Photo By Sgt. Jessica Ito | Sgt. Neil Whelan, range staff with Northshore New Brunswick Regiment, Royal Canadian...... read more read more
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LAS CALDERAS NAVAL BASE, Dominican Republic – Marines with Company C, 4th Law Enforcement Battalion, and Canadian soldiers with the Royal Canadian Regiment teamed up during exercise Tradewinds 2014 to share their knowledge with partner nations.
“We’re here to help facilitate the way they run a range,” said Cpl. John King-Kaplan, a fireteam leader with with C Co., 4th LE Bn.
The partner nations were training to operate a range with a .9mm pistol, the M4 rifle and a tactical shotgun.
The first day of training began with classroom instruction and weapons handling skills.
The Marines showed them the importance of having range safety officers, general range safety and range control, etc. and then showed them how it all comes together to operate the range safely, said King-Kaplan.
The leaders among the partner nations were shown how to coach and run a range. The Marines acted as line coaches at first, but by the last day, they took a large step back and allowed the partner nations to run the range completely by themselves.
“We’ve allowed them to employ their range skills and procedures to run the range,” said Capt. Pat White, a Canadian soldier with the 5th Canadian Division, and the range officer for Tradewinds 2014. “We’re just providing the coaching and mentorship.”
King-Kaplan said he has seen a large improvement since the first day of training.
“They are handling their weapons a lot more safely and have improved on effectiveness when getting on the line and shooting,” he said.
White says although the partner nations have learned a lot, they already came into the training knowing the basic skills.
“I was surprised with the level of marksmanship skill and weapons handling skill that is with the partner nations,” White said. “For the most part we have not had to start at the basics. We started at an intermediate level.”
The partner nations were not the only ones benefiting from the training, the Marines and Canadian soldiers learned from them as well.
“We’re getting a good perspective on how the partner nations interact, their traditions, intricacies and how they run a range,” said White.
The Marines have enjoyed learning from working with the Canadians as well as the partner nations.
“It’s really great to meet someone who’s had a different life experience and we all can come together to share those experiences and learn from them,” said King-Kaplan.
White believes developing relationships like these are important for communication.
“All the partner nations need to be able to function with one common language and one common skill set,” he said.
Exercise Tradewinds 2014 is designed to promote interoperability and multinational relationships throughout the theater. Thirteen partner nations participated in phase II of training that took place from June 16 through June 25. It is a joint, combined exercise that is also conducted in order to improve partner nations counter-transnational organized crime missions and humanitarian aid and disaster response operations capacity.
| Date Taken: | 06.24.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 06.24.2014 08:54 |
| Story ID: | 134171 |
| Location: | LAS CALDERAS, DO |
| Web Views: | 1,022 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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