Marine combat engineers get it wired as students

Jeff Benson

It’s not like they marched in, pitched a tent and pulled combat

engineering exercises in the middle of campus.

In fact, the dozen U.S. Marines who trained for four weeks at

Orange Coast College were relatively unknown to other students, who

were home for the holidays.

Twelve members of the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine

Division from Camp Pendleton, donned civilian clothes and attended an

OCC electrical training course over the winter break in preparation

for deployment to Iraq.

The five-unit residential electrical wiring class helped the

Marines focus on residential electrical construction, wiring

principles and compliance of the National Electrical Code for

building requirements. The course advanced the servicemen’s knowledge

and response time to establish command posts and handle wiring for

military facilities.

“On all the buildings there, the wiring isn’t that great,” said

Sgt. Brian Romero, 30, of Pueblo, Colo. “So the class will help out

when they have to rewire the buildings themselves.”

Most of the Marines have already served once overseas, and some

have served twice, said OCC spokesman Jim Carnett. They serve in the

Corps as electricians, generator mechanics and water-treatment

specialists.

“The class was great,” Romero said. “It taught me a lot more than

I thought I knew. I couldn’t complain. I’m actually smarter now.”

OCC associate professor of construction technology David Rodriguez

called the lessons he taught, from Dec. 10 through Jan. 14, the

highlight of his eight-year teaching career.

“I enjoyed it very much,” Rodriguez said. “They chose a closer

institution because they didn’t have the facilities to handle it at

Camp Pendleton. We were the closest to handle the training.”

The Marines spent Tuesday adapting what they’d learned at OCC to

equipment at Camp Pendleton, OCC dean of instructional programs Bob

Mendoza said.

OCC responded quickly to the military’s request to use the college

because its staff knows the servicemen need to obtain their training

as soon as possible, Mendoza said. The Marine Corps covered the cost.

“The campus has been fairly quiet this month,” Carnett said.

“Their visibility wasn’t prominent but a lot of staff members knew

they were here.”

The Marines attended the class in the college’s Technology Center

classrooms, and each of them received college credits for completing

the OCC course.