Story and photos by Lance Cpl. J Nava
okinawa marine staff

Special Reaction Team Marines are trained as a task force able to handle any situation that might occur on base. Marine Corps Base Camp Butler SRT upheld their reputation as a “jack of all trades” when they responded to a mock bank robbery at the Navy Federal Credit Union on Marine Corps Air Station Futenma as part of a training exercise, Aug. 20.

“Our purpose is to train, rehearse and provide a tactical response to any scenario that normal military police personnel wouldn’t handle,” said Cpl. Andrew Cowan, SRT assistant team leader, Provost Marshal’s Office, Marine Corps Base Camp Butler.

In the scenario, a mock armed suspect took over the bank and took its employees and patrons as hostages at 4:30 P.M. the day before … 15 hours later in the early morning the bank robber was demanding transportation from the bank. He was becoming desperate and was threatening to kill hostages — that is when the SRT Marines sprang into action.

“By training in different missions all the time we keep our skills sharp,” said Lance Cpl. Johnathan Garrett, SRT member. “That’s why we did the (mock) bank robbery scenario today, because we won’t always have the same missions.”

With speed and aggressiveness the SRT Mar ines crashed through the back door, catching the bank robber by surpri se. In a matter of seconds they cleared every room a nd neutralized the suspect and rescued the hostages.

“We have to train for every possible scenario because we never know what’s going to be thrown our way,” Cowan said. “Anything that (the Marine Corps) needs us to do we have to be able to respond to.”

Apart from honing skills and perfecting their technique, the SRT Marines also made sure the bank employees understood SRT procedures and knew what to do if a real-life situation should ever arise.

“The guys looked great, they went through the building no problem,” Cowan said. “I believe the training was very successful.”