CAMP SUFFISANT, Curacao -- Marines and Sailors with Force Reconnaissance Company, II Marine Expeditionary Force arrived at Camp Suffisant in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, on Feb. 26th, 2010, for amphibious reconnaissance and combatant diving operations at various locations around the island.
The base is owned by the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps who will be supporting Force Reconnaissance Company in their training as well as participating in bilateral training events.
The training will be conducted over the next four weeks and will be broken into several one-week segments, said Capt. Joshua R. Plummer, the company’s executive officer. The training schedule consists of surface and subsurface amphibious infiltration, combatant diving operations, live fire training, a water obstacle course, and a six-day, full-mission profile, joint final exercise. During the final exercise the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps will participate with Force Reconnaissance Company in applying the skills being refined throughout the course of the training exercises.
Curacao was chosen as a pristine location to execute this amphibious and combatant diving-specific training because of its clear waters and the integration with the Dutch Marines, according to Plummer.
“You can see for 100 feet in the water here,” said Plummer. “In the water off Lejeune you can only see a few feet in front of you.”
The Force Reconnaissance Company will return near the end of the month with the newly refined skills and a lot of hands on experience.