I remember seeing pictures of LVTP-5 amtracs used for training in Camp Pendleton. by the US Marines. But who trained with them and how? Every Marine recruit, or just selected ones?
Depends on the location of the gators. Mostly likely it would have been fleet Marine grunts working with the track platoons for pre deployment work ups.
The “training” troops might have been a class of gator crewmen and/or infantry school grunts. Not sure they would have the recruits running out of active mobile gators as recruits don’t know anything.
They did have a static gator at urban training area but was decades after being withdrawn from service.
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Interesting question. Was the Marine Corps maintaining response forces at sea during Vietnam, as during other phases of the Cold War, able to respond to other crisis situations outside that theater? If so, would not the battalions tasked for such a “cruise” not undergo a “work up” training period with the Pendleton Amtrac units?
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Yes, deployments to Philippines, Oki, Japan. East Coast would have had the Med and Dominican Republic.
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