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LOCAL LANDING — One of several Marine helicopters landed in the Town of
South Boston several times during the past several days. The Marines
are planning another big event this coming week-end. (Danny Lamberth
photo)
Local residents have been fascinated by the coming and going of Marine
helicopters over the past several days and according to a Marine
spokesman some 200 Marines will be in South Boston on Monday evening,
November 5 for more activities although there was some confusion about
whether the Marines might come on Sunday evening rather than on Monday.
"Around 8 p.m. there'll be helicopters arriving and in the neighborhood
of 200 Marines will be going through an abandoned industrial building
(the former Tultex building) there," the spokesman said. Some of the
participants, he noted will be "role players" dressed in native wear,
not in Marine uniforms, the spokesman said. There will be a special
viewing area some 50 to 75 yards away where government officials and
media personnel may view the activities, although because of darkness,
they will not be able to see much, the spokesman said.
According to Col. Peter Petronzio, Commanding Officer of the 24th
Marine Expeditionary Unit, many of the Marines coming to Southside
Virginia for the special training have served in Iraq and Afghanistan,
but there are also plenty of new Marines preparing to make their first
deployment. "Their lives and the success of our future missions could
well depend on what we're accomplishing during our work-ups," the
commanding officer wrote.
Continuing to explain the local activities, Col. Petronzio wrote
"Marines are trained to fight in every clime and place. For desert
training, we go to Twenty-nine Palms, California. For cold weather and
mountain warfare training, we head north to Bridgeport, California. For
jungle warfare training, we've sent Marines to Panama, the Philippines,
Thailand and Okinawa.
"Though an urban area may be a more hospitable place to live, it is
nonetheless the most challenging environment we're likely to face.
Maneuvering in a heavily congested area; picking out possible threats
lurking in windows and around street corners; trying to tell whether
the car barreling toward their vehicle checkpoint is driven by a
suicide bomber or an innocent family oblivious to their warning
signals: these are just a few of the challenges Marines face in an
urban setting.
"Our aim in south central Virginia is to expose our Marines to
realistic scenarios in an actual urban community, thereby reducing what
we call environmental stress. We simply cannot replicate those
conditions aboard our home base."
Col Petronzio said the exercise runs through Nov. 11 and while they
expect to be in South Boston no later than next Monday, other
activities will be taking place at Ft. Pickett, Crewe, Fork Union,
Chatham, Danville, Martinsville and Henry County.