawater, then roll right up on land and deliver troops.
In the dark, in woods, over sand, wherever. They drove the ``desert taxis'' in the Gulf War.
Downsizing has precipitated a more coordinated effort between active-duty and reserve forces training for combat.
Reservists, who serve one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer, aren't just sitting in classrooms, getting their training from overhead projectors.
``We have to train them like it is going to happen,'' said Master Sgt. Keith La France.
``These guys' average age is 20, and most have not been on active duty, so they're clueless as to how to train like something's really going to happen. Because of the allocation of funds, we have to gear everything towards operation.''
Both La France and Chief Warrant Officer Steve Barbour, maintenance officer, were active-duty Marines in Vietnam. Both have been in the reserves nearly 20 years.
Both know real war and both know weekend drill.
``Our goal is to exhaust them, to keep going from one thing to another, because that's what's real,'' Barbour said.
``I think the country realized after Kuwait that they couldn't do without us, so we have to train for what's real.''
The Marine reserves of the 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion were called up during Desert Storm; they were deployed for eight months.
On the way home they stopped in Bangladesh for a month to help flood victims.
Ever since, these have not been your typical citizen-soldiers playing weekend warriors.
The unit meets monthly, and occasionally more, at the Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center just outside Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base. But the 130-member unit is rarely in a classroom.
It is responsible for the maintenance and operation of 20 amtracs, valued at $1 million each.
Because it is one of only four reserve amtrac units based east of the Mississippi, it trains in the water and on the beaches of Chesapeake Bay.
And several times a year the whole bunch heads to Fort Pickett, about 2 1/2 hours west of Norfolk, to test terrain that's quite different from local beaches.
Training in hilly, wooded areas is important because the unit might be deployed to Bosnia or, as it was in the summer of 1995, to Korea.
Varied drill sites mean members of the company drive up to six hours - from their homes in Pennsylvania and Maryland and North Carolina - to train in Virginia Beach, and maybe Fort Pickett.
Why do men who earn good money as insurance executives, real estate agents, electricians and postal clerks want to sacrifice several weeks of the year to drive long distances, drill all day and all night, eat field meals, march, exercise and subject themselves to a tear gas chamber?
``I've trained with every other amphibious assault vehicle unit there is,'' said Staff Sgt. John Donahoo, who was an active-duty Marine before he joined the reserves. ``Believe me, we do twice the training anyone else does.
``A unit like this is where you learn. You learn to train around whatever's heating up. For instance, we do a lot more desert training now since Desert Storm,'' said Donahoo, 27.
Most of the ``amtrackers'' are not training for the stipend reservists are paid.
They compete to get in the unit because ``amtracs get to do things,'' La France said.
Reservists used to support the regular branches of the service, staying in the background, taking charge of humanitarian missions. Now they are more likely to work side by side on combat missions.
``We used to train to fight the big, bad boys, all on the same terrain, very repetitive,'' said 1st. Sgt. Michael McHugh, 40. ``Now we don't know where the enemy will pop up, or where we'll be sent.
``We used to be a necessary evil to the regulars. Now we're just necessary.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by HUY NGUYEN photos/The Virginian-Pilot
Above: Lance Cpl. Franklin Cook straps on his gear before getting
into the helicopter for the flight to Fort Pickett.
At left: Chief Warrant Officer Steve Barbour laughs as his son Brent
dons a gas mask. ``I think the country realized after Kuwait that
they couldn't do without us, so we have to train for what's real,''
Steve Barbour said. Because the unit of Marine reservists from the
4th Assault Amphibian Battalion is only one of four reserve amtrac
units based east of the Mississippi, it trains in the water and on
the beaches of Chesapeake Bay.
As the sun rises behind him, Cpl. Jason Pearce dismantles the
antenna of his ``amtrac'' amphibious assault vehicle as his unit
prepares to clean its vehicles at the end of a weekend of training.
Above: Master Gunnery Sgt. Keith La France lies on the ground after
being ``dog-piled'' by his men during cleanup Sunday morning.
Dog-piling - when members of a jump on the commanding officer - is a
sign of respect, said La France.
At left: Marine reserves enjoy hot chow at dinner time. At front is
Lance Cpl. Paul Myers.
KEYWORDS: U.S. MARINE CORPS. RESERVISTS by CNB