teamed up with the Marine Toys For Tots
Foundation for several toy drives.
RS Chicago has presented the national
and Marine Corps colors at several games
during the season and also has set up recruiting booths inside the arena during
four Wolves games.
Sgt Luis Agostini
MCRS Chicago
Infantryman Leads From the Front
During CBIRF Training
■ Slithering through damp and slippery
tunnels, Marines and sailors with the Technical Rescue Platoon, Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, II Marine
Expeditionary Force put their “confined
space” rescue skills to use during a training exercise April 8-10 at the Navy Annex, Stump Neck, Md.
In the midst of the humid, cramped tunnel filled with piles of rubble, the constant
sounds of power tools filled the air as the
rescuers worked diligently to free victims
trapped in a simulated terrorist attack.
“Hey!” one Marine yelled. “Send up the
drill.”
Sergeant Joe L. Martinez, a team leader
and part of the Technical Rescue Plt, drilled
through a pile of concrete, which was
blocking his way to a simulated casualty.
Leathernecks and sailors with the Technical Rescue Plt exercised five disciplines
during the training to help sharpen their
lifesaving skills. Responders with the platoon are trained in confined space, rope,
trench, vehicle extrication and collapsed
structure rescue. In addition to this knowledge, Marines must also be able to demonstrate these disciplines in a contaminated
environment while wearing their bulky
personal protective equipment.
Martinez, once a mortarman in the Ma-
CPL LESLIE PALMER
Sgt Ivan Trevino, a technical rescue technician with H&S Co, CBIRF, passes a drill to his Technical Rescue
Plt team leader, Sgt Joe L. Martinez, during an April 9 casualty-rescue training exercise.
rine infantry, said his experience at CBIRF
has given him a chance to experience a
different side of the Marine Corps.
“It’s something I don’t get to experience in the infantry, so it’s good training
for me,” said Martinez.
He has spent most of his career in the
infantry, but at CBIRF, Martinez has spent
the majority of his time learning technical
rescue techniques and how a decontamination line should be run in a chemical,
biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive incident. While most training exercises are a chance for troops to
refine their skills, for Martinez, a new
member to the platoon, this training was
a chance to get to know his peers and
learn what it takes to be a part of the unit.
“He’s stood in as a team leader, and
he’s done everything the rest of the Marines here are doing. Depending on what
they encounter on [an] operation, they basically use one of the five disciplines to
rescue casualties,” said Gunnery Sergeant
Mickey Davis, Staff Noncommissioned
Officer in Charge, Technical Rescue Plt,
Headquarters and Service Company.
Most infantrymen’s mindsets are focused on winning wars, and while CBIRF
typically doesn’t deploy to combat zones,
that didn’t affect Martinez and his motivation. His battleground became the contaminated areas CBIRF works to mitigate.
“After he exhausted himself [at the De-
COURTES Y OF DALE E. MET TE, ART INSTRUCTOR, WINNEBAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS
HONORING OUR WINNEBAGO VETERANS—Art students Chris Clay, a senior; Davin Thomas, Anthony Parker, Crystal Stout and Zach Free, all juniors; and
Taryn Thomas, a sophomore at Winnebago Public Schools, Winnebago Indian Reservation, Neb., created this mural honoring all military veterans of the
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. The 4-by- 12 mural hangs in the school’s upper atrium as a visual tribute.
