As tension continues to mount in the Middle East, MTV News reporter Gideon Yago headed to a Marine training base in Quantico, Virginia, to prepare for the possibility of life under fire. Gideon will be sharing his experiences with MTVNews.com throughout his training.

Day 3 - Camp Barrett, Quantico Marine Base, Virginia

I'm so happy that feeling is actually returning to my extremities. When I woke up this morning at our campsite in the woods surrounding Camp Barrett, I went to get a drink of water from my canteen, but it had frozen solid. One of the photographers, who spent last winter covering Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan, said it was a good 10 to 20 degrees colder over there. It makes you feel for the troops who are deployed for months on end.

If there were an overarching theme to Day 3 of "combat training," it was preparation for a wartime environment. After our daily 5 a.m. wake-up, we were given a class in camouflage technique. The big lesson that our instructors kept trying to drill in our heads was cover and concealment: Let the troops do their jobs; keep our heads down and out of harm's way. Many of the journalists here expect to be in war zones if (when) bombs start dropping and gunfire erupts. Staying covered will be their key to staying alive.

We then took a ride to our campsite on an HMH-53 helicopter for a class on how to properly embark/disembark while under fire. Should any of the class here get caught in a situation where they need to be evacuated, that will be their ticket home. The afternoon was packed with demonstrations: We were accustomed to the sounds and sights of gunfire and grenades, taught how to identify antitank and antipersonnel mines, and given a chance to test our recently acquired first-aid skills (from Day 2). Suffice to say, some of it was intensely disturbing. After watching Marines fire at them with 9mm, M16 and SAW guns, we found out that the heavy Kevlar flak jackets we've been issued won't stop even the lightest of machine gun fire. The maiming and kill capability of even the tiniest mines brought home that wars will always carry a human toll, be it civilian, military or media.

Still, the mood amongst the self-described "G.I. Journalists" is pretty high. For many of my fellow classmates this is just a repetition of lessons they have already learned by covering the frontlines of many previous wars. A few rounds of gunfire and one night of frozen camping is just a taste of what may come. However, if there is one topic that makes both the journalists and the troops here cringe, it's any discussion of chemical and biological weapons. Since weapons of mass destruction are at the center of our current crisis with Iraq, their use is of top concern to everyone who is shipping over there -- even more so than live fire and mines.

Tomorrow we get our class on what to do in the event of gas attacks. For now I'm off to crouch by a heater -- I'm just happy to be back indoors.

[article id="1469817"]- Read Day 1: Welcome To Combat Training[/article]
[article id="1469850"]- Read Day 2: Chow Time & First Aid [/article]

-- [article id="1453176"]Gideon Yago[/article]