MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER, TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. -- Hitting the halfway point, whether in a task, a career, or even on a long drive, sometimes leads folks to utter the phrase, “It’s all down hill from here.”For the Lava Dogs of 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, who recently hit the halfway mark in Mojave Viper, an arduous four-week, live-fire training exercise that is taking place in the desert terrain and 100-plus degree temperatures of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., it is arguably a safe bet that nobody will hear that statement spoken here.“We’ve trained too hard, and have too far to go to even be thinking like that,” said 1st Lt. Matt Bronson, an Iraq veteran from Barre, Mass., and the executive officer for 1/3’s Headquarters & Service Company. “Every day spent out here training for our upcoming combat deployment to Afghanistan is just as important as the next. We build on the training we conduct. We don’t rest on it.”Indeed, Mojave Viper has seemed non-stop for many of the 900-plus 1/3 Marines training here.“There are never any real breaks,” said Lance Cpl. Theodore Gina, a 1/3 legal clerk from Union, N.J., who recently completed a squad automatic weapons gunner course. “It doesn’t matter what your MOS (military occupational specialty) is, everybody trains here for combat. I thought the mountain warfare training we did earlier at Bridgeport was tough, but this live-fire exercise is even tougher. The training just continues to get more advanced.”Lance Cpl. Thomas Wolfe, a motor transportation operator and M4 riflemen from Scranton, Pa., said he couldn’t agree more.“It feels like we are in a real combat environment here,” said Wolfe. “Everything is done with live rounds. We are conducting assaults using fire team, squad and platoon rushes. We are clearing bunkers, attacking ‘enemy’ positions, throwing hand grenades, neutralizing IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and securing trenches. If it can happen in combat, we’re probably doing it here. There is only one mindset you can have here to be successful and that’s a combat mindset.”During Mojave Viper, also known as the Combined Arms Training Course, 1/3 is utilizing not only small arms and larger organic weapons, but also air integration coupled with additional training courses in combat patrols, urban warfare, weapons systems and convoy operations.According to Capt. Ty Barger, an Afghanistan veteran from Lincoln, Neb., and the company commander for 1/3’s Headquarters & Service Company, all the training conducted during Mojave Viper is as realistic as possible.“Training out here is comparable to what we’re going to encounter in Afghanistan and affords us an opportunity to do some live-fire training that we wouldn’t be able to accomplish in Hawaii or most other places,” said Barger.One such exercise, of many, during Mojave Viper is the Convoy Operations Course, which Barger spearheaded.“During the Convoy Operations Course, the Marines executed IA (immediate action) drills throughout the course of the evolution; they reacted to ambushes in both blocked and unblocked scenarios; they reacted to IEDs, mine strikes and semi-permissive crowds — where there are some hostiles in and amongst the friendly folk in the ‘town’ we rolled through — a shoot, no-shoot scenario,” said Barger. “The single most important thing for the Marines who took part in this course was to develop a high degree of confidence in their ability to survive a convoy and be able to accomplish the re-supply mission.” According to Sgt. Jason Butler, 1/3 assistant operations chief and a native of Salt Lake City, who is making his eighth appearance at CATC — formerly known as Combined Arms Exercise or CAX — the training here gives 1/3 Marines a chance to exercise their leadership and to see what they, and their Marines, are made of.“You can’t train for misery, it’ll come to you out here,” said Butler. “But what you can do is stay focused internally.Attention to detail is a common theme — knowing where your muzzle is pointed at all times. There is so much going on here, but it is often the little things that are the difference between life and death or victory and defeat. We are doing a lot of high-speed evolutions out here, but I always try to impress upon the Marines how important it is to stay focused on the little things as well.” For Bronson, who led his Marines from the front on the ground during recent live-fire rushes on the 400 ranges — which many consider to be the most rigorous the Marine Corps has to offer — all the knowledge and training the Marines are receiving compliment the other.“The common theme in this training is fire and movement,” said Bronson. “The big point we’re stressing to the Marines is don’t move without effective suppressive fire on the enemy, whether it’s coming from your buddy who’s got your back or from artillery or aircraft. Fire without maneuver is a waste of ammo, and maneuver without fire is suicide.”According to Master Sgt. Darin Robertson, Weapons Company, 1/3, operations chief and a native of Castlewood, S.D., “The things we are doing here in Twentynine Palms, we now know we will also be able to do in Afghanistan, if required.”“The training 1/3 is conducting at Twentynine Palms is invaluable,” added Robertson, as he described a recent evolution where fixed-wing aircraft — F-18s, Harriers, and F-14s — and rotary-wing aircraft — Cobras and Hueys — combined along with artillery and 81mm mortars in a combined fire support exercise. “It is our responsibility to ensure that aircraft ordnance, artillery and eighty-one mike mikes (81mm mortars) complement each other. From company commanders calling in air strikes as fire support coordinators on down to lance corporals, pfcs and privates taking part in rushes and ambushes as fire team and squad leaders, the importance of this training is immeasurable.”Mojave Viper, which began when 1/3 arrived, Sept. 28, will continue full steam ahead, culminating in a battalion field exercise to be held Friday through Oct. 24. The 1/3 Marines are scheduled to depart, Oct. 26 through 28, in three waves via March Air Force Base, Calif., for the return trip to their home base of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay.