India Company endures heat to prepare for battle

MCAGCC, Calif. -- Temperatures over 100 degrees did not stop Company I, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division from conducting Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain training at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., June 24-27, 2019.

The Company, that calls themselves Invictus, spent more than 30 hours training nearly 150 Marines and sailors over four days. The training was intended to enhance confidence and proficiency in the military skill sets needed for service members to operate in an urban environment.

“MOUT benefits the unit by ensuring that our Marines know how to do these things safely, and that we can go into a building and take down the enemy,” said U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Jose R. Portillo, the company gunnery sergeant. “Trust in MOUT is extremely important. You have Marines around you with live rounds, so you have to be able to trust that you are doing the right thing at all times.”

The unit focused on safety, communication and awareness of their surroundings.

“This is not the movies, this is not Hollywood, this is real life,” said U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Richard Benning, Company I commander. “So you have to start very slow at a walking pace. It becomes almost a method of being very deliberate so that slow is smooth and smooth is fast.”

According to Benning, MCAGCC is an essential training location for battalion-sized units and refines individual actions for Marines and sailors on a personal level.

“It doesn’t matter where we need to be called weather its Korea, the Pacific or (Marine Rotational Force – Darwin),” Benning said. “Being here literally trains you to be ready for any clime and place.”

For more information on training at MCAGCC, Twentynine Palms, California check us out on Instagram and Facebook @thecombatcenter.