The Marine Corps’ 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit completed more than two weeks of intense training in central Virginia yesterday. The unit will begin moving back to its home base at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The training was designed to sharpen skills for combat in urbanized areas for about 2,200 Marines and sailors before the amphibious outfit deploys overseas this spring.

BLACKSTONE Marines flank both sides of the amphibious assault vehicle as it rolls through town in the fictitious Middle Eastern nation of Mica. Two apparently friendly women step from a building and speak. A little farther down, a man waves with one hand, momentarily keeping the other in his pocket before slowly pulling it out. He has the full attention of the armed U.S. Marines.

A Marine expeditionary unit deployed to Fort Pickett is conducting nearly two weeks of training in and around populated areas in Virginia. Most of the 2,200 Marines and sailors from the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit will train at Pickett, but small groups—80 to 100 Marines—will perform three exercises at other locations, according to the 22nd’s spokesman, Capt. Clark Carpenter.