Marines living out the motto: 'First, do no harm’

BLACKSTONE

One by one, young Marines in full battle gear climbed into the turret of a desert Humvee parked on a live-fire range at Fort Pickett.

The troops had almost no combat experience – one in 10 has deployed.

An instructor told them to imagine a vehicle was approaching their checkpoint. The Marines had to decide when to reach for a warning flare and when to snap off rounds from their automatic rifles.

The lead instructor, Gunnery Sgt. Howard Willis, described the training as “tactical patience.” For new recruits eager for combat, it’s a vital check.

Outrage over the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha in 2005 and recognition that restraint can be crucial when battling insurgents have led the Marines to adjust their tactics in Iraq. They might best be summed up by the motto on the cover of a new Marines war-fighting manual: “First, Do No Harm.”

Marines have regularly changed their tactics, including rules of engagement and the escalation of force, throughout the Iraq war, said Lt. Col. Jay Mannle, a judge advocate general in the Marines’ international and operational law division at the Pentagon.

Lesson learned in Iraq and Afghanistan filter up the chain of command and are worked into predeployment training. The field manual isn’t so much new ideas as a refinement of how Marines should conduct themselves, Mannle said.

The military has to strike a balance between protecting its force and gaining the trust of the local population through steady, peaceful engagements, said Aaron Karp, a former Army officer and political science instructor at Old Dominion University.

This can seem counterintuitive to Marines, the Navy’s infantry and front-line force.

Marine recruits often choose the force for its aggressive, no-nonsense manner, he said. New recruits “tend not to want 'maybe’ ” as an answer, he said.

After Haditha, which involved a squad from the Marines’ 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, Navy Secretary Donald Winter faulted some in the corps’ leadership for downplaying the size and scope of the incident.

In letters censuring Maj. Gen. R.A. Huck and Col. R.G. Sokoloski, Winter wrote that their actions failed to recognize “the importance of gaining the support of the civilian populace in accomplishing the mission.”

Mannle declined to talk specifically about Haditha. But he said, “The fight over there is a counterinsurgency. When you’re fighting a counterinsurgency, you don’t want to lose the support of the people.”

At Fort Pickett, the leaders of the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, drilled that into their young troops.

Self-protection remains the top priority, said Lt. Col. John Giltz, commander of the MEU’s combat logistics battalion. “You have to be prepared to be engaged,” he said. But he said Marines realize that “we don’t win any friends when we injure innocent people.”

On a recent blustery, gray morning, Willis briefed about 40 Marines from the military police unit under a small metal shelter.

The men and women had been pulled from their regular jobs and specialties to fill the squadron. Just one-quarter had been trained as military police. At this time last year, many were in high school or starting community college.

“They haven’t learned any bad habits, but …” Willis trailed off. “It’s like you’re building them from the ground up.”

They expect later this year to deploy aboard Navy amphibious ships. Assignments in Iraq or Afghanistan await them. There, they will provide security for convoys.

At Fort Pickett, the young warriors were packed down with camouflage helmets, body armor, and various automatic weapons – mostly M-16s and M-4s – strapped to their shoulders. The weapons might someday become their best friends. But for now, they’re just neighbors.

With Willis by his side, Pfc. Jason Almodovar slipped into the gunner’s turret of the sand-colored Humvee. He pictured a vehicle speeding toward his checkpoint, past the grass and dirt berms and a row of targets fixed at regular intervals along the field.

Almodovar, a tall, wiry 20-year-old from central Florida, waved an orange flag and pounded the palm of his hand against his fist, pretending to launch a flare.

As the threat grew more urgent, Almodovar spun the armored turret around and grabbed the mounted M-240G machine gun. He steadied and squeezed off several rounds into the targets .

A few minutes later, Almodovar hopped off the Humvee with an adrenaline-fueled grin. He’d been a little nervous, he admitted, but the instructors provided steady feedback.

Willis knows the training will be repeated many more times before deployment. Then it will be practiced still more overseas.

He returned in September from a tour in Iraq’s Anbar province, where U.S. forces are working to rebuild trust with local sheiks after the Haditha killings.

“It’s something that’s going to be force-fed them through the deployment,” he said. “It’s embedded. That’s what it needs to be.”

Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2322, louis.hansen@pilotonline.com