2nd Reconnaissance Battalion - Beach Landing

Sgt. Kyle Czapp - Team Leader, 2nd Recon: "Battlespace shaping is a huge capability we bring to the fight. Today what we ended up doing was an amphibious landing on the beach and then pushed into the hinterland so that follow on forces could get an idea of what they're looking at.

For Bold Alligator, what we're testing out, is getting those reports back from the beach to the ship. We've been sending people through dive school, practicing hydrographic surveys, beach recs, all of our insert capabilities, make it easier to insert into places that would be harder for conventional forces to get to.

It allows commanders to make better timely decisions on what forces they want to bring in after us and gives them a better idea of what's happening on the ground."

1st Lt. Lee McKinnon - Platoon Commander, 2nd Assault Amphibious Battalion: "It's building our readiness. We're shifting back to our amphibious roots. Moving that shift back to maritime forces again. We're putting a lot more effort again into building our readiness as a sea-going military. Moving from ship to shore and taking inland objectives. Getting back to what we really do as Marines.

This is what we have right now, this is what makes the Marine Corps amphibious. Without this, we wouldn't be the kind of unit that we are, the Marine Corps as a whole. Bringing these vehicles to the fight, coming with that sort of firepower, and overwhelming forces, essentially opening up supply lines for the rest of the BLT, or Special Purpose MAGTF, to move through and utilize these routes.

Really, we rely so heaving on our Staff NCOs and NCOs - they make the mission work. So, for example, with one of these vehicles here, that's run by simply a Corporal, sometimes a Lance Corporal, so that's a lot of responsibility a junior Marine might have. The more we can get out, the more we can operate, that's always going to be priceless training for the Marines."