Face of Defense: Ammo Tech Earns Inaugural Award

By Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kentavist P. Brackin
Marine Corps Bases Japan

CAMP SCHWAB, Japan, Sept. 9, 2010 – An ammunition technician with Ammunition Company, 3rd Supply Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 35, 3rd Marine Logistics Group, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, is the first Marine selected to receive the Marine Corps Ammunition Technician of the Year Award.

"I was kind of shocked really when I heard I was receiving this award,” Lance Cpl. Brent A. Smith said. “I kind of felt like I was up there with ‘Chesty’ Puller." The late Lt. Gen. Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller was a combat veteran of World War II and the Korean War, and the most-decorated U.S. Marine in history.

The Ammunition Technician of the Year Award is designed to recognize Marine Corps ammunition technicians, private through sergeant, who have set themselves apart from the rest of their peers through hard work, dedication and sound decision making, officials said.

"It is a great honor to have an ammo tech from 3rd Supply Battalion represent the company here on Okinawa," said Marine Corps Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher Deering, officer in charge of Ammunition Company, who recommended Smith for the award.

Smith works with several other ammunition technician Marines to issue ammo to units across Okinawa, giving out anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 rounds of various types of ammunition in a day.

"Ammunition technicians seem to be overlooked sometimes," Smith said. "No one notices when their ammunition is delivered on time, but they sure notice when they are on the gun line and there is nothing to put downrange. You can go a few days without food, maybe a couple of days without water, but you wouldn't last a minute without ammunition."

Deering said the new award is good for the ammunition community in the Marine Corps. "I am excited to see how this award will transform our community in the future," he said. "It is a great program, and I think that through recognition, Marines may become more competitive. We all like bragging rights."

Smith said he’s proud to be the first Marine to receive the award. “I know that I have set the bar for myself and for other Marines who push for this award in the future," he said.

Face of Defense: Marine Strives for Stronger Stride

By Marine Corps Cpl. Andrew S. Avitt
Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif., Sept. 7, 2010 – A self-proclaimed “average” runner from Bismarck, N.D., who has worked at it for 11 years has earned himself a spot on the Marine Corps running team.

And Marine Corps Cpl. Sage Koch doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon.

“I was just a regular Joe like anybody else,” he said. “I started from the bottom and worked my way up.”

His competitive stride was first put to the test in middle school, as Koch began running for the school’s track and field team.

“The first event I ever ran was a mile,” Koch said. “For me, it was good for relaxation to help me with the daily stress.”

As he progressed to high school, he found that becoming a freshman meant not only tougher classes, but also a more serious attitude toward his running.

“As I became older, competition became more a part of the picture, and along with track, I also started running cross-country,” he said.

Although running was his passion, he said, not all running made him happy.

The closest he ever came to running in a sprint event was an 800-meter race, but it wasn’t by choice. “I hated that race,” he said. “The coach would always put me in it so that I could get my speed up, so that I could run that faster mile.”

After graduating from high school, Koch accepted a cross-country scholarship to a nearby community college. But after a year, he decided he needed something different and enlisted in the Marine Corps in March 2008. “I wanted to get out and see the world,” he said.

His three-mile time is 15:19, which has earned him the name “Smoke” from Marine Corps 1st Sgt. Thomas Russi of Company A, Headquarters Battalion, who unholsters the name every time he sees Koch in the gym. With a time like that, Koch said, he had trouble finding a running partner, until about six months ago.

Sarah Raschiatore, also a running enthusiast and a physical trainer at the Combat Center’s East Gym, began running with Koch and training for various running events.

“Sage is very passionate about running,” she said. “He loves it, and has a great positive attitude and mental strength for it.”

Although Koch is the best he has ever been, she noted, he continues to get stronger and has transferred his focus on running longer and longer races. “He’s building up his miles,” she said.

Since January, Koch has recorded the miles he has accumulated in base competitions such as the Road Runner Challenge and in his other training. He just passed the 2,000-mile mark.

The Road Runner challenge helps to keep track of his mileage, he said, and the competition always encourages him to give it his all.

“I want to run professionally, but I’ve got a long way to go,” he said. “But if I keep at it, I know good things will come.”

Although running professionally is the ultimate goal, Koch said, he sees himself back at college running competitively while he earns his degree.

“I’m running about 70 miles-a-week,” he said. “That’s a lot, [but] some professional runners run 130 or 140 miles-a-week.”

Koch identified persistence as his formula for success. “People always ask me how do I do it,” he said, “and I tell them, ‘You’ve just got to do it. You’ve got to push your body and your limits to get better. The only way for improvement is by practice, and the best time for practice is now.’ If everyone starts at the bottom, there’s only one way to go but up.”

Leadership Key to Troop Mental Health

By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service

May 4, 2007 – The military has a robust system in place to deal with mental health issues, but longer and more frequent deployments are causing strain on servicemembers, a Defense Department study has found. The fourth Mental Health Advisory Team survey, MHAT IV as this survey was called, was conducted in August and September. For the first time, the survey included Marines in the study group. The MHAT was composed of behavioral health professionals who deployed to Iraq and surveyed soldiers, Marines, health care providers, and chaplains, Army Maj. Gen. Gale Pollock, the acting surgeon general of the Army, told reporters at the Pentagon.

The MHAT IV team found that not all soldiers and Marines deployed to Iraq are at equal risk for screening positive for a mental health symptom, and the level of combat is the main determining factor of a servicemember's mental health status, Pollock said. For soldiers, deployment length and family separation were the top non-combat deployment issues, whereas Marines had fewer non-combat deployment issues, probably because of their shorter deployment periods, she said.

The team recommended behavioral outreach efforts that focus on units that are in theater longer than six months and determined that shorter deployments or longer intervals between deployments would allow soldiers and Marines better opportunities to reset mentally before returning to combat.

Pollock said these findings contributed to the Army's decision to extend combat deployments to 15 months, because it gave the units waiting to deploy more time at their home stations. Congress has authorized the Defense Department to increase the strength the Army, she noted, which will help increase time at home between deployments for soldiers.

Fifteen-month deployments will be stressful for servicemembers, Pollock acknowledged, and that's why it's important for leaders to be trained in behavioral health issues.

"We've got more attention now on the importance of leadership, and I think that's one of the strengths that the team really identified, is that with good leadership, even when people may have a bad thought, they don't act on that thought," she said. "So it's very important that we ensure that the young leaders have the training so they know how to support the troops that depend on them."

For the first time since the MHAT program was started in 2003, this assessment included questions about battlefield ethics, Pollock said. Of those surveyed, 10 percent of soldiers and Marines reported mistreating noncombatants or damaging property when it was not necessary, she said.

The survey also found that only 47 percent of soldiers and 38 percent of Marines agreed that noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect. More than one-third of all soldiers and Marines reported that torture should be allowed to save the life of a fellow soldier or Marine, and less than half of soldiers or Marines said they would report a team member for unethical behavior.

In the report, mistreating noncombatants was defined as either stealing from a noncombatant, destroying or damaging property when it wasn't necessary, or hitting or kicking a noncombatant.

These findings may seem alarming, Pollock said, but it is important to keep them in perspective. These troops have been seeing their friends killed and injured, and anger is a normal reaction, she said. However, what's important to note is that the troops who had these thoughts did not act on them and actually mistreat any noncombatants.

"What it speaks to is the leadership that the military is providing, because they're not acting on those thoughts," she said. "They're not torturing the people. And I think it speaks very well to the level of training that we have in the military today."

Other key findings of the report include:

-- The 2006 adjusted rate of suicides per 100,000 soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom was 17.3 soldiers, lower than the 19.9 rate reported in 2005, but higher than the Army average of 11.6 per 100,000 soldiers.

-- Soldiers experienced mental health problems at a higher rate than Marines.

-- Deployment length was directly linked to morale problems in the Army.

-- Leadership is key to maintaining soldier and Marine mental health.

-- Both soldiers and Marines reported at relatively high rates -- 62 and 66 percent, respectively -- that they knew someone seriously injured or killed, or that a member of their team had become a casualty.

-- Only 5 percent of soldiers reported taking in-theater rest and relaxation leave, although the average time deployed was nine months.

-- Multiple deployers reported higher acute stress than first-time deployers. Deployment length was related to higher rates of mental health problems and marital problems.

-- Current suicide prevention training is not designed for a combat environment.

-- Behavioral health providers require additional combat and operational stress-control training prior to deploying to Iraq.

Since the MHAT IV report was presented to the Multinational Force Iraq commander and service leaders in November, the Army and Marines have implemented changes to improve behavioral health care, Pollock said. The Army has revised teaching curriculum and operational training to include more focus on Army values, suicide prevention, battlefield ethics, and behavioral health awareness in all junior-leader-development courses, she said.

The Marine Corps has been developing deployment-cycle training since 2003, said Navy Capt. William P. Nash, coordinator of the Combat/Operational Stress Control Branch of the service's Manpower and Reserve Affairs directorate. Marines, leaders and families all receive training in identifying, managing and preventing mental health problems, he said.

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Marine Entry-Level Training to Go 'Back to Basics,' General Says

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

May 3, 2007 – Marine entry-level training will reinvigorate its values-based approach, a top Marine official said here yesterday. At both Marine Corps Recruitment Depots -- in Parris Island, S.C., and San Diego -- senior drill instructors will hold "footlocker classes" with enlistees to strengthen the mentor-scholar relationship, Marine Maj. Gen. George J. Flynn, the commanding general of the Corps' Training and Education Command, told reporters at the Pentagon.

"The senior drill instructors will have their troops literally sit on the footlockers and will have that father-son, mother-daughter talk that really instills those values," he said. "That's where a lot of the values get reinforced and introduced to the recruits."

Discussion topics will depend on when the sessions occur during boot camp, and Flynn said talks could range from what new recruits might experience when first arriving to a unit and what leadership they can expect, to financial advice and how young Marines should behave during leave. Senior drill instructors soon will receive a guide on how to approach these footlocker sessions, he added.

Flynn said Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James T. Conway spurred the re-examination of entry-level training. "This stemmed from his belief that the transformation from civilian to Marine is a national treasure and one that we must preserve and guard," he said.

In addition, the Corps is considering an additional week of infantry training for both infantry and noninfantry Marines, which would likely include crew-served weapons training, plus convoy and counter-improvised-explosive-device training.

In about a month, officials at Marine Manpower and Reserve Affairs should render their judgment on whether the additional week is feasible. "All these things would provide a better-trained Marine to the operating forces," Flynn said.

The general also announced a scheduling change to the 12-week Marine boot camp, involving the 54-hour endurance exercise Marines call "The Crucible." In May, recruits at Parris Island will undergo the crucible in week 11, instead of week 10, and in October the crucible exercise in San Diego will move from week eight to week 11.

"We want to make The Crucible the true culminating event that it was originally designed to be," he said. "At the end of this 54-hour event, you will be recognized as earning the right to be called a United States Marine."

The 12th and final week of training will be called "Marine Week," Flynn said.

"It's a transition from going to a very restrictive environment to learning about how you are going to function in the Marines when you reach the operating forces," he said. "You're going to get accustomed to the leadership that you're going to experience out in the fleet and also understand the role of (noncommissioned officers) and staff NCOs other than being drill instructors."

Borrowing a quote from former Marine Commandant Lt. Gen. John A. Lejeune, Flynn said, "An individual should be better off for their service."

"And that's really what this is all about," he said. "It's a recommitment."

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