Fort Pickett -- FORT PICKETT, Va. –The Marines of 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division traveled from Camp Lejeune, N.C. to Virginia to participate in deployment for training at Fort Pickett, Va., Nov. 30th - Dec. 15th, 2016.
As part of their pre-deployment training, the Marines are gearing up to enhance their combative abilities prior to a six-month rotation to Okinawa, Japan.
“We aim to improve upon our ability to complete the mission from the fire-team level all the way up to the battalion level,” said Capt. Daniel M. Yurkovich, the battalion operations officer. “My hope for this exercise is to continue to build small-unit cohesion and instill trust between the Marines and their leaders.”
The skills built upon here will be utilized while abroad to achieve overall mission success.
“A DFT is important for any unit, not just our own,” said GySgt. Louis M. Quinones, the battalion’s assistant operations chief. “We are here to enhance decision-making and warfighting capabilities on the small unit level.”
Quinones stated that with pre-deployment training exercise it is important that they work out any irregularities now before the deployment so that when abroad anything from logistics to actual missions run as smoothly as possible.