U.S. Marines forced to alter California war games MONTEREY, Calif. (Reuters) - The U.S. Marine Corps is being forced to leapfrog over environmental sensitivities this weekend as soldiers prepare for a series of large-scale war games on the California coast. ``Operation Urban Warrior,'' a joint Navy and Marine Corps exercise due to begin Saturday in Monterey south of San Francisco, has already drawn protests from peace activists and community leaders opposed to the idea of mock Marine battles with make-believe terrorists in their bucolic coastal town. Late Thursday the California Coastal Commission joined the operation's opponents, saying the plan to send 200 soldiers storming Monterey's beaches from amphibious personnel carriers could prove disruptive to the migrating gray whale and sea otter populations, and destroy nesting grounds for the threatened western snowy plover. ``It just boggles the mind to think that this is an adequate protection plan,'' said Karin Strasser Kauffman, a member of the advisory council of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, in charge of setting up the $4.5 million exercise, Friday bowed to the Coastal Commission's concerns and scrapped its plan for an amphibious landing by Hovercraft. ``Instead, we're coming in by helicopter,'' Lt. Col. Jenny Holbert, a spokesperson for the event, said. ``About 100 soldiers will come in today, and the balance will come in tomorrow morning. ``The time schedule is still intact, the exercise is intact ... everything else is good to go from there.'' The exercise in Monterey, home to the famed Pebble Beach golf course, is intended to allow soldiers to practice responding to a simulated chemical weapon attack, as well as practice urban battle tactics and conduct anti- terrorism exercises. The two-day Monterey operation is to be followed by a larger ``Urban Warrior'' game beginning Monday in Oakland, California, where more protests are expected. The Marines, who were stunned when San Francisco ruled out hosting any war games at all, have mounted a belated public relations effort to persuade city residents that ``Operation Urban Warrior'' will be safe and useful. One part of the exercise that officials stress is humanitarian relief -- something earthquake-prone California may one day need.
