Pfc. Benjamin Burkett, 22, from Greenville, Ala., an instructor with the Basic Jungle Survival Course, leads out the goat that he will later show students how to skin and prepare to cook at the Jungle Warfare Training Center on Monday. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)
Pfc. Benjamin Burkett, 22, from Greenville, Ala., an instructor with the Basic Jungle Survival Course, leads out the goat that he will later show students how to skin and prepare to cook at the Jungle Warfare Training Center on Monday. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)
Cpl. Matthew Figurski, right, 27, from Detroit, a Basic Jungle Survival Course instructor, demonstrates how to use an underground solar still. The still is used to collect water from the condensation of of water drawn up from the ground, Figurski told students. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)
Marines carefully work together to arm a pig spear trap. The trap is very effective, but can be dangerous to set up because a person could set off the trip cord while trying to put it together. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)
Chief Instructor Cpl. Joshua Mathes, left, 24, from Salem, Ohio, and Lance Cpl. Nicholas Elliott, 19, from Dublin, Ohio, with 3rd Intelligence Battalion, set up a "figure four" deadfall trap. When an animal goes for the bait on the figure four, it causes the heavy log to fall onto the animal, crushing or trapping it, Mathes said. It is the most effective but least preferred trap because "it takes forever to set up," he said. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)
Marines with 3rd Intelligence Battalion builds a hasty shelter using a poncho during the Basic Jungle Survival Course. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)
CAMP GONSALVES, Okinawa — Within the dense growth of the jungle are the materials needed to survive.
That’s what Jungle Warfare Training Center instructors are trying to get across to troops attending the Basic Jungle Survival Course.
About 18 Marines with the 3rd Intelligence Battalion are getting hands-on training this week making traps and snares built with bamboo and wood, shelters constructed of thatch, and even solar and underground water stills.
The course focuses on four tasks: building field expedient shelters, finding and purifying water sources, catching wild game and preparing and eating the game caught.
This is a great course for troops who come from cities and probably didn’t spend a lot of time in the woods when they were younger, student Lance Cpl. Caleb Armstrong said during training Monday.
"We’re just teaching them the basic stuff," said Cpl. Joshua Mathes, the course’s chief instructor.
Mathis stressed that student are only limited by their imagination in devising ways to survive using the jungle around them.
And their resourcefulness will be put to the test.
After spending Sunday and Monday in classroom instruction and learning skills in the field, students will spend a day or so on their own surviving off the land, Lt. Col. Thomas Goessman, the center’s officer in charge, said Monday.
Successfully completing tasks will earn students a cupful of the goat meat instructors showed them how to prepare during the instruction phase, he said.
Armstrong said he did a lot of camping in his youth and knew some of what was taught in class. "But I did learn some new shelters and traps" like the pig sticker, he said.
"Coming out here and being in the woods, getting dirty; it’s always fun," said fellow student Lance Cpl. Nicholas Elliott.
That’s the key to surviving in the jungle, to "keep a positive mental attitude," Mathes said.
"You can go three days without water, 14 days without food," he said. "But if you can’t keep a clear head, you’ve already given up hope."
