MCAGCC TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. -- From the outside it doesn't look any different than the other makeshift houses out here at Range 215, just a nondescript, dust-covered box mixed in with countless others. It's once you step inside, however, everything changes.
The walls are painted with blood, the floor drenched in it; a lone boot filled with part of a leg lies in the corner. Among those who run the training facility it's referred to as the bloodhouse, killhouse, or slaughterhouse. Petty Officer 1st Class Juan M. Tapia, a Mojave Viper instructor, finishes a debriefing with the Marines who just completed the training evolution. As he tells them what they did right and what they can improve on, his words are mixed in with the "schlup, schulp" sound of the Marines' boots awkwardly rocking back and forth on the bloody floor. Some of them still have shaky hands. All of them look different from when they first entered, their uniforms all a bit redder. As intense as the experience was, Tapia reminds them of the training's importance.
He tells them, “This is the best training the Marine Corps is going to throw at you short of them actually shooting somebody and putting them at your feet to treat."
In the Marine Corps you hope for the best and train for the worst, and there is no better preparation for the worst than first responder lane training. Marines assigned to Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment improved their life-saving skills during lane training here Nov. 20.
During the training, which lasts less than 30 minutes, Marines are given this scenario - At a forward operating base, indirect fire from the enemy hits the building, Marines nearby rush into the building to aid cherrypickers (mock-casualties).
According to Tapia, the Marines receive a lot of hands-on training before they get to Mojave Viper, but this is their last mission rehearsal before actually shipping out. The training provides an opportunity for them to look at their standard operating procedures, look at the training they've received and see what works, what doesn't, and what needs to be fine-tuned.
The training is unique because it employs roleplayers donned in gory make-up, crying out for help. They react to the treatment they're receiving and add a high level of realism to the exercise. To make the training even more realistic, the Marines rush into the house not knowing what they're going to see. During Golf Company's training the Marines treated injuries ranging from skull fractures, third-degree burns, sucking-chest wounds, and single and double leg amputees with roleplayers who are real-life amputees.
For one Devil Dog, rushing into a room to see Matt W. Carter, a roleplayer with Strategic Operations who lost his left leg below the knee in a motorcycle accident 26-years ago, garbed in a colonel's uniform screaming for a corpsman as his detached leg lay three feet away was a dose of reality.
"The first thing I saw was the boot on the floor was missing a leg," said Pfc. Daniel M. Vallejo, squad pointman, 1st platoon, Golf Company, 2/3. "As soon as I saw that boot I went straight in and forgot all about it being training. I was shocked at first, because it's my first time at Mojave Viper and I noticed his leg. I threw a tourniquet on him right away, stopped the bleeding and assessed the casualty. This is the best and most intense medical training we've had by far."
The ultra-realistic training is tough for some to go through but ultimately can help them in saving lives.
"We've seen reactions from throwing up, to just freezing," said Tapia. "We've had Marines who have been to Iraq before and start having flashbacks. If we see that, we take them out of this environment and let them decompress. The advantage of having a roleplayer as opposed to dummies is they can show signs of pain and fear and possibly being combative. It gives them the realistic, 'Hey you've got somebody who's hurt, who's traumatized, they're scared and they're angry and this is how they might react' and we see how the Marines react in turn, of keeping them calm and what not."
Although it is only training, the response of the Marines treating the cherrypickers is as real as it gets. To keep the cherrypickers calm, so their injuries can be more easily treated, Marines would often ask questions about home to keep the cherrypickers' minds off the mock-pain. Carter would often talk of his real-life wife and ask the Marines to tell his actual daughters their father loves them and will miss them. The training may seem overly-realistic or emotional but it's that way for a reason.
"About ten days ago I had just finished up a training scenario," recalls Carter. "A gunny came up to me at the end, grabbed my arm and said 'Do you remember me?' I told him I didn't. I said, 'I see a lot of people come through here. Who are you?' He said, 'You changed my life and a lot of corpsmen in my company's life. I went through training with you last year and your training is dually responsible for saving about 45 men's lives. In Iraq we had a guy come into a courtyard selling bread, he was a bomber, he blew himself up, took 23 people out and injured forty-something. The corpsmen who had gone through this training about two and a half months before, they thought it was overdone at the time, thought there was too much blood and thought it was too overly-realistic. They all agreed if they wouldn't have went through it there's no way they could have responded the way they did.' He said, 'These young, brand-new corpsmen never missed a beat and saved every life possible.' The guy was trembling when he told me this. He was getting choked up talking about some of the closest people in his life and how he could have lost more if it weren't for this training. The compliments are intense."
The blood in the slaughterhouse, along with the injuries and cries for help may be fake, but the training couldn't be any more real. In the Marine Corps you hope for the best and train for the worst. For the Marines assigned to Golf Company, if they're ever unfortunate enough to see the worst they'll know what to do.
"It was great training, just seeing it so real," said Vallejo. "I never thought training like this would happen. I ran in the room and saw blood everywhere, it seemed like it really happened. I feel better prepared now for Iraq. My Marines here and my squad, just in case anything happens in combat I'll be ready. I'll be more focused and ready to react quicker."