[CPEO-MEF] Environmental concerns hinder digging training, Marines assert

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California
Environmental concerns hinder digging training, Marines assert
By Jeanette Steele
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 23, 2002

CAMP PENDLETON ? Pvt. Michael Robinson stood waist deep in a dirt hole.
The noontime sun beat down on him, mixing sweat with the green and black
camouflage paint on his face.

Robinson and another Marine had been digging on and off since sunrise
with the small, foldable entrenching tools that are the Marine Corps
field version of a shovel.

Still, the hole wasn't good enough.

A foxhole ? or fighting hole, as the Marines call them ? should be at
least armpit deep. Robinson, 20, learned that a few days before in his
School of Infantry classroom.

But Robinson, a lanky, 6-foot-1 Marine from Batesville, Ark., was
plainly visible from the belt up, leaving him vulnerable to enemy fire.

"It's harder than I thought," he said. "It was easy at first; then we
hit a lot of clay and rock. It gets a little trickier then."

This is how a Marine learns the craft of digging a fighting hole, still
one of the staples of military defense despite the futuristic weaponry
of the 21st century.

These days, that skill is in danger, Marine Corps leaders say, because
environmental protections keep troops from getting enough practice after
basic training.

Marines in Afghanistan last winter revealed a lack of know-how when
ordered to dig in the desert sands, a military team sent to evaluate the
Marines' performance concluded.

The fact of the is that when a new Marine enters the force after
completing basic training, he or she probably has dug only one or two
fighting holes. They are supposed to refine the skill later on with
their units.

A base spokesman said the environmental approval process for digging is
so cumbersome that unit commanders may eliminate digging from an
exercise. And ? without anyone intending it this way ? Marines don't get
much practice after infantry school.

"In my opinion, because of their concern they will violate a law, they
tend to avoid digging," said Mike Collier, the civilian director of Camp
Pendleton's training resources management division.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20021223-9999_1m23foxholes.html

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