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UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
WEAPONS & TACTICAL
INSTRUCTOR
COURSE
MCAS YUMA, AZ
REPORT BY JAMES DeBOER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
JAMES DeBOER and RICARDO VON PUTTKAMMER
CHIEF CORRESPONDENT
AS YOU BEGIN the descent into Yuma, Arizona, it’s easy to see why the United States Marine Corps chose Marine Corps Air Station Yuma to be the home of the Weapons Tactics Instructor Course known as WTI. MCAS Yuma sits in the south west corner of Arizona on approximately 3000 acres of flat desert and is a short flight to some of the largest bombing ranges in the United States.
The base is home to the entire west coast Harrier fleet but it’s the squadron with no permanently assigned aircraft that forms the backbone of Marine Corp aviation training. Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron- One (MAWTS-1) is made up of an elite cadre of professions whose mission is to train the trainer.
HISTORY
MAWTS-1 history can be traced to the 1950’s when Marine pilots began to be assigned to US Navy Composite Squadrons (VCs) that operated from shore bases and aircraft carriers where they were trained to conduct special weapons delivery missions such as the delivery of nuclear bombs. Marine Special Weapons Delivery Units (SWDUs) began to form on each coast but as the cold war got hotter, their mission was soon given to frontline attack squadrons. The units transitioned to Special Weapons Training Units (SWTUs) that then provided the necessary training to frontline attack squadrons in order to deliver the weapons successfully and safely. Conventional weapons delivery was soon added to the training syllabus of the SWTUs, but the emphasis on special weapons delivery remained as the main focus.
Over the next few years both units began to grow significantly and were soon re-designated as Marine Air Weapons Training Units. The east coast unit, MAWTULant was stationed at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, and the west coast unit MAWTUPac was stationed at MCAS El Toro, California.
In 1975 several studies were conducted by Marine Corps Headquarters to determine the requirements needed for the standardization of USMC aviation training. One of the studies known as “Project 19” recommended the establishment of a Weapons and Tactics Training Program (WTTP) for all Marine Aviation.
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