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By Petty Officer Darren M. Moore, USS Carter Hall Public Affairs
The amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) completed a live fire exercise Dec. 14, 2016, in the Atlantic Ocean, while underway with the Bataan Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG).
The exercise was part of the ARG’s current ARG/Marine Expeditionary Unit Exercise (ARG/MEUEX), designed to prepare the ARG for potential scenarios during its scheduled upcoming deployment.
The live fire exercise provided an opportunity for the crew to train in command and control, and practice timely and accurate communications.
Chief Petty Officer Nathan B. Martin, the combat systems readiness officer (CSRO) during the live fire exercise, said these exercises assist the commanding officer’s battle orders and pre-planned responses to multiple theatre-specific threats.
“Having multiple weapon systems engage targets during these exercises flexes our watchstanders’ ability to coordinate engagements along multiple bearing and ranges,” said Martin, from Dyersburg, Tenn. “These scenarios train watchstanders and operators in theater specific threats encountered by other naval vessels.
During the exercise, the crew fired M2HB .50 caliber and M240B crew served-weapons, MK38 25MM machine gun systems and one of its two close-in weapon systems (CIWS).
The exercise included two segments of targets. The first segment involved shooting warning shots and destructive fire at a small target that was being towed behind a small boat. The target was intended to simulate a vessel refusing to slow its speed to allow boarding by the ship’s visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) team.
The second part of the exercise involved two “killer tomatoes,” which are giant blown-up orange balloons. The killer tomatoes simulated a fast attack craft/fast inshore attack craft engagement. Carter Hall approached them at maximum speed and fired each weapon system simultaneously, destroying each killer tomato.
Martin said dozens of man-hours go into pre-fire maintenance and training on the weapon systems to ensure maximum reliability when they are needed to protect the ship once the commanding officer calls “batteries release.”
“The operators and maintainers from our weapons division pride themselves in performing well,” said Martin.
Seaman Jonathon G. Ingold, from Olean, N.Y., said this was his second time shooting an M240B machine gun.
“I absolutely love it,” said Ingold, whose job was formerly referred to as a gunner’s mate. “This is pretty much my job. I take care of the guns. I shoot the guns; I take them apart if something is wrong with them and I try to fix them.”
Ingold said he enjoyed the opportunity to fire the weapons, despite the colder temperatures.
“It’s definitely getting me better at shooting,” said Ingold. “So if [an engagement occurs], I’ll know what to do, where to aim and how I’m going to be shooting. I’ll be able to accurately hit my target.”
Carter Hall and the Bataan ARG are scheduled to deploy in early 2017.
| Date Taken: | 12.14.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 12.18.2016 10:30 |
| Story ID: | 218073 |
| Location: | ATLANTIC OCEAN |
| Web Views: | 25 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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