Marine scouts and Beninese soldiers in the rear of a high-back humvee echoed their driver's one-minute warning. Moments later the vehicle came to a stop. The driver called "Insert! Insert! Insert!" before all seven troops poured out into the wilderness, got low, and disappeared into the brush as their transport drove off.

The three scouts spoke only English and the four soldiers spoke only French, but because this was an exercise in silent scouting and observation, there was no need for an interpreter.

The training exercise, conducted June 14, 2009 at the Military Information Center in Bembereke, Benin was the culmination of three days of scouting and observation classroom instruction. The training was led by Surveillance and Target Acquisition Platoon, Headquarters and Support Company, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines, 4th Marine Division.

Both scouts and soldiers had to approach an "enemy training camp" -- actually a Beninese small arms range being used by Marines and Beninese soldiers – and radio information back to their superiors.

After applying camouflage face paint and covering their rifles in local foliage, the group headed toward their objective, stopping frequently as Beninese soldiers spotted troop movements and vehicles.

"They're very observant; they see almost everything," said Lance Corporal Colin Morris, a scout with STA Platoon. "They've seen every person that's been visible along the way - no one's snuck up on them."

At one point, Beninese Army officer Mathieu Ahodoto stopped scout Lance Corporal Thomas J. Bourgeois. Pointing at his own rifle, clothing, and eyes, then out into the brush with three fingers extended, Ahodoto was giving Bourgeois vital information.

"He's telling me everything that he sees," said Bourgeois, of Ahodoto's silent gestures, "the humvees, the weapons, the Marines and Beninese."

The sharp crackle of automatic rifle fire coming from the range's training session sent two of the Beninese soldiers into a low crouch, a reflexive reaction, but also told the group they were near their objective.

Once there, the team set up their "hive," a concealed observation post, by cutting and placing foliage around their position at the range's end.

"A hive is where you're going to be doing your observations from," said STA scout Sergeant Joseph Wooten. "You have to be camouflaged from every angle."

The four Beninese observed the range and took notes. Wooten asked Ahodoto if he'd like to call in a report; Ahodoto nodded his head. In French, he gave a Situation, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, and Equipment, or SALUTE, report over Bourgeois' radio.

Later, he would draw up a range card, a diagram that shows the relative location of elements within an area of observation.

"If someone comes in and replaces us, they need to know where the fixed objectives are, where the berm is, where the road is," explained Morris, because such information could be used to call in artillery strikes or plan assaults.

All four Beninese soldiers would repeat the procedure, testing the skills they'd learned over the previous few days, before heading back to their extraction site.

"This is just so very cool," said Private Romeo Akpo, a Beninese soldier. "This is the first time I have trained with Americans."

The Beninese soldiers who had initially shown trouble maintaining noise discipline and dispersion were silent and spread during their final field test.

"They want to learn so much," said Bourgeois, "so everything we say to them they take from us."