Apartado, Colombia. (August 13, 2024): When the U.S. Marines want to train with experts at riverine warfare, they turn to Columbia with its vast jungles and fast-moving rivers. In this photo by Corporal Trystan Taft, Marines with Littoral Craft Company Charlie, 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, 4th Marine Division, carry a boat during the swim qualification portion of the Colombian Fluvial Operations Course. The Course consists of multiple training exercises including swim qualification, classroom lectures, weapons handling and maintenance, and littoral craft maneuvers. The course is divided into three-week intervals with the first week comprised of classroom instruction to familiarize Marines with the different Columbian Littoral crafts.
Columbia, with its half a million square miles of forests, grasslands, mountains, and jungles, is an ideal training venue for the Marines. The town of "Apartadó", meaning "river of plantains" in the local Indian language, is located near the Atlantic Ocean in the Gulf of Urabá. Its economy is based on bananas, plantain, corn, cassava, cocoa, wood, and livestock. The mean maximum temperature is a scorching eighty-six °F and the relative humidity is above 80% year-round.
Colombia is a land of extremes. Through its center runs the towering, snow-covered volcanoes, and mountains of the Andes. Tropical beaches line the north and west coasts and there are deserts in the north and vast grasslands, called Los Llanos, in the east.
Colombia has a land size of 440,831 square miles making it the 25th largest nation in the world and the fourth-largest country in South America. This year is the 200th anniversary of diplomatic relations with the United States.
The training gave the Marines a unique way to evaluate their skills in one of the most challenging river environments in the world.