Force March: getting back to grunting as a grunt

For you Marines and soldiers what was the longest force march you ever went on ?

For me it was in 1970, 24 miles on the first day and around 12 or 16 miles humping back to Las Pulgas at Camp Pendleton. Just your typical force march back in the day.
And Camp Pendleton has more than a few hills that are some real mother ****ers.

Then there was the 5th Marines 150 mile force march from the desert to the sea.
150 miles (241 kilometers) in five days.

. “Desert to the Sea” was a 150-mile, 5th Marine Regimental forced march from 29 Palms California to Camp Pendleton. I have heard guys in the 5th still count this march in the legends of the 5th Marines! The hike started after a 12-day desert warfare training exercise in the Mojave. Regimental Commander Colonel Tolson A. Smoak led the march, which began March 25 and concluded March 30, 1960. Colonel Smoak stated. “A regiments capability to deploy its’ manpower by foot over a long distance and remain in top physical condition, enables them to emerge the victor in combat. It is one of the prime necessities of an infantry regiment.” With full equipment, this was not an easy march. One of the things that kept us all going was our much older rugged commander in the lead! He had fought his way across the Pacific and was a Major by the time he participated in the landing and battle of Iwo Jima. Enough said!
http://www.bobrohrer.com/pdf_files/pendleton_captions.pdf

During WW ll flat fleet would get you a 4-F draft classification. By the Vietnam War and helicopters it all depended how flat your feet were.

My brother has flat feet and was a Marine grunt in Vietnam for one tour of duty then he did a tour of duty at the Marine Barracks at Gitmo which was considered the worse duty station in the Marine Corps back in the day.

 

The fighting and sustained load is not that big of a deal, unless you are in the Heavy Weapons section. But it is the sustainment load that is the real back breaker.

When I was in, every "Combat Arms" Regiment and Battalion (Infantry, Artillery, Tanks) had to do the MCCRES every 2 years. That is the Marine Corps Combat Readiness Evaluation System. Essentially a month of hell. First is the administrative segment, where "subject matter experts" come in and evaluate you on everything from the paperwork and administrative tasks, to gear ("Junk on the Bunk") inspections and tests to ensure that the Marines know the things they should know for their rank and position.

Then you move into the field exercise portion. Essentially about 2 weeks of field exercises. Conducting attacks, defensive operations, MOUT, planning and reacting to ambushes, embarking and disembarking form helicopters and landing craft, all the things we should know how to do. And it is "finalized" by a 25 mile forced march under sustainment load (then around 100 pounds). The march is what broke most units who failed. It was done as a Battalion, with "pacers" from Division following at about 100 meters behind the last element.

Fall past the pacers, and you have dropped out. So long as you stay ahead of them, you can rejoin your Company at the next hourly break. If more than 10% of the Battalion falls out or they do not finish within 6 hours, they fail.

This is what destroyed the Artillery units when I was in. In around 1988 they ran an experiment where they added females to the Battalion and Batteries to fill administrative positions. Supply, admin clerks, cooks, and the like. And when it came time to do their MCCRES they blew it over and over again. They just could not keep their drop rate below 10%. The experiment was quickly dropped when they were preparing to go to the Gulf War in 1990.

Now the average drop rate was around 5% (around 15-20 individuals). We started our "prep humps" about 3 months in advance, starting at around 10 miles under "fighting load" (body armor and helmet, web gear). Then advancing until a final practice about 2 weeks before the actual evaluation began. That one would be around 20 miles under full sustainment load.

The only allowance for the Heavy Weapons guys was that they had these 2 wheeled carts for their big guns. There was really no way they could do it otherwise, since even split among the 3 man crew the 90 pound 81mm mortar came out to an additional 30 pounds per person. And the M2 .50 comes in at over 130 pounds. So the heavy gunner individuals would throw their guns into these carts and 2 of them would alternate pulling it.

Most of the time at Lejeune we did a big loop, ending back in the Battalion area about 5 hours later. One epic one though I still remember. They marched us out to the beach, and the scuttlebutt was flowing that they were getting the helicopter jockeys to fly us back. Nope. We got to the beach, were told to dump our gear, and given a cookout and 2 beers each. Finally after several hours of goofing off we were bussed back mainside.

Of course, that was in 1989, something like that would never fly today.

 

So with you it was a 25 mile force march ?

Back in the 60's and early 70's the Marines 782 gear was still of WW ll era vintage.

We were still issued the camouflage shelter halves which were of heavy canvas. It was the heaviest item of the 782 gear probably around six pounds.

 

19 klicks is just about 12 miles.

On a force march you're suppose to travel about 4 miles in an hour. (6.4 kilometers per hour)

During WW ll the Marines 2nd Raider Battalion force marches traveled at 5 miles per hour.
What they never mentioned was how many miles were their force marches ?
Basically these Marine Raiders were traveling at double time, 180 30" steps per minute.

 

It was about half and half with us.

The H-harness and most of the stuff was now nylon instead of cotton. But essentially it was Vietnam era variants on the WWII era stuff. You could hand it off to a WWII vet and they would understand it instantly. Not like the MOLLE stuff they use today.

I was originally issued the then current version of the M1 metal helmet, and the body armor with ballistic nylon on top and plates at the waist from the Vietnam era. It was not until 1986 or so that the newer body armor and helmets and the like was finally entering service.

And yea, the shelter half was still canvas. But it was all green, no more of that "Green Side Out - Brown Side Out" stuff. And yea, that, the rope, 3 poles, and 6 stakes was around 6 pounds or so (more if it was wet).

Heck, I was even issued a mess kit that was made in 1951! I never took it with me, it stayed in a sea bag back in the barracks. But I had one issued.