As part of their training, Marines at Quantico are placed in situations that closely resemble real war, particularly the military theater in Afghanistan.
VOA: standard.2010.04.06
The tests are part of Navy Secretary Ray Mabus' 21st Century Sailor and Marine Initiative, an expansive program intended to improve the well-being of sailors and Marines after more than a decade atwar.
At the end of the war he joined the Royal Marines, but a chance encounter with the father of the future Labour leader, Michael Foot, persuaded him that no intelligent man should stay in the forces.
The hard lessons learned in places like Tarawa and Guadalcanal served the U.S. well when Marines turned the tide of war in Korea years later by mounting a daring amphibious landing at Inchon, behind enemy lines.