Photo By Staff Sgt. Samantha Simmons | Soldiers from Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Stryker...... read more read more
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BAGHDAD— A 20-foot high dune rises from the sand at Contingency Operating Location Justice, partially masking the bustling life of Baghdad in the distance.
Soldiers hike to a quiet corner of the lifeless landscape.
"Let's go!" a Soldier shouts. "The faster we get the range set up, the sooner we get out of here."
Soldiers spring from the right and left sides of the mound, equipped with two-by-fours, large pieces of cardboard, thumbtacks, tape, paper plates and plastic bottles.
Their intent: to construct a rifle range.
With limited resources, the Soldiers assigned to Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, have been forced to find innovative ways to build a rifle range so they can hone their marksmanship skills. Their creativity has become a weekly ritual.
Since arriving to Justice in December 2009, the unit found there was not only a lack of supplies to work with, but they were unable to coordinate with other units to provide range safeties, said Sgt. Jorge Olea, a Fontana, Calif., native and squad leader with Btry. B.
So they decided to take matters into their own hands.
The Soldiers have had to improvise ways to safely and effectively operate the range, said Sgt. Roy Vital, a squad leader for Btry. B, from Lake Charles, La.
The unit managed to scrounge up two-by-fours from the military materiel and supply yard. The repair and utility representative and Bedford, Va., native Spc. Benjamin Willis, constructed square-shaped stands to hold targets, as well as paddles crafted by attaching a simple, square piece of plywood to a two-by-four, Vital added.
"If the stands get shot up, [Willis] builds new ones," said Vital.
Once the target stands and paddles were constructed, Soldiers who would act as the range safeties were identified and additional tasks divided out for the setup of the range.
Upon arriving, the Soldiers lugged previously filled sandbags to the firing line. The sandbags served as an aid to them while in prone and supported positions.
The Soldiers dragged the assembled target stands to the edge of the sandy berm and situated them, 25 meters directly in front of the sandbags. They pried rusty nails from the wood frames and reused them to hang the cardboard, on which the paper targets were attached. The cardboard was then gathered from empty packing boxes, with the intent to be reused, if possible.
Additional Soldiers spray-painted the handcrafted wood paddles — red on one side, black on the other — to be used when the range was functioning, indicating to the noncommissioned officer in charge of the range whether each firing order was ready to put bullets down-range.
Battery B noncommissioned officers have learned to use everything they can get their hands on, from tape to thumbtacks to paper plates in constructing the targets, said Olea.
"Our staple gun quit working properly, so we used thumb tacks to hang the targets," said Vital.
The squad leaders have tried to be creative with the training as well in order to keep the Soldiers on their toes, said Olea.
"We try to make [the range] competitive," said Olea, "to get everyone to strive to shoot better and really push themselves."
At a previous range, the Soldiers conducted what they call a "stress shoot." During the shoot, Soldiers team up in pairs and are timed and graded on their performance while negotiating various obstacles.
Olea said the intent of the stress shoot is to simulate what Soldiers' reaction times and accuracy might be during combat.
Soldiers must sprint from obstacle to obstacle, shooting in various positions at different types of targets — in this case, paper plates and plastic bottles. Each team must communicate throughout, sometimes carrying a litter full of water bottles to simulate carrying a casualty.
Extra stress is added into the mix as Soldiers are given point deductions if they are caught performing an unsafe act, such as not putting a weapon on safe when loading a new magazine, not carrying a litter correctly, and even shooting out of order.
First Lt. Jeremiah Faught, a section leader with Btry B, and native of Sotin, Wash., said these training exercises are critical because the Soldiers regularly run intense missions outside of the wire that last four to six hours, and they serve on quick reaction force teams every other week.
"Warrior tasks are very important because they're what keeps [Soldiers] alive," Faught asserted.
Another important task is preserving the environment after a range concludes.
Soldiers conduct a "police call," raking through the sand to collect all of the expended brass casings. Others repack their improvised supplies, determined to leave the area the way they found it: a 20-foot high dune rising from a sandy lot, partially masking the bustling life of Baghdad.
| Date Taken: | 02.07.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 02.07.2010 06:35 |
| Story ID: | 45043 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 278 |
| Downloads: | 251 |
This work, Stirring up Justice: 4-2 Field Artillerymen turn paper plates into targets, by SSG Samantha Simmons, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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