Camp Geiger, N.C. -- Marines with 2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, Company A, completed the Combat Hunter course at the School of Infantry East aboard Camp Geiger, N.C., last month, to prepare the AA company for its upcoming deployment to Latin America.
Company A, 2nd AA Bn will fill in as the ground combat element for a Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force in support of Continuing Promise 2010. Marines are scheduled to embark the USS Iwo Jima in mid-July for a four-month deployment.
The Combat Hunter course is part of a larger package designed to train the Marines of 2nd AA Bn, Company A for Continuing Promise 2010, said Capt. Lynn W. Berendsen, Company Commander of Co. A, 2nd AA Bn.
The Combat Hunter course is a five-day and ten-day training exercise, taught regularly at SOI East, that helps prepare Marines for upcoming deployments, so they can learn the fundamentals of observation, profiling and tracking.
“We’ve combined material taught at sniper courses and outside law enforcement agencies and put it all into one course to supplement the training Marines undergo before stepping into theater,” said Capt. Modesto L. Gutierrez, Combat Hunter course officer-in-charge.
As the name denotes, Combat Hunter gives Marines the predatory skills to gain the edge on the battlefield. It gives Marines training on how to identify and determine potential threats and persons of interest.
“Were placing an interest in Marines on how to be more proactive versus reactive,” said Gutierrez. “The Marines are taught how body language in humans and how abnormalities in terrain features can indicate that a threat is present.”
Continuing Promise 2010 may require the Marines of Alpha Company to use the skills they learned in Combat Hunter if called upon to provide security for a NEO (non-combatant evacuation operation), added Gutierrez.
“Latin America is not a war zone,” he said. “But Combat Hunter can be exploited anywhere Marines deploy to.”