Deployed Marines go hands-on with foreign weapons

Photo By Staff Sgt. Jeremy Ross | Staff Sgt. William S. Rapp, watch chief for 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division (Forward), examines a PKM machine gun at a foreign weapons hands-on session at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, Feb. 11. Rapp is a native of Kingston, Wash.  

CAMP LEATHERNECK, AFGHANISTAN

02.11.2011

Story by Staff Sgt. Jeremy Ross 

Regional Command Southwest

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – Every Marine is expected to have at least a basic knowledge of the standard U.S. military arsenal, but after a hands-on session with foreign weapons at the Joint Security Academy Southwest, Feb. 11, about a dozen Marines from various units based here now know a little bit about AK-47 assault rifles, PKM machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, too.

JSAS weapons and tactics instructors led the session, where most of the weapons on display were of Russian descent.

Soviet weapons are among the most commonly used by the Taliban, and are thus the most likely to be encountered on the battlefields of Afghanistan by Marines.

“You never can know too much,” said Staff Sgt. William S. Rapp, a Kingston, Wash., native and watch chief for 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division (Forward). “We really don’t get a chance to play with these often.”

Instructors covered safety, loading and assembly functions of Russian assault rifles, machine guns, RPGs and sniper rifles. Together these weapons can form a formidable arsenal in the right hands, said Sgt. Dane M. Bell, a Joplin, Mo., native and chief weapons and tactics instructor at JSAS.

“Our weapons are more accurate and better put together, but the Russian weapons are a little more rugged,” he said.

Instructors scheduled a live-fire range to complete the familiarization experience, but thunderstorms forced them to reschedule. That’s the part of the training Rapp was most looking forward to.

“A lot of these look pretty fun [to shoot],” he said. “I know these don’t really stand up to ours, but it should be a blast.”

The session and scheduled range offered the instructors something too – a change of pace.

“It’s nice to train Marines too sometimes,” said Bell, who has been instructing Afghan security forces throughout his deployment.

JSAS typically invites groups of Marines serving at Camp Leatherneck to attend the foreign weapons sessions about twice a month.

• Date Taken: 02.11.2011
• Date Posted: 02.11.2011 06:09
• Story ID: 65226
• Location: CAMP LEATHERNECK, AF