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By Lance Cpl. Sean P. McGinty
Multi-National Forces-West
CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq (Feb. 23, 2008) -- Iraqi soldiers based on Camp Habbaniyah were recently issued new M-16A4 rifles. Now they are learning how to use them.
A team of instructors from MPRI is teaching the soldiers the basics of the M-16A4 handling, safety and marksmanship.
"We give them a six-day course, four days of classroom and two days on the range doing familiarization fire," said Jason Williams, an MPRI instructor from Woodland, Calif.
The jundi, or Iraqi soldiers, start off in class learning safety precautions, weapons conditions, and assembling and disassembling their weapons.
"This is the first time many of these Iraqis have touched an M-16. They need to learn how to be safe with them," said Capt. Keith Krenzke, ordnance officer, 1st Iraqi army division Military Transition Team.
The next day the MPRI team teaches the basics of marksmanship. They cover breathing techniques, proper sight alignment and sight picture, trigger control, and positions: prone, sitting, kneeling and standing.
This is one of the harder parts of training since "everything we do is precise and for a purpose," said Williams. "They can get lazy on the details and on the finer points of marksmanship."
Then the instructors teach the jundi the basics of using their M-16A4's; they learn how to clear jams, loading rounds into magazines and loading the magazines into the weapons.
"They've only ever used AK-47's," said Brian Smith, the MPRI instructor's tactical team chief. "They need to learn that the M-16 is more delicate weapon that will jam."
The jundi's final day of class doesn't take place in a classroom at all. They get out on the field and practice all they've learned by sighting in on a barrel painted with targets like those they'll be qualifying on. The students apply the techniques they learned in the classroom while practicing their firing positions and receiving commands just like on the range.
The last two days of the course, the MPRI instructors have the Iraqis actually firing rounds downrange. First, they "zero," or calibrate their weapons' sights, so the rifles will shoot exactly where the rifleman is aiming. The soldiers then do a familiarization firing course in all four of their firing positions.
On their final day of training, the jundi qualify with their weapons at 50 and 100 yards. They're given one point for each of their 40 rounds that hit within the black circle on their targets, and must score a 20 or higher to qualify. The high shooters in each class are awarded a large Iraqi flag.
"I like knowing that these guys are going out to fight alongside coalition forces, and we've taught them to handle their weapons safely and shoot accurately," said Smith.
| Date Taken: | 02.23.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 02.26.2008 15:13 |
| Story ID: | 16743 |
| Location: | CAMP HABBANIYAH, IQ |
| Web Views: | 138 |
| Downloads: | 115 |
This work, Iraqi Soldiers Learn To Use New Rifles, by Sgt Sean McGinty, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
