COB BASRA, Iraq – With major changes completed, May 1, service members and private security guards on Contingency Operating Base Basra will be honing their marksmanship skills at two improved firing ranges that are expected to serve as the standard for all ranges that fall under United States Division-South.
The project was motivated by safety concerns, said, Staff Sgt. Kenneth D. Eades, the operations noncommissioned officer for the 1st Infantry Division's Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion.
The chief safety concern at the ranges was vehicle and foot traffic, as they sit at the intersection of two of the COB's major roads, he said. To protect traffic, groups using the range were required to post road guards and stop firing whenever someone passed by.
"It was frustrating having to stop and start all the time," said Andrew Newcomb, a medic with the Olive Group, a private United Kingdom-based security firm, whose team works for clients in Basra.
Newcomb, who hails from London, said the constant interruptions extended the length of the training and sapped the concentration of the shooters. Newcomb was the stand-by medic for his team's, May 8, range-time at one of the ranges.
To mitigate the risk to traffic, Eades extended the side walls with stacks of "Hesco" barriers and shored-up the back of the ranges along the perimeter road with additional sand bags, said the infantryman from Elkhart, Texas.
Hesco is the nickname for commonly-used barriers that resemble large paper bags filled with sand and supported by a metal cage exoskeleton. The barrier's catalog name is "Concertainer," and it is manufactured by the United Kingdom-based firm HESCO Bastion Ltd.
The improvements made to the ranges have garnered the attention of those responsible for enforcing standards throughout the division's area of operations.
"The safety team wants to use them as the standard for all ranges in the AO," Eades said.
"We're changing the names, too, as soon as I can have the signs made up," Eades said.
The range known as "Hesco #1," built by the 10th Mountain Division when it stood up what is now the Army's United States Division-South at COB Basra in early spring 2009, will be re-named "Danger Range," he said.
The range known as "Hesco #2," built by British forces while they were responsible for Basra Province, will be re-named "Victory Range," he said.
Geoff Savage, a team leader with Olive Group, said the ranges are now 100 times better than before, and not only because of the improved safety. Each range now has three portable latrines instead of just one, and more concrete bunkers were added in case of indirect fire or other threats.
Savage, a native of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, said the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior requires private security firms to conduct range training every 60 days.
"We are very grateful that the Army allows us to use this facility," he said.
Eades said both military and private security companies are welcome to use the ranges, as long as they have the proper risk assessment paperwork with their request. In addition to the risk assessment, there must be a medic or combat-life-saver-trained Soldier present at all times.
As long as it is part of their safety plan and their request is approved, groups may choose whether to use body armor while firing, he said. Eye and hearing protection is always required though.
During their March concert stop at COB Basra, members of the rock band Bad Company asked to use the range, but Eades said it was already booked during the time the musicians and their roadies had available.
So far, the highest-ranked shooter has been Maj. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commanding general of USD-S. Other senior members of the command group have used the range as well, he said.
Sgt. Latasha L. Burnett, a native of Drew, Miss., said she was impressed by the improved range when she and other Soldiers from the DHHB zeroed their weapons, May 6, at Hesco 1.
"There were 20 of us out there and it went very well," she said.
Eades said another improvement he made to the range was to upgrade how the targets were mounted.
Using larger sheets of plywood that fit three targets, Eades increased the number of lanes from 12 to 18. Then, by affixing the plywood with 2x4 board legs, Eades made it possible for the targets to be quickly stood up or replaced in the PVC piping he planted in the ground.
"I probably cut up 46 feet of PVC pipe, and we used seven pallets of empty Hesco's that we had to fill with sand once they got here. We used three truckloads of sandbags for Hesco #2 and three-and-a-half for Hesco 1," he said.
"The ranges were in pretty bad shape when I took them over," Eades said.
"I've been doing whatever I could to keep the targeting up until, finally, I had assets available to me to put a permanent fix on it—where I didn't have to jerry-rig the range anymore."