English: Marines with Kilo Co., 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment verify the tattoo markings of a suspected insurgent after the man fired upon the Marines from a two-story building during pre-deployment training at a mock Iraqi town at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in 29 Palms, Calif., Dec. 14, 2005. More than 1,000 Marines and sailors from the Hawaii-based 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment are undergoing a month-long pre-deployment exercise in California's Mojave Desert appropriately dubbed, "Mojave Viper." The battalion will be part of the 20,000-plus troops of the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which will replace the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based II MEF as part of a regular rotation of military forces in Iraq early next year. From reacting to deadly improvised explosive devices to conducting searches through a civilian-populated Iraqi town, the Iraq-bound Marines are learning and rehearsing various "real life" scenarios they will encounter in Iraq.