Photo By Staff Sgt. Cooper Cash | Staff Sgt. Kollie C. Arkue, a weapons instructor assigned to Company E, 3rd Battalion...... read more read more
FORT DIX, N.J. – The sounds of metallic clicks echo through the concrete room. Soldiers seated in horizontal rows listen attentively to the instructor at the front of the room.
“Slap, pull, observe, release, tap, squeeze,” shouted the instructor as the military police platoon performed corrective actions on their rifles in unison.
This platoon of MPs is just one of many units provided weapon and marksmanship training from the Small Arms Readiness Group prior to an upcoming deployment.
The SARG’s mission is to train soldiers to be proficient with their primary weapons. This includes familiarization with pistols, rifles, and crew served weapons, said Master Sgt. Will B. Phifer, a weapons instructor assigned to Company E, 3rd Battalion, SARG.
Soldiers training with the SARG first go through primary marksmanship instruction on cleaning, clearing, and maintaining their weapons, said Phifer, an 18-year infantryman.
“This training has been way better than what we learned in advanced individual training,” said Pfc. Marc J. Perez, a Mount Wolf, Pa., native, and military policeman with 1st Platoon, 443rd MP Company from Owings Mills, Md. “The comfortable environment helps me learn the techniques being taught and will surely help my accuracy.”
Next, the soldiers moved to a 100-meter firing range to accurately set the sights, as well as gain familiarity with their rifles.
“The 100-meter zeroing range is the most accurate and fun zeroing range there is,” said Staff Sgt. William G. Palmer, a weapons instructor assigned to Company E, 3rd Bn., SARG. “Unfortunately, most of the Soldiers coming through the training have never been to one.”
After assuring the rifles are finely tuned and precise, soldiers move on to the qualification range, where they will improve on previous scores, said Phifer.
“In this unit, we focus strictly on shooting, whereas similar marksmanship training units instruct students on shooting, as well as on other combat specific duties,” said Palmer, a New York City police officer. “Our team of instructors has various backgrounds which allows us, as a team, to answer specific weapon and job related questions.”
Most of the instructors have completed the Small Arms Instructor Academy, which was located in Camp Bullis, Texas, and are competitive shooters outside of the Army, said Sgt. Tim Busse, a weapon instructor assigned to Company E, 3rd Bn., SARG.
The SAIA curriculum required soldiers to qualify expert on seven different weapon systems and to teach what they had learned to other soldiers, said Busse, a former instructor at the SAIA, and Blue Rock, Ohio, native.
The academy was disbanded in October 2009, but the highly trained instructors it produced continue to influence deploying soldiers, said Busse.
After the first firing order of more confident, grinning MPs zeroed their rifles they moved to the “pit,” the area behind the targets where soldiers manually pull down silhouettes and mark where rounds impacted.
As the soldiers fell in on their lanes, Busse, the self proclaimed “pit boss” yelled, “Hey lane 72, you’re supposed to zero, not qualify.”
Referring to the fact the ear to ear grinning military policeman had shot a perfectly vertical line through the target, affectively cutting the target in half.
| Date Taken: | 09.26.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 09.27.2010 16:10 |
| Story ID: | 57085 |
| Location: | FORT DIX, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Web Views: | 204 |
| Downloads: | 7 |
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