NORTH COUNTY TIMES - San Diego County - Tues., April 16, 2002
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2002/20020416/90959.html

Marine division plans major desert crossing

GIDGET FUENTES, Staff Writer

CAMP PENDLETON -- Beginning Monday, 2,000 Marines with a locally-based
infantry division will take part in desert war games in the Mojave Desert
that will include a tricky Colorado River crossing and riding on more than
200 miles of roads bisecting protected desert tortoise habitat.

The exercise, called "Desert Scimitar," is the largest training exercise
for the 1st Marine Division, a ground combat force of 22,000 Marines and
sailors from units at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base and the Marines'
desert warfare training center at Twentynine Palms.

The war-games terrain includes protected lands for the desert tortoise, an
endangered species in California.

The division will have 50 Marines assigned as "tortoise watchers" to ensure
that vehicle convoys don't run over any desert tortoises that might cross
their path, said Maj. Christopher B. Nash, an operational planner with the
division.

The force will also include two desert biologists who will serve as
"tortoise handlers," because federal law prohibits the public from moving
or touching the tortoise.

Even so, Daniel Patterson, a desert ecologist in Idylwilld with the Center
for Biological Diversity, said he was concerned the training will occur at
"the height of the season when the desert tortoise is active" instead of
winter or summer.

"We would like it to be just better timing," Patterson said.

No tortoises were spotted last year during the exercise, military officials
said.

The desert games will start on Monday at the Marines' Twentynine Palms
training base in the Mojave Desert and end May 3 at the Yuma Proving Ground
in Arizona.

Officials said the exercise will allow the infantry division to test the
ability to command and control combat forces, some of them on the move,
across a large, undeveloped or rugged landscape in a computer-simulated war
between warring nations.

"We're working our command and control over an extended space," said Nash.

Officials said Scimitar is important because they can't test their combat
might over such a large area by training solely on the Camp Pendleton base
north of Oceanside.

The military force will drive during daylight hours across a web of
existing paved or dirt roads through mostly-desert terrain, said Nash. At
day's end, the Marines will assemble at temporary camps, he said.

Only wheeled vehicles will be used in the exercise. Tracked vehicles such
as tanks and amphibious attack vehicles will not be used, Nash said, and
Marines will be ordered to stay on the roads at all times to avoid harming
tortoise habitats.

Military officials coordinated their plans with 27 federal, state and local
agencies and 50 private landowners and businesses, Nash said. Officials
received nearly 25 permits from federal, state and local agencies,
including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land
Management, he said.

Most of the permits will allow the 7th Engineer Support Battalion from Camp
Pendleton to erect a temporary 450-foot bridge for troops and vehicles to
cross into Arizona to test the division's ability to bridge a moving river
and get forces across, Nash said.

------------------
May the Dune Gods Smile Upon You
ShiftingDunes.com

I wonder if the soldiers in Afganistan are told "Watch out for the tortise" while Al Quada is lobbing bombs at them!

Vor

------------------
May the Dune Gods Smile Upon You
ShiftingDunes.com

That's a bunch of crap. I read about that last year too. Great, now I feel that we are better protected against war because our soldiers are getting the type of training they need. I guess you can say it's like looking out for land mines. LOL

Great. Train our soldiers to stay on the roads so they will be easier targets.

Thanks SC and DP. What a dork.

Somebody needs to tell these reporters that Patterson lives in Tucson, not Idylwilld. He's lying right there.

[This message has been edited by gman (edited 04-18-2002).]

federal "tortoise handlers" ? i effing LOVE IT!

what next?

Yeah, Let's put the military preparedness and the national defense on hold while the tortoise crosses the road. This Patterson dude really is an IDIOT.

Maybe we'll get lucky and Patterson will pick up a land mine instead of a tortoise!

[This message has been edited by Rubberneck (edited 04-19-2002).]

When I was in the Marine Corps a few yers ago, while field training, we were intructed to stay out of any wet patches of land. So instead of improving our line of fire and defensive tactics, we were roping off mud...Go figure...

RoostKing...

Danny Boy and Blew Boy on there first day of there new job as "Tortoise Watchers"...

[img]http://www.offroadbb.com/attachment.php?postid=42811[/img]

Why dont we propose that the effing tree huggers that love the milk weed sooo much go out and stand guard of them, not allowing any OHV to run them over. I think the hours in the blazing heat and sand would do them good. On top of it, they get to walk back....

Have fun.

------------------
Wile E. Coyote survived flying off a 300 FT. sand dune.....