A class of U.S. Marine Infantry Officer Course students from Quantico Marine Base launched a tactical ground assault on the youth correctional facility at the former Lorton Prison grounds last week as part of a training exercise.
The training, which the Marine Corps calls "realistic training," is part of a 10-week course for Marine lieutenants preparing for combat duty. Although the training is in urban areas and the soldiers in Iraq are facing combat in urban areas, the Marine Corps press release stated "this exercise is a standard training event for the students and is not preparation for a deployment to support the global war on terrorism."
"It's yet another realistic setting," said Capt. Jeff Landis, Marine Corps spokesperson. The students trained in the abandoned prison buildings, which resemble an urban environment.
Landis said the training will involve building-to-building and room-to-room tactics similar to situations encountered on the battlefield. Although the marines will discharge weapons, using blanks during the training, Landis said the noise will be minimal. The homeowners associations in the area were notified beforehand of minimal disruption due to the exercise.
"They might hear slight training noises," Landis said.
Liz Bradsher lives in the Fairfax Station area, south of Springfield. Bradsher heard about the training through the South County Federation, a group of homeowners associations in that area. She admitted hearing helicopters.
Landis said the training will be mostly ground operations, but Supervisor Gerry Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) was notified that some helicopters would be involved.
"They've been authorized to this one time and that's all," Hyland said. "They are doing this on buildings that are going to be destroyed."
CATHY SIMMONS, Fairfax County spokesperson, heard that the training would be limited to May 17-20 this time but said there were future requests by the Marine Corps.
"This was a single request for this training," said Simmons,"I know the Marines have expressed an interest in doing more training down there."
Landis confirmed that they were looking into more training in the future.
On May 10-15, the Marine Corps conducted its first series of training exercises at the former prison site, which is now called Laurel Hill, according to Simmons, but none of the residents in the area were notified. The Marine training may be under time restraints if the Youth Correctional Facility is redeveloped as planned.
"Some of them [the buildings] are slated to be demolished," Simmons said.