Charlie (C) Company may be the best-kept secret in the desert of western Utah.
It's part of the U.S. Marine Corps' 4th Light Armored Vehicle Battalion, 4th Marine Division, activated a year ago September. When it reaches full strength, it will be 60-70 Marines strong, spokesmen say.Marine teams usually train near beaches along the nation's shores. But these Marines are using inland beaches to launch their light armored vehicles in Rush Lake near Stockton, Tooele County.
Utahns might be startled to learn that Charlie Company has already stormed into the lake and back ashore in maneuvers, under the watchful eye of Maj. Ronald Canale.
The Marines received valuable mock-combat experience when some of the beaches - cultivated farmland soaked mushy by the rising lake - momentarily disabled the vehicles. Marine teams brought in a recovery vehicle to help a couple of LAVs get back ashore.
The lake is four miles long and has risen to its present 20- to 30-foot depth since 1973. It has diminished to mere springs for 40 years at a time in the past.
"We have a lot more elbow room to train in," said Marine Capt. Alfred S. McLaren. "For our mechanized-type unit," he said, Tooele Army Depot, C Company's headquarters, has turned out to be ideal.
"Tooele's base for the Marines has turned out good for a lot of reasons. We're close and we can get to the training areas quicker out here."
The depot gives the Marine Company a lot of support because it is a mechanized base loaded with military combat vehicles. The desert west of Tooele is a superb proving ground for combat vehicles.
But life in the Marine Corps is more than just rigorous maneuvers and training drills in camouflage duds, steel helmets, combat boots and field packs. Trim, sharp-looking reserves also appear in full uniform at public events like color guards, flag raisings, funeral details and balls.
LAV-25s are the main fighting vehicles of Marine battalions; troops use them to fight on land and in the water. In four-wheel drive, these vehicles attain road speeds above 60 mph.
On rough terrain, in eight-wheel drive, slopes and ravines are no obstacles. LAV-25s "swim" 6 1/2 mph and fire turret cannon salvos from the water.
On the LAV-25s, the driver is located in the left front of the vehicle, while the commander and gunner operate the turret. Four combat-equipped scout infantrymen can be carried in the rear of the vehicle. The low silhouette, hydraulically powered, stabilized two-man turret contains the 25mm automatic cannon, and a 7.62mm machine gun is mounted on the tank.
Weekend training of the reserve Marines is preparing to embark anytime U.S. forces are needed for combat anywhere in the world.
Tooele is a strong recruiting area for Marines. Utahns have good, basic family values where young people are taught to be responsible, disciplined and respectful.
Utah Marines should be especially proud, said First Sgt. David B. Hawkins.
"Just last year," Hawkins recalled, "a young boy was dying of cancer. He wanted to see one of the LAVs that Marines drive. They dressed him up and gave him a ride in one and made him an honorary member of Charlie Company. They gave him a picture in a frame signed by everyone."
Lance Cpl. Monico Trujillo II rescued a neighbor, Floyd Jex, from his burning house at tremendous personal risk Christmas Eve a year ago. Reservist Trujillo, a pre-med student at the University of Utah, could not see the neighbor in the thick smoke. He felt his way into the kitchen and dragged Jex out the front door. The rescue techniques Trujillo used were "exactly those used by firefighters affecting a rescue in a burning building," said County Fire Chief Larry Hinman.