Beach-storming drill in Calif. returns Marines to roots, but raises questions future tactics
By Julie Watson, APThursday, June 3, 2010
Beach-storming drill returns Marines to roots
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — Thousands of Marines and sailors have set out to sea for an exercise to storm a picturesque beach in Southern California as part of an ambitious training mission.
The exercise taking place Thursday and Friday comes amid a heated debate in the military about whether D-Day-style amphibious landings are becoming obsolete in modern-day warfare.
Marines have complained about how heavy fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last decade has relegated them to the status of a kind of second land army. As such, some Marines have spent little time inside a ship, much less landing on a beach.
The effort is the largest amphibious training exercise on the West Coast since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, involving more than 4,500 Marines and sailors.
