More boats are in our future. Sailors don’t always come with them. Transitioning a standard Rifle Company to a Small Boat Company is a tough transition that drains personnel and comes with unique equipment requirements. In 2022, I deployed with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines as the Small Boat Raid Force aboard the 31st MEU. I had zero boat experience, but luckily it was my company’s second iteration as a small boat company in less than two years, so we weren’t starting from scratch. From our standard work-up as a rifle company, a summer spent learning small boat skills, and ultimately the deployment, I learned some very simple lessons regarding training, personnel, and equipment.
The Work Up
The initial months of your workup will look like any other rifle company. Like most pre-deployment training programs, elements of your schedule are out of your hands and mandated, but there will be two training blocks dedicated to small boat employment.
Special Boat Skill Courses. This is your first training block and is conducted at Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Pacific/Atlantic. My company was lucky and this 12-week package began near the tail end of our workup following our ITX. The package begins with the individual skills courses (scout swimmer, small boat mechanic, maritime navigation, and coxswain skills) and culminates with the entire company executing the Infantry Small Boat Raid Course.
Shortly after your training at EWTG, you’ll rapidly transition to your evaluation at Expeditionary Operations Training Group. In the simplest terms, EWTG handles the waterborne operations and EOTG evaluates the land. Depending on your battalion’s deployment, EOTG experiences for the company, battalion, and MEU will vary.
Upon completion of the EWTG and EOTG training packages, your company is fully trained as a Small Boat Raid Force. This entire process takes 3-4 months, which is 3-4 months where any other type of company training above the team and squad level is going to be challenging. An ideal timeline would have your company complete all individual and collective training tasks prior to starting your boat package, if this isn’t feasible, recognize that you’ll have to take a pause on collective training events to prioritize your boat package.
Leaning In
In conjunction with your normal line company training there are minor actions you can take early on in your work-up that will pay dividends when it comes time to begin boat operations. The Marine Corps standard to participate in small boat operations is Water Survival - Intermediate. When you begin your company small boat raid course at EWTG, your Marines and Sailors will have to conduct a modified WSI screening in open water. Scout Swimmers will need to be Water Survival - Advanced prior to attending their course. The bottom line is weekly swim instruction for your weak swimmer must be built into your training schedule and consistent swim sustainment training should be scheduled for everyone else.
Beyond a more deliberate focus on swim training, your initial workup should look like any other rifle company. The boat operations are vitally important, but your team needs to be flexible to be called upon for any mission. After your certification as a small boat raid force, the tension between boat sustainment training and regular infantry operations ashore is noticeable. On the one hand, if you company never makes it to the BLS, then your infantry skills mean nothing. But poorly trained grunts leaving the BLS and heading to the objective is a recipe for disaster. A competent and trustworthy Chief Coxswain who understands what proper training looks like will build you flexibility.
At times, I was able to conduct simultaneous training exercises focusing on both boat operations and standard line company training. Your Chief Coxswain should have the knowledge and ability to take the boat Marines away for a few days on his own to conduct sustainment training while the rest of the company continues to prepare for actions on the objective. Naturally, the traditional infantry skills of your boat Marines will atrophy if they do nothing but train on the water. Balance is the key, your company still needs to be a jack of all trades and a master of “some”.
Personnel
A Small Boat Raid Force is unlike any other raid force. Your phases one (insert) and five (exfil) are significant and emotional events. You need competent individuals in the right positions to get your company to and from the objective. Think about what is required of key leaders during a heli or tiltrotor-borne raid…load the bird, sit down, strap in and enjoy the ride. Now imagine if your Company was responsible for the construction, maintenance, operation and navigation of the birds. Bit of a stretch, I know, but the principle itself stands - your company is responsible for your own organic insert and exfil, there is no ACE or ACV platoon to shepherd you along.
You know when you’re on a patrol and you side-step a puddle and think to yourself, “I don’t want my boots and sock to be wet for the next 6 hours”. Now imagine the first 4-6 hours of a operation are spent drenched in cold seawater. Your Marines are going to hit the beach cold, wet, seasick, and tired and then it’s going to be game on. Adrenaline will be riding high following actions on the objective and once again your Marines have a cold and wet 4-6 hour transit ahead of them. Small unit leadership is needed more than ever during Phases I and V.
Key Billets
Chief Coxswain. This is the chief that rules above all others. This is your expert in all things boat operations. This needs to be an officer or SNCO (or an incredibly adept and mature Sergeant). While embarked, the Chief Coxswain is responsible, along with your Gunny, for a large amount of coordination with the Navy. The lower the rank, the tougher time he’s going to have. The typical answer here is your Weapons Platoon Sergeant. The Chief Coxswain needs to graduate Maritime Navigation and the Coxswain Skills Course and will manage all the other Boat Chiefs, so he needs to master all things boat ops. This key leader is now essentially part of your Company Staff, advising and answering to the Company Commander during all phases of planning and execution. Keep in mind - at times he will personally be leading the entire company.
Chief Navigator. This key leader is responsible for developing all the navigation plans of the boat force. This includes detailed coordination and briefs with high-ranking Navy & Marine officers while embarked. Graduating the Maritime Navigation Course is not a walk in the park. This chief mostly likely needs to be one of your officers. The typical answer is your company fire support officer. Serving as the Chief Navigator will not take away from his ability to serve within the FiST (your FiST leader should be in the same boat as you and your Chief Navigator). On the note of Maritime Navigation, attend the course yourself and learn waterborne navigation and piloting, you can’t just be a passenger as a Commander. The Chief Navigator will ride in the “Alpha Boat” at the front of your formation with you and your Chief Coxswain.
Chief Scout Swimmer. The leader of your small contingent of Scout Swimmers who secure the beach landing site for your raid force. This needs to be a Marine of exceptional physical fitness, maturity, decision-making skills, and tactical knowledge…that’s a high bar and if done correctly may be taking away one of your top squad leaders.
Your Scout Swimmers will be the first ones to hit the Beach Landing Site. You’re counting on them to conduct limited reconnaissance, assess the surf zone, and mark the BLS. You’ll need an absolute minimum of six scout swimmers (two pairs of Marines for flank security on the BLS and two Marines to mark and signal the raid force from the center) but having ~10 in the section gives you redundancy. The Scout Swimmer course is no joke, and most Marines won’t pass. You’ll need to gather some of your top swimmers and PT studs from across the entire company to attend the course. The good news is, that aside from the Chief, the remainder of the section can be comprised of junior Marines. You can’t have your Marines show up to the Scout Swimmer course without a deliberate preparation course. Hold some type of swim assessment early on and identify at least 20 Marines to attend the course. Allow these Marines to conduct supervised preparatory training with general swimming, treading, and finning.
In some ways, the Chief Scout Swimmer may be the toughest positions to fill, because there is no easy answer. The entire Raid Force is just floating hundreds of yards off the coast (for what will seems like an eternity) relying on the decision-making skills of your Scout Swimmers, don’t short change this position, in hindsight it would have been worth sacrificing a squad leader.
Additionally, assign an officer or SNCO to attend the Scout Swimmer course. There’s likely no scenario where either one of them would ever fin into the BLS with the section, but having that senior leadership attend the course with the Marines will increase your graduation rate and overall proficiency.
Chief Mechanic. They are responsible for the maintenance associated with your entire boat suite (mainly the engines and the actual boats). It’s getting better, but boat suites across the Marine Corps are VERY old. Maintenance will be a constant fight and that fight will occur on the water, every single time you operate. Find a mechanically inclined Marine that loves to work on his car in the barracks parking lot. 99% of your maintenance is going to be on the engines. Let the Chief Coxswain pick the Chief Mech, they are going to work hand in hand and it’ll go much smoother if their personalities jive.
Chief Assault Climber. This is not technically required for boat operations, but as a Small Boat Raid Force you’re going to be expected to conduct cliff assaults. Make this an officer or SNCO from your security element. They’ll be in the first wave hitting the beach and can immediately begin setting conditions for a potential cliff assault.
Task Organization
There are two options that the experts at the Expeditionary Warfare Training Group will present to you for organizing the company to conduct small boat operations.
Option one is to retain your standard TO of four platoons and an HQ section with your specially trained boat Marines sprinkled throughout the platoons. When the time comes to prepare for small boat operations, the boat specific Marines will leave temporarily CHOP from their platoons to an ad hoc boat platoon managed by the Chief Coxswain.
Option two is to create a permanently standing boat platoon within the Company, likely led by your current Weapons Platoon leadership. This requires all coxswains, scout swimmers, mechanics, and navigators to permanently CHOP from their current platoons over to the Boat Platoon. Concurrently, Weapons Platoon Marines without special boat skills will be permanently assigned to your three remaining rifle platoons. The obvious downfall to option two is that if there are no boat operations to conduct, the Boat Platoon is now a hodgepodge organization of random Marines that would be difficult to employ as a standard rifle platoon. From what I have seen, most companies choose option one and do just fine.
Personnel management is going to be a struggle. Many of the required courses are going to overlap with one another during your work-up. The LCpl that will pass Assault Climber is the same that’ll pass Scout Swimmer…and he won’t be able to go to both. It’s going to be tough across the board and every platoon is going to have to give up key players to the boat force, just accept it and move on. It won’t matter that Second Platoon lost its best Team Leader if the raid force never even makes it to the beach.
Equipment
Overall, boat operations are cool, but don’t get seduced and dive head first into cool guy mode. Your Marines leaving the BLS and heading to the objective should have the same level of protection as any other raid force. But spending hours upon hours soaked and immersed in sea water is going to take a toll on your uniforms and equipment. Where possible take this into account and allow the Marine to wear gear and equipment that is suitable for the water.
Armor. Wear it, you’re crazy not to. By the time my company got to our MEU, the previous two boat companies had all experimented with varying levels of body armor. We profited from their lessons learned and took the necessary steps to outfit everyone leaving the BLS with full armor (plate carrier with front/back SAPIs & ballistic helmets). Through coordination with Naval Special Warfare, we learned cheap and easy ways to make our plates waterproof and relatively neutrally buoyant. We prepped our PPE and tested it in worst case scenarios. Every Marine & Sailor in my company donned their full PPE and swam over 100 meters without any flotation device (which we’d ALWAYS wear in the boats).
Put your Marines and Sailors in armor. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s a weight issue. The boats can handle it and call me crazy, but I don’t think any MEU Commander is going to sign off on sending his Marines into harm’s way without proper PPE. Many of the recent photos I’ve seen of boat companies across the Corps show them in chest rigs and bump helmets; it’s not realistic.
Non-standard uniforms. Small boat operations give off a “cool guy” vibe. This is something I recommend you embrace and be wary of at the same time. Embrace it because small boat operations are brutal and the training your Marines and Sailors go through is unique, they should take immense pride in it. At the same time, this isn’t free reign to just throw standards out the window.
Oddly enough, this seems to come down to footwear more than anything. Your Marines will tell you they have to wear all black Chuck Taylor’s because they grip the deck plates better and drain water easier than your Marine Corps boots; neither of those statements are true. Boat operations will destroy your boots rapidly and the berthings on ship aren’t the best for drying out gear. My guidance was if you were part of the raid force leaving the BLS then I expected you to be in the proper uniform. If you were a member of the “boat platoon” and remaining at the BLS, you could (within reason) wear alternate forms of footwear and clothing. If our company was purely conducting boat sustainment operations, I allowed my Marines to wear alternative footwear, this kept our primary boots dry and prepared for full mission profile raids.
Be prepared to have your Scout Swimmers cut and hem their cammies and create almost mini ghillie suits for their beach infiltrations. They are going to give your 1stSgt a heart attack, but they need to alter their appearance to fit their mission.
Equipment Maintenance. Post-combat actions are key to ensuring your equipment stands up to the rigors of small boat operations. Everyone is going to be smoked when you finally return from an 8-10 hour boat raid, but the work is far from over. Every boat, paddle, line, engine, fuel bladder, deck plate and you name it, must receive a deliberate freshwater rinse. It’s during the 2-3 hours after boat operations where you find out if your Marines really work as a team or if they’re in it for themselves. People will get exposed - don’t let those people be your officers or SNCOs. This is not the time for an officer and SNCO huddle or debrief. Everyone needs to share the burden of maintaining the boat suite.
Future
The concept for Stand-in Forces (SIF) is going to require significant littoral maneuver. Presently, the Navy hasn’t bought off on acquiring the Landing Ship Mediums (LSMs) that the Marine Littoral Regiment and other SIFs require. That means, for the time being, the Corps will survive with its own organic capabilities. To me, this means more units being trained to operate and maintain small boats. This also means a shift from the mentality of a “Small Boat Raid Force” to a SIF with organic small boat maneuver capacity. I anticipate this requiring more Marines cross-trained to fill the various Chief roles. A company operating as a SIF won’t be successful with one Chief Coxswain or Navigator attempting to support the entire force. This need for redundancy likely won’t come with additional school seats in the formal MOS producing schoolhouses. For a SIF to have the capability to conduct the necessary littoral maneuver, rifle platoons will likely need the organic knowledge to conduct maintenance, planning, operations, and coastal piloting/navigation. Perhaps most importantly, we cannot let this knowledge just disappear after a company returns from a MEU.
Major Downs is the Military Science 300 Team Chief in the Department of Military Instruction at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He can be reached at conor.downs@westpoint.edu.