Military

Marine General Said Observation Training Best Way To Defend Against IEDs.

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published December 9, 2010 at 7:08 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

Major General James Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps, speaking to reporters on MCAS Miramar during his Introduction Tour.

The new Commandant of the Marine Corp, General James Amos, said the most effective tool so far discovered to protect Marines from improvised explosive devices was training initiated at Camp Pendleton in San Diego’s North County.

General Amos, who was appointed head of the Marine Corps less than two months ago, spoke while visiting Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, on his introduction tour.

He talked about one of the biggest threats to troops - buried IEDs - and said research has been ongoing for years to find a way to pre-detonate them. However, he said, many technical approaches, like ground penetrating radar, have been met with mixed reviews.

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“But, you want to talk about something that’s not high tech but really works," he said. "The best we have are the observation skills of the Marines we’ve taught, and it began right up here at Camp Pendleton."

Amos said a program called “Combat Hunter” employed a big game hunter from Africa, animal trackers and a Chicago street cop to teach Marines how to be more observant of their surroundings. Their skills proved highly successful at identifying both buried bombs and snipers when Marines entered areas they were unfamiliar with. Arming Marines with high quality binoculars also turned out to be a good investment.

Amos added that a number of dogs trained to detect IEDs are now being deployed in Afghanistan.

Military

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.