CAMP ALAMO, Afghanistan – "I haven't seen a consistency in grouping like that for 13 months here," said Army Staff Sgt. Chris Thornburg, as he looked over targets used by Afghan national army soldiers during M16 training at Kabul Military Training Center, March 17.
He quickly noted the tight groups may have had something to do with the soldiers having just completed M16 familiarization training the day before. "Or it could have been a fluke," the veteran mentor from Vancouver, Wash., said.
Moments later, however, 25-year-old ANA Pvt. Abdullah repeated his precision with the weapon – even tightening his group on the target 25-meters down range – and thus, ended any speculation on Thornburg's part. The sergeant made his way back to the firing line this time to congratulate the young soldier on some very nice shooting.
"He had a hell of a group again," said Thornburg. "All he needs to focus on is site picture a bit more."
"I've used the AK-47 before, and though this is my first time using the M16 I think it's better than the AK," said a smiling Abdullah, from Badghyus province. "I'm very excited to have the M16."
Pvt. Noor Khan, 27, from Takhar province, also seemed to find the M16 quite comfortable in his hands, as he too put some nice groups together. Both soldiers, part of Kandak 103 (training battalion 103) may be a sign of things to come as the ANA's fielding of M16s moves into it's seventh week here.
"The trainees are grasping the training relatively well," said Army Lt. Col. Brad Perrier, Senior Basic Warrior Training mentor. "Like Kandak 102, these trainees have already had three days training with the AK-47. Therefore, we are still trying to overcome some of the tendencies of the trainees to use sight picture adjustments – Kentucky windage – rather than good marksmanship fundamentals."
Perrier said they've "conducted an after-action-review each day following training. One item in particular that we added to training is the familiarization firing. Trainees are issued three magazines of five rounds each and get the opportunity to shoot in the prone supported, prone unsupported and kneeling positions. We don't know the results yet, so it is too early to say, but the intent is to give the trainees experience with the weapon before grouping, zeroing and qualification."
Early reports show a marked increase since adding the familiarization portion with anywhere from a 15-23 percent increase in the numbers who zeroed their weapon compared to the previous Kandak.
"We're looking for more improvement in the weeks to come," added Perrier, 46, from Tyler, Texas, " as some soldiers have difficulty keeping positive control, hand grip at all times, so they can use certain hands or thumbs to move the safe, semi, and burst selector switch or to drop a magazine. And the majority of soldiers are still poor marksmen by our standards, so our expectation is to see increases in performance with each Kandak trained. The improvement in the number of zeroes recently in Kandak 103 is a pleasant surprise."
Training currently includes two days on the KMTC parade field teaching soldiers safety, assembly, disassembly, functions check, and malfunction actions. They're also taught the sight picture, four fundamentals of basic rifle marksmanship, they conduct dime or washer drills – steady hold and trigger squeeze confirmation, grouping exercises and they learn range commands and the different firing positions. Day three is the familiarization firing; days 4-8 are grouping, zeroing and qualification.
"From the previous Kandak – 102 – the first at KMTC to receive M16s, of the 467 who zeroed and were allowed to try to qualify, 106 did qualify for a 23 percent success rate," said Perrier. "But we're expecting the positive trend shown in Kandak 103 to continue."
| Date Taken: | 03.17.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 03.18.2009 08:59 |
| Story ID: | 31290 |
| Location: | CAMP ALAMO, AF |
| Web Views: | 1,014 |
| Downloads: | 736 |
This work, Afghan army M16 fielding continues to press ahead at Kabul Military Training Center, by Guy Volb, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
