Mike
2 October 2000, 12:55
Marine Times, 10/2/2000
Recon training takes toughness one step further
By C. Mark Brinkley
POHANG, South Korea — On a ramshackle pier stretching out into the Sea of Japan, about 40 ROK Marines come to prove their mettle.
It’s cold and raining, and the smoke from the bonfire on the concrete pier offends the nose and eyes. Nearby, dozens of ROK Marines — men who have already completed six weeks of boot camp and were selected to try out for recon because of their performance — are going through the PT test from hell.
Every blow of the instructor’s whistle instructs the Marines on the pier to switch exercises — from push-ups to sit-ups and so on. They do sets of what appear to be 20 repetitions, though the recon trainees do them so fast it’s hard to keep count.
During a two-hour visit, the whistle never stops blowing. There are no rest breaks.
When asked about the training, Lt. Col. Seung-Ju Yeo shrugs, unimpressed. A rugged man, Yeo has seen his share of Marines try out for recon.
“They volunteer and we pick up,” Yeo said, sipping on a ginseng drink, the Korean Gatorade. “Sometimes they don’t make it.”
For a force like the ROKs — already considered by most to be the hardest, toughest warriors in the country — recon is the next step. Among the South Korean special forces, ROK recon teams are as legendary as the U.S. Navy SEALs.
The Marines at the pier are working on Week Five of a 12-week program, and most of those who won’t finish are gone by now. The second half of the training will deal mostly with such things as tactics, signaling and patrolling rather than with weeding out stragglers.
In the water on the north side of the pier, a handful of recon trainees are receiving water-survival training, in which divers latch on to the Marines treading water and pull them under.
Just watching the Marines attempt to break free is tough. And when one swallows what seems like a gallon of ocean water and begins to cough it back up, even the instructors feel his pain. The Marine gets hauled halfway up onto the pier, where he heaves and hacks for several minutes.
The nausea passes, and a look of relief comes to the Marine’s face. He gets one solid breath into his lungs, lets his guard down for only a second and the divers have him again.
Yeo, commander of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st ROK Marine Division, says the training looks tough but is not so different from that of their U.S. counterparts.
“Our tactics are the same. We use reconnaissance units much the same,” Yeo said. “We are just a smaller size. Korea and all the other countries are just copies of the U.S. troops.”
Each ROK division has a recon battalion, which is divided into a force recon company and three amphibious recon companies. Overall, fewer than 1,000 ROKs are in recon, and only about 200 of those make it to force recon.
Because of the uniqueness of the training and mission, recon Marines have more opportunities than most to train with their U.S. counterparts. Every opportunity to do so, Yeo said, is savored.
“There is many differences in terms of organization, living conditions,” he said. “The biggest similarity is the mentality, as a warrior from the sea.”
Recon training takes toughness one step further
By C. Mark Brinkley
POHANG, South Korea — On a ramshackle pier stretching out into the Sea of Japan, about 40 ROK Marines come to prove their mettle.
It’s cold and raining, and the smoke from the bonfire on the concrete pier offends the nose and eyes. Nearby, dozens of ROK Marines — men who have already completed six weeks of boot camp and were selected to try out for recon because of their performance — are going through the PT test from hell.
Every blow of the instructor’s whistle instructs the Marines on the pier to switch exercises — from push-ups to sit-ups and so on. They do sets of what appear to be 20 repetitions, though the recon trainees do them so fast it’s hard to keep count.
During a two-hour visit, the whistle never stops blowing. There are no rest breaks.
When asked about the training, Lt. Col. Seung-Ju Yeo shrugs, unimpressed. A rugged man, Yeo has seen his share of Marines try out for recon.
“They volunteer and we pick up,” Yeo said, sipping on a ginseng drink, the Korean Gatorade. “Sometimes they don’t make it.”
For a force like the ROKs — already considered by most to be the hardest, toughest warriors in the country — recon is the next step. Among the South Korean special forces, ROK recon teams are as legendary as the U.S. Navy SEALs.
The Marines at the pier are working on Week Five of a 12-week program, and most of those who won’t finish are gone by now. The second half of the training will deal mostly with such things as tactics, signaling and patrolling rather than with weeding out stragglers.
In the water on the north side of the pier, a handful of recon trainees are receiving water-survival training, in which divers latch on to the Marines treading water and pull them under.
Just watching the Marines attempt to break free is tough. And when one swallows what seems like a gallon of ocean water and begins to cough it back up, even the instructors feel his pain. The Marine gets hauled halfway up onto the pier, where he heaves and hacks for several minutes.
The nausea passes, and a look of relief comes to the Marine’s face. He gets one solid breath into his lungs, lets his guard down for only a second and the divers have him again.
Yeo, commander of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st ROK Marine Division, says the training looks tough but is not so different from that of their U.S. counterparts.
“Our tactics are the same. We use reconnaissance units much the same,” Yeo said. “We are just a smaller size. Korea and all the other countries are just copies of the U.S. troops.”
Each ROK division has a recon battalion, which is divided into a force recon company and three amphibious recon companies. Overall, fewer than 1,000 ROKs are in recon, and only about 200 of those make it to force recon.
Because of the uniqueness of the training and mission, recon Marines have more opportunities than most to train with their U.S. counterparts. Every opportunity to do so, Yeo said, is savored.
“There is many differences in terms of organization, living conditions,” he said. “The biggest similarity is the mentality, as a warrior from the sea.”