If 0311s are expected to do both the rocket firing and demolition work of the 0351s, he’s a little skeptical that the training will translate as easily as some think.Īnd actually, for the proposed “near-peer fight” that all of the services and National Defense Strategy points toward, Uriarte thinks that it would make more sense to keep the 0351s around to have more specialized explosives and rocket knowledge in the force.Ī big part of 0351 is also identifying armor assets, he said.īut, the Marine Corps has a different plan in mind.īeyond restructuring the squad, Marine experimentation with new equipment and technology has allowed leaders to use new gear to expand capabilities. He’s cautiously observing what happens with the skill set. 50-caliber machine gun in an assault section of a mounted platoon.

Soon he was in Iraq and standing behind a. It was the coolest thing in the world.”īut that didn’t last long. “There was nothing ever more exhilarating than to fire a rocket on the shoulder. “It seemed like everybody forgot how to use 0351s for anything,” he said.Įven at predeployment training the 0351s were teamed up with combat engineers who didn’t realize the infantry Marines had demolition training.īut still, Uriarte enjoyed some aspects of the job. “It looks like it’s actually happening now,” he said.īut once Uriarte got to the fleet and started field training, he said his skills were rarely used and often not even understood.

“And every day in the Marine Corps I f**king heard that until the day I EAS’d.” “The day I got there, they were saying they were going to phase out 0351s this is back in 2006,” Uriarte said.

The Iraq War veteran said when he arrived at the School of Infantry he took a test and qualified to do the training, which consisted of a lot of math and handling demolition along with firing the SMAW.Īnd even in that early training more than a decade ago, instructors were telling Marines that the 0351 would be going away, he said. One fairly prominent former 0351, at least in Marine circles, is the creator of the comic strip “ Terminal Lance,” Maximilian Uriarte.

Skin assault marine corps