GRAFENWOEHR TRAINING AREA, Germany – Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 34th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, qualified with the MK19mm grenade launcher and the M2 .50 caliber machine gun at the range, March 13-14, 2019.
The 2-34 is from Fort Riley, Kansas and is currently deployed to eastern Europe in support of Atlantic Resolve.
“Our mission here is to build relations with our partner nations and conduct training,” said U.S. Army 1st Lt. Kevin A. Smith, scout platoon leader with the 2-34.
The qualifications were part of the battalion’s gunnery training that they are conducting here.
Gunnery is a series of qualifications, broken down into “tables” conducted over several days, and assesses the individual, team, and crew battle drills and collective tasks.
For the tables conducted March 13-14, the Soldiers qualified with the MK19s and M2s mounted on the ground and mounted onto various vehicles, such as, the Light Medium Tactical Vehicles and M1 Abrams main battle tanks.
The gunnery training enables Soldiers to become proficient with their equipment and to work effectively as a team in a combat environment.
“This allows them get their firing commands down, make sure that their weapons are good to go and doing appropriate scanning and what not,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jacob W. Smith assigned to the 2-34.
1st Lt. Smith said that training here as opposed to back in Kansas allows them to train in a very different terrain, as well as gives them an opportunity to work with military partners from different cultures and nationalities.
“This is pretty much setting them up for success,” said Staff Sgt. Smith.
| Date Taken: | 03.13.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 03.19.2019 10:15 |
| Story ID: | 314702 |
| Location: | GRAFENWOEHR TRAINING AREA, DE |
| Web Views: | 96 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, 2-34 qualifies with heavy machine guns on the range in Germany, by SGT Yon Trimble, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
