The Marines from Camp Pendleton conduct joint exercises with allies all around the Pacific. Werner was in training with soldiers from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, and the French Foreign Legion in Djibouti during this cruise. His company has four platoons with three made up of riflemen and one weapons platoon. He is in the weapons platoon as a heavy machine gunner like his brother Johann. His other brother, Josef, is a heavy machine gunner who rides in the armored support vehicles. Josef says "Why walk when you can ride?" Smart kid, he is.
The armed forces are slowly modernizing when they get the money. These 60mm mortars are relatively new. They are effective when the enemy is behind things and out of the reach of normal rifles, etc. The mortar rounds go high up in the air and come down at almost a vertical angle. The newer weapons are lighter than the old ones. This is good. These soldiers carry a lot of stuff and any weight savings makes their life easier. Werner is showing me how to fire one of them in the photo.