Following a recent successful first deployment to the Indo-Pacific, Camp Pendleton Marines are growing more confident with their new 36-ton, eight-wheeled armored troop transport and are stepping up training with more regular reps in the open ocean waters off the base.
“Now that the deployment is complete, it’s ‘Hey, we’re going back into the water, we’re going back into the surf, we’re going back to our roots,’” said Gunnery Sgt. Eric Galcik, an Amphibious Combat Vehicle commander, who on Saturday, March 8, was watching over ACVs and their crews as they splashed from a launch ramp at the Del Mar Boat basin and motored out two miles into the ocean to then drive up into the well deck of the USS Somerset, a Navy transport dock.
Camp Pendleton Marines, with the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, splash into the Del Mar Boat Basin in Assault Combat Vehicles (ACVs) on Saturday, March 8, 2025. The exercises help certify ACV crew members in some of their requirements. Since the 2020 sinking of an Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV), at San Clemente Island that killed 9 service members, the Marine Corps has overhauled its amphibious programs, focusing on the ACVs which replace the AAVs. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The USS Somerset backdrops birds in flight as Camp Pendleton Marines train in Assault Combat Vehicles (ACVs) in Oceanside on Saturday, March 8, 2025. Under the watchful eyes of emergency personnel, the ACVs traveled from the Del Mar Boat Basin about two miles to the ship during exercises. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Oceanside Outrigger canoers unexpectedly perhaps, meet Camp Pendleton Marines training in Assault Combat Vehicles (ACVs) on Saturday, March 8, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Seven-year-old Griffin Phillips watches from a jetty on Del Mar Beach in Oceanside, Camp Pendleton Marines train in Assault Combat Vehicles (ACVs) on Saturday, March 8, 2025. Phillip’s father is also a Marine. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Under the watchful eye of a safety boat, center, Camp Pendleton Marines “swim” out to sea in Assault Combat Vehicles (ACVs) during training exercises off Del Mar Beach in Oceanside on Saturday, March 8, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Camp Pendleton Marines, with the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, splash into the Del Mar Boat Basin in Assault Combat Vehicles (ACVs) on Saturday, March 8, 2025. The exercises help certify ACV crew members in some of their requirements. Since the 2020 sinking of an Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV), at San Clemente Island that killed 9 service members, the Marine Corps has overhauled its amphibious programs, focusing on the ACVs which replace the AAVs. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Little meets big as Camp Pendleton Marines in several Assault Combat Vehicles (ACVs) reach the USS Somerset during training exercises off Del Mar Beach on Saturday, March 8, 2025. Once the ACVs arrive, they roll into the ship’s open door. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Gunnery Sgt. Eric Galcik watches Camp Pendleton Marines “swim” about two miles out to the USS Somerset during Assault Combat Vehicle (ACV) training exercises off Del Mar Beach on Saturday, March 8, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Under the watchful eye of a safety boat, Camp Pendleton Marines “swim” from Del Mar Boat Basin to the USS Somerset, about two miles off shore in Oceanside on Saturday, March 8, 2025. The exercises were part of Assault Combat Vehicle (ACV) training. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Camp Pendleton Marines, training in several Assault Combat Vehicles (ACVs), are a curious sight to Del Mar beach-goers in Oceanside on Saturday, March 8, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Camp Pendleton Marines, with the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, train in Assault Combat Vehicles (ACVs), in Oceanside on Saturday, March 8, 2025. The exercises help certify ACV crew members in some of their requirements. Since the 2020 sinking of an Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV), at San Clemente Island that killed 9 service members, the Marine Corps has overhauled its amphibious programs focusing on the ACVs, which replace the AAVs. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Show Caption1 of 11Camp Pendleton Marines, with the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion, splash into the Del Mar Boat Basin in Assault Combat Vehicles (ACVs) on Saturday, March 8, 2025. The exercises help certify ACV crew members in some of their requirements. Since the 2020 sinking of an Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV), at San Clemente Island that killed 9 service members, the Marine Corps has overhauled its amphibious programs, focusing on the ACVs which replace the AAVs. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
ExpandThe training is part of a two-week, quarterly exercise allowing the base’s amphibious units to get on ships and do training they can’t normally get. In this case, units from the I Marine Expeditionary Force and the Navy’s Third Fleet were working together.
“We’re getting progressively more time because we’re feeling more confident” with the ACVs, Galcik said.
The base has been a testing ground for the ACVs, which are replacing the aging Amphibious Assault Vehicles, or AAVs, in service since the Vietnam War era. The legacy transports were phased out of service after an AAV sank during predeployment training off San Clemente Island in 2020, killing nine men, three from Southern California: Pfc. Bryan Baltierra, 18, of Corona; Lance Cpl. Marco A. Barranco, 21, of Montebello; and Cpl. Cesar A. Villanueva, 21, of Riverside.
Military leaders say the ACVs, which were already being tested before the accident, will be especially effective with smaller, agile fighting forces that might need to move quickly between island chains in areas such as the Indo-Pacific. The vehicles carry infantry troops and their gear between ships waiting offshore and the beach, and are able to drive a couple hundred miles inland on one fueling.
ACV crews first trained on land at Twentynine Palms and then practiced their water skills off beaches at Camp Pendleton.
The crashing waves presented challenges and some crews had difficulties navigating the surf zone, flipping over four times over several months of training as they approached the shore. That prompted the vehicle to be pulled from an original planned deployment and the retraining of ACV operators and crew while bolstering safety procedures.
On Saturday and continuing this week, Marines and sailors have been training in the second of four sessions planned this year. Each two-week training helps certify units in varied requirements. Aircraft squadrons are also participating in the training, taking off and landing on the USS Somerset day and night.
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During training on Saturday, ACV crews ran through drills and protocols on land before “splashing” into the water.
In all, 12 ACVs launched off the ramp, but while on their way out, two vehicles turned back after one encountered a mechanical failure. The other ACV traveling with it threw out safety ropes, made sure it could float, and tugged it back to the Del Mar launch ramp.
The 10 hours of training the Marines are required to do with a simulator before getting aboard the ACVs would have helped them know what to do in the case of the struggling vehicle, Galcik said.
A simulator used during the recent deployment relied on virtual reality goggles, but Monday said they now have a version with a “seat where a Marine can sit in and get better replication of going through the surf zone day and night and getting on and off the ship.”
“We’ve updated training and readiness and expanded up to 22 different scenarios,” he said. “We can also train a simulation with a disabled vehicle, dead engine or a propulsion issue.”
Galcik watched intently from the shore as each vehicle splashed into the water and got into the lineup — his turn would come a few days later. For now, the ACVs carried the vehicle’s crew of three, but no extra troops — each transport is designed to carry up to 13 troops.
“Overall, it’s a much safer vehicle, in my opinion,” he said of the ACV, watching another vehicle commander pop up from his hatch after the transport was in the water, reaching to the front to lift the driver’s hatch open so both sitting above the waterline could see forward toward the ship.
In addition to the ACV’s attributes of having better armament and traveling faster, Galcik said he’s more confident because of all the new safety standards and protocols in place following the 2020 sinking of the AAV, in which investigators reported varied lax adherence to standard operating procedures.
“This goes back to that crawl phase,” Galcik said, referring to the crawl, walk, run concept of building on training that’s a core Marine principle.
The training will become more complex the next time this exercise is done.
“When it comes to Certification 2, that’s when these Marines will have embarked personnel and eventually, they’ll be going through the surf as they go through the pre-deployment cycle,” Galcik said.
The simulator, he said, is also super helpful for the ACV operators to understand the vehicle’s nuanced driving system, especially going through the surf zone.
“The exact same procedures of them starting at the beach, they’re going through all the zones in the surf as if they were driving it,” he said. “It’s a requirement to do the trainer before they go into the water.”
All surf zone training also requires someone on the beach to do an observation report to make sure the surf is exactly where it needs to be, Galcik said. “But, when we get that call forward, we’re going to go.”
Galcik is set to deploy later this year. He’s been on the ACVs for two years now, before that he was on an AAV.
“I love it,” he said of the vehicle. “I’ve learned so much when it comes to maintenance and operating it. If America ever does get that call, I feel confident I’ll be able to say, ‘Yes, this is the vehicle that can get the job done.’”
And, he wasn’t the only one impressed with the ACVs.
As the vehicles splashed at Del Mar Basin and began swimming in their tactical column, dozens of people spending their weekend at the base’s beach resort came out to watch.
Among them was Maj. Dan Phillips, visiting with his family on a weekend vacation.
Phillips, who is based at Twentynine Palms with the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, is familiar with the vehicle from working with the unit that certified the first deployment. His son, Griffin, 7, was perched as close to the action as possible.
“I’m excited for him to see them,” he said. “We see them in the desert a lot. Now he gets to see them in the water.”
“I want to make a splash as big as they do when I go into the water,” Griffin said.
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