The following article is taken from the latest issue of the Globe & Laurel magazine.
Click the button below to discover more.
Joint Tactical Exercise 2024 (JTX24) provided 43 Cdo’s Stand Off Escort (SOE) Tp with their first opportunity in more than three years to deploy overseas from the sunny shores of the Clyde. The exercise involved three weeks of mission specific training with Federal Agents from the US Office of Secure Transportation and Airmen of US Air Force’s Global Strike Command at the Fort Chaffee Joint ‘Manoeuvre’ Centre in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
We departed Faslane at the end of September and, after a long journey through London Heathrow and Dallas, landed in Fort Smith, Arkansas. With no time to waste, we got hands-on experience with the new rifles and pistols provided by OST on the 21-lane static range early on our second morning under the persistent American sun. Our OST instructors had decades of experience manipulating weapons, whether as federal agents or during their previous careers in all branches of the US Military. This massively helped improve our basic skills and drills to become more accurate and quicker than ever and (unfortunately) proved that incessant dry drilling does actually work! Week one culminated in an advanced CQM assessment on the Friday that brought together the skills we had been honing throughout the week. Thankfully, all SOE Tp ranks passed the exacting OST qualification shoot standards and received the green light to progress into the live fire shoot house across the road for week two.
A weekend’s stand down in Dallas quickly followed with the Fort Worth rodeo and AT&T Stadium, home to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (and Dallas Cowboys NFL team) featuring as particular highlights. Monday came around fast with SOE Tp and OST instructors launching into Close Quarter Battle and yet more Advanced Marksmanship, practising new methods and techniques for clearing urban structures. Starting with simple room entries, we built up to small teams using aggressive and dynamic tactics to clear full compounds, racing amongst each other for time and pride. Focus switched from urban to rural tactics on the Saturday, utilising classic commando green skills along with new weapon systems like the 40mm grenade launcher, to close and destroy enemy positions in mission specific LFTT lanes. This also came with the opportunity to get hands on some unfamiliar and novel weapon systems such as the MP5 and a 1928 Thompson submachine gun that made up part of OST’s armoury (for historical interest purposes rather than operational use).
After a quick break on the Sunday, the following week SOE moved to the Combined Arms Combat Training Facility (CACTF); think an American version of Cilieni Village in the Brecon Beacons on steroids, with much more sun! Here we were put through our paces during blank-fire mission focused training scenarios up against a free-thinking OST enemy force, which got increasingly complex and challenging as the week progressed. This gave us the chance to practise a combination of tried-and-tested and new tactics, as well as …………….
To find out more about 43 Cdo FP Gp RM and further RM activities across the globe, catch up regularly with all the news in the Globe & Laurel Magazine, the Journal of the Royal Marines.
Read more from the Journal of the Royal Marines
For more information, and to read similar stories, visit:
Globe & Laurel – RMA – The Royal Marines Charity (rma-trmc.org)
