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A Midwest Army Post Is an Integral Element Of the Marine Corps Training Doctrine
Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., home of a huge Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence (MSCoE), is a remote and vast Army post that facilitates the training of between 80,000 and 90,000 military personnel and civilians each year. One of the largest and most prolific training facilities in the world, it covers more than 62,911 acres in the red-clay rolling foothills of the Ozark Mountains in rural South Central Missouri.
The post is named for the late Major General Leonard Wood, the only Army physician (Harvard Medical School) to he named Army Chief of Staff (1910). MG Wood was awarded the Medal of Honor for his daring exploits in the Southwest Territories against Gerónimo and the Apaches in 1886. He also commanded the victorious 1st US. Volunteer Calvary Regiment (the famous "Rough Riders") in the Spanish-American War (Theodore Roosevelt was his second in command).
Ft. Leonard Wood is home to various Army, Navy and Air Force tenant commands, plus a large detachment of Marines. It is estimated that one in seven Marines have trained at Ft. Leonard Wood.
A I first glance, the Marine Corps Detachment (MarDet) at Ft. Leonard Wood, which reports to the Marine Corps' Training Command, Quantico, Va., under the command of Brigadier General John W. Simmons, seems like any other Marine Corps unit. Tt has a commander, executive officer, sergeant major, S-l, S-3, S-4, Marines of all grades, weapons, formations, physical training, Marine Corps martial-arts training, large trucks, chow halls and barracks, and the list goes on.
Dig deeper into the heart of the unit, and you find the largest detachment of Marines not on a Marine Corps or IJ.S. Navy base, with a mission of training the future of the Marine Corps in engineer equipment; motor transport operations; military police; chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear warfare; and nonlethal weapons instruction military occupational specialties (MOSs).
On just about any day th roughout the year, approximately 1,350 entry-level Marines train at Ft. Leonard Wood, plus about 50 Marine noncommissioned officers [NCOs] in advanced courses. In addition, about 350 permanent Marine personnel are in the detachment, plus a Navy chaplain and a chaplain's assistant.
Most Marines going to Ft....