{"id":460,"date":"2015-10-15T19:36:51","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T19:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/?p=460"},"modified":"2015-10-15T19:36:51","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T19:36:51","slug":"exercise-black-alligator-reaches-explosive-climax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/2015\/10\/15\/exercise-black-alligator-reaches-explosive-climax\/","title":{"rendered":"EXERCISE BLACK ALLIGATOR REACHES EXPLOSIVE CLIMAX"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BLACK<\/a><\/p>\n

The men of 42 Commando led the way through the mock town in a nine-day battle which brought the curtain down on Exercise Black Alligator, the most action-packed live-firing training Royal Marines get anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

Around 1,200 Royal Marines Commandos, Royal Marines Reservists, commando gunners of 29 Regiment Royal Artillery, battlefield engineers of 24 Commando RE, the wings of the green berets \u2013 845 Naval Air Squadron and their Merlin helicopters \u2013 and Dutch and American green berets joined forces at the enormous ranges at Twentynine Palms, roughly half way between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

The base is home to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center spread across 950 miles of the Mojave Desert.<\/p>\n

\"BLACK<\/a><\/p>\n

There troops, armour, artillery and air power are all able to unleash hell with live weaponry, culminating in what they call the Combined And Live Firing EXercise (or CALFEX) which is basically war minus the enemy.
\nIt began in the rocky terrain outside the replica town, with rounds from US Marine Corps Abrams M1 tanks and 105mm shells from the guns of 29 Commando crashing down on \u2018enemy\u2019 positions in the hillsides as they were stormed by the men from 42 and 12 Company Royal Netherlands Marines Corps.<\/p>\n

Among those unleashing hell was Lance Corporal David Nash of 42\u2019s Juliet Company who put an end to the activities of enemy armour with a Javelin anti-tank missile.<\/p>\n

\"BLACK<\/a><\/p>\n

He won the chance to unleash the 40lb missile \u2013 which can knock out a tank at ranges up to 2,500 metres \u2013 in a game of rock-paper-scissors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great privilege to be able to fire the only Javelin on this exercise \u2013 it\u2019s such a rare opportunity,\u201d David said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s this \u2018money can\u2019t buy\u2019 experience of live firing which, says 42 Commando\u2019s Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Rich Cantrill, is crucial should the men from Bickleigh be sent into battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience of feeling the ground shake from the impact of a live 81mm mortar bomb shortly before moving forward on foot to clear the remaining enemy is not a feeling that these marines are able to experience often, but it\u2019s vital that it\u2019s a familiar one when they\u2019re called upon by their country to fight in anger,\u201d he said.
\nAfter tearing up the desert, the troops moved into what the US Marines call Range 220, the 1,000-building urban complex.<\/p>\n

It features buildings as tall as five storeys, grocery stores (complete with plastic fruit), bookstores, pharmacies, schools, hotels, hospitals and clinics, sports stadia, even a parliament and diplomatic quarter.
\nThe buildings are made of specially-absorbent concrete which can take the hammering it receives from the marines.<\/p>\n

All four companies from 42 Commando \u2013 Juliet, Kilo, Lima and Mike \u2013 plus the Dutch flying in by Chinook helicopters and armour from the Royal Marines\u2019 Vikings and US Amtraks were involved in the two-day \u2018battle\u2019 for the town.<\/p>\n

\"BLACK<\/a>The Vikings carried Juliet Company into action \u2013 sparing the men\u2019s legs, providing some armoured protection under fire and extracting wounded comrades, while also pouring down machine-gun fire on the enemy.
\n\u201cHaving never used Viking before, I\u2019m a complete convert,\u201d said WO Noel Connolly, Juliet\u2019s Sargent Major.
\n\u201cI firmly believe we should be seriously looking at using these machines as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the sounds of battle from more than 600 personnel involved in the final assault died down, Lt Col Cantrill thanked the Americans for allowing the Brits to \u2018play\u2019 on their ultimate training ground.<\/p>\n

\"BLACK<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been so lucky to have been provided with all the range access, infrastructure and attached arms that we have needed, but it is the wrap of goodwill from the US Marine Corps that has made the greatest impression on me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I am delighted to know that some of my mountain leaders will be returning the favour, in a very small way, by assisting US Marines to train in the high Arctic of Norway in the new year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The men of 42 Commando led the way through the mock town in a nine-day battle which brought the curtain down on Exercise Black Alligator, the most action-packed live-firing training Royal Marines get anywhere in the world. Around 1,200 Royal Marines Commandos, Royal Marines Reservists, commando gunners of 29 Regiment Royal Artillery, battlefield engineers of… Continue reading EXERCISE BLACK ALLIGATOR REACHES EXPLOSIVE CLIMAX<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[163,162,165,43,164],"class_list":["post-460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-watch","tag-42-commando","tag-exercise-black-alligator","tag-royal-marines-commandos","tag-royal-navy","tag-us-marines","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions\/466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}