Photo By Sgt. Brian Johnson | Soldiers from the Chillicothe-based 1194th Engineer Company qualify with their M16A2...... read more read more
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio - Members of the 1194th Engineer Company based out of Chillicothe did their annual weapons qualification last weekend at Camp Perry with the rest of the 216th Engineer Battalion.
The battalion, based out of Woodlawn, has more than 600 members and is comprised of soldiers from all across the state. The Chillicothe-based unit has more than 120 members who perform various job functions which include soldiers who are carpenters, plumbers and electricians.
During weapons qualification, everyone, no matter what their job title, gets a chance to fire and qualify with their weapons. This allows a soldier to stay familiar with his weapon if ever called into wartime service.
This weapons qualification was a little bit different than previous ones. Unit members not only were able to qualify on their M16 rifles, but also 9mm pistols, shotguns, M249 Automatic Rifles and even the M203 Grenade Launcher. Soldiers also were required to fire with the Individual Body Armor on, which was not a requirement in the past.
Another requirement was a hand grenade familiarization range.
Weapons qualification consists of a soldier trying to hit at least 23 targets out of 40 within a certain amount of time with their M16 rifle with only 40 allowed shots. As easy as this may sound, the targets are of varying distances from 50 meters to 300 meters.
The soldiers must shoot 20 shots from a supported position, 10 from an unsupported position, and 10 shots kneeling.
Capt. Donald Westfall from Chardon, the commander of the 1194th, said, "It's one of the most basic soldier skills. Soldiers need to know how to shoot, communicate and move, all in an organized fashion. You need to address these skills in order to remain proficient at it."
Staff Sgt. Charles Nelson, of Portsmouth, felt the range fire went well.
"It went very smoothly," he said. "There was no rush whatsoever to try to get qualified before the end of the afternoon.
"The hand grenade familiarization course was a good refresher for me. I had not done that in a long time."
Spc. Theo Venable, from Columbus, felt the range fire was an interesting experience.
"The new requirements help make this range fire tough." Venable said. "I would like to be able to do this more often than once a year. I really learned a lot from this experience."
| Date Taken: | 05.05.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 04.23.2015 22:14 |
| Story ID: | 161086 |
| Location: | CAMP PERRY, OH, US |
| Web Views: | 25 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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