Marines: existing firing ranges "top notch"

by Nick Delgado

Guam - A group of U.S. Marines with the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion are on island for their deployment certification exercise. Captain Damon Doykos says the battalion is part of the same unit that is planned to relocate from Okinawa to Guam. Despite a lot of the community's concern to open a Marine firing range in the Pagat area, Doykos admits the training at Naval Magazine and Orote Point firing ranges meet the needs of the Marines, as they conduct their annual M-9 pistol qualification training.

He said, "Guam obviously is very dense jungle, really rough terrain, offers us a great opportunity to try our long range communications, which is one of our mission essential task so we were working that a couple of days ago down at Naval Magazine and we're working great.  I don't know that much about what's available on Guam besides the range of where I trained already but from what I've seen everything is really good, top notch."

Meanwhile, the 30th Guam Legislature has also passed Resolution 444, which cites significant defects in the Final Environmental Impact Statement and reiterates major areas of concern with buildup plans.