SATTAHIP, Thailand — Lance Cpl. Dustin Fulton’s newfound respect for the jungle comes dripping with sweat and garnished with the flavor of the bugs he learned to survive on Tuesday.
Like many of the others from the 2nd Marine Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, Fulton is a desert veteran. He fought in Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand province and trains at Twentynine Palms, in California’s Mojave Desert.
Both have unforgiving climates, but the potential for ambush in a jungle, not to mention the myriad noncombat ways a person can die there, left an impression on Fulton and the others attending a survival course run by Thai marines.
“I’d definitely rather fight in a desert than in a jungle,” said Fulton, who is participating with his unit in the six-nation Cobra Gold exercise. “I have to give it to anyone who fought in Vietnam or any place like that. It’s intimidating”.
Thirty-five years since the last helicopters left Saigon, the U.S. military’s institutional memory of jungle warfare has largely faded into the history books. If a large-scale fight ever broke out again in a jungle environment, most Marines here agreed that, given similarly capable enemies, it would be a tougher fight than in Iraq or Afghanistan.
However, they also said it would be easier to survive on their own because of the abundant food and water sources.
On Tuesday, the Marines learned how to capture, kill and survive on animals they might find in the jungle or in nearby settlements, including snakes and chickens. They also got a crash course on jungle plant life and found out what insects go down easiest.
Grubs are good sources of protein, but taste a bit starchy.
Crickets and scorpions pack a lot more crunch.
Cobra blood is salty and tastes more or less like human blood. After meeting with the U.S. Marines, the Thais made themselves a cocktail with it by mixing the blood with whiskey and a splash of water.
The demonstration was theatrical and practical, but the low-tech survival skills underscored a larger realization: Some of the high-tech equipment and tactics applied often in urban and desert warfare would have to be adapted to a new environment to be effective.
For example, the unmanned aerial vehicles that have become heavily relied upon for intelligence and attacks in America’s desert wars would have a tougher time accomplishing their jobs when flying over a jungle canopy.
Gunnery Sgt. Yancy Paschall, a veteran of 2004’s Battle of Ramadi in Iraq, says that ambient light filtering through the jungle could affect standard-issue night vision goggles.
“There are more limitations in the jungle,” said Paschall, now on his third trip as a Marine to Thailand. “There’s also not a lot of experience in the jungle since 2001. For a lot of these guys, it’s their first time here”.
Though the environment is alien to most young troops, The United States hasn’t gone out of the jungle warfare business entirely.
U.S. special operations forces have conducted missions in Africa and South America. They also advise the Philippine troops in their fight in the nation’s south against Abu Sayyaf and al-Qaida sympathizers.
Meanwhile, the Marines maintain a jungle training facility on Okinawa.
On the technology front, the U.S. could put its prodigious research and development budget to work in the event of a large-scale jungle war, while already available technologies like infrared vision could become more prominent.
“We have to prepare for those possibilities,” Fulton said. “Just because we’re fighting in the desert doesn’t mean we won’t be in the jungles later. The same groups we’re fighting now can move anywhere else in the world”.
Stars and Stripes
