CAMP ATTERBURY, IND. – Over 500 Marines assigned to 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment conducted a Mission Rehearsal Exercise at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, April 11-13 in preparation for Integrated Training Exercise 4-24.

The MRX was a collective training event held to evaluate the Marines’ individual and cooperative capabilities to ensure a standard level of readiness across the unit for the upcoming ITX 4-24, the largest Marine Corps Reserve exercise of the year.

“MRX helps us prepare for ITX because it helps us scale down ITX and gives us a full rehearsal of what we are going to have to accomplish when we actually get out to ITX,” said Maj. Patrick Wheatley, executive officer, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment.

Kilo, Lima and India were the participating companies that came together to form a force prepared to successfully conduct the ranges of ITX.

Marines with Bravo Company, 4th Combat Engineer Battalion, supported the infantry units by performing mechanical breaches and dynamic breaches using bangalore torpedoes on concertina wire providing effective and timely entry for the infantry units to navigate the range.

Marines with Headquarters and Service Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, provided the Marines downrange with administrative and logistical support.

“They support the battalion command and control from the operation section. The communication section establishes radio nets and infrastructure to communicate across the battalion. The logistics section sustains the battalions with chow, water, ammo, and fuel,” Wheatley expressed.

The Marines launched an offensive operation in the simulated range 37, created based off of range 400 series at ITX. The range demonstrated their ability to successfully and swiftly execute combat tasks as well as showcasing the unit’s precision and coordination as they maneuvered through the terrain, engaging enemy positions with combined arms fire.

“The way that the attack started out was our company scouts did a call for fire on an enemy listening post observation post they had 60mm mortars directly suppressing the enemy allowing the combined anti-armor team section began directly engaging with objective one” Wheatley described.

The CAAT began to lay fire with heavy machine guns and tube-launched optically-tracked wire-guided (TOW) missiles, which ultimately eliminated an enemy armored personnel carrier.

“Once they did that, it set the conditions for the rifle company to be able to start maneuvering onto objective one,” said Wheatley. “Through the breach process, isolating the obstacle and suppressing the objective, the combat engineers breached the obstacle allowing the forces to flow through to assault objective one and secure it.”

After the capturing of objective one, the CAAT was allowed to move to the second support by fire position which allowed another platoon to continue on and capture objective two by fire and maneuver.

The objectives of MRX were directly tailored to prepare the Marines’. The rehearsal of techniques, tactics and procedures will be used to support the mission of ITX.

“We came out and we had a very robust training plan we were able to accomplish, we had some weather conditions that were adverse with rain for 1.5-days along with lower temperatures,” Wheatley emphasized. “The Marines were still motivated to accomplish the mission and get the training done.”

The unit will arrive in Twentynine-Palms in June of 2024 and will conduct a multitude of ranges that will test the capabilities and cooperative skills of the Marines’.

-30-