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From The State, SC (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/11776292.htm):
Posted on Tue, May. 31, 2005
Army wants soldiers to get used to guns
Fort Jackson recruits now are given guns much earlier in basic training and carry them almost 24/7
By CHUCK CRUMBO
Staff Writer
On his third day of basic training at Fort Jackson, Pvt. William Banks got his gun — an M16A2 rifle.
Less than an hour later, the 23-year-old soldier from Colorado Springs, Colo., already had taken the gun apart, cleaned it and put it back together.
Then, Banks and other soldiers in Company D, 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment slung the weapons over their shoulders and marched off to chow.
Giving recruits a gun so early in boot camp and expecting them to carry it almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week marks a radical change in how the Army trains its soldiers.
The training program is called “weapons immersion,” and its aim is twofold, Army leaders said.
First, the Army wants to instill discipline and the “warrior ethos” in troops. Soldiers in Iraq must have their weapons handy 24/7, so recruits should get used to that.
“I think it definitely adds a little more realism to it,” Banks said. “Now you’re responsible for an issued weapon.”
Second, increased familiarity with their weapons should help recruits become more safety conscious, preventing accidents.
“They learn real quick to respect their weapon and understand what it can do,” said Lt. Col. Mel Hull, who is credited with implementing the weapons program at Fort Jackson.
Since Oct. 1, 2002, 24 soldiers, including 16 in combat zones, have been killed by accidental discharges, according to the Army Safety Center.
The Naval Safety Center reported four Marine deaths during the same period resulting from negligent discharges.
‘SECOND NATURE’
It used to be that recruits did not get their weapons until they went to the firing range, which came almost halfway into their nine-week basic training course.
At the time, Army regulations allowed guns to be issued to recruits for only short periods of time. That’s because commanders feared the weapons, which cost about $600 apiece, could be lost or stolen.
Lt. Col. Hull said the new program was launched after veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars returned to Fort Jackson to help train soldiers.
In a combat zone, soldiers live with their weapons all the time, said Hull, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment. “What better way to help prepare them for their units than to start doing that here at basic training.”
About half of the drill sergeants and training officers at Fort Jackson are Iraq or Afghanistan veterans, officials said. Those veterans include Delta Company commander Capt. Tony Brown, who was with the 14th Engineer Battalion near Tikrit, Iraq, from April 2003 to April 2004.
Learning the correct way to handle a weapon — checking the safety and keeping your finger off the trigger unless you’re ready to fire — should become so ingrained during training that soldiers will do it the right way despite fatigue or complacency, Brown said. “Second nature will make you do it the right way.”
Fort Jackson tested a pilot program in August and launched the new policy in February, Hull said. The training program also has been adopted at the Army’s four other basic training sites — Fort Knox, Ky.; Fort Sill, Okla.; Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; and Fort Benning, Ga.
Saying the troops carry their weapons 24/7 is only a slight exaggeration. At night, the guns are locked in a rack at the front of a barracks’ sleeping bays. Otherwise, the recruits carry their guns everywhere except to church.
To add even more realism to the training, by the fifth week of training — after recruits have passed qualification tests with their weapons — the new soldiers carry rifles loaded with blanks.
When they leave the barracks, the soldiers load a blank into the firing chamber as if they were going to patrol off base in Iraq. When they return to the barracks, the recruits take the rifle’s magazines out, clear the blank from the rifle’s firing chamber, then point the muzzle into a sand-filled barrel and pull the trigger, ensuring the weapon is not loaded. It is the same procedure the soldiers would follow when returning to a base in Iraq, Brown said.
SEEING IMPROVEMENTS
The new policy seems to be improving soldiers’ proficiency on the firing range, as well as safety, commanders said.
Only about 60 percent of recruits initially qualified as proficient in firing their weapons the first time that Lt. Col. Michael Ryan’s training battalion went through the pilot program. That was much lower that the usual 70 percent to 75 percent.
Ryan, who commands the 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, attributed the lower first-time qualification rate to new requirements that the recruits wear body armor and shoot from a kneeling position. Once the soldiers became more comfortable with the gear, scores went up, he said.
“What we consider most important is that, at the end of the day, 100 percent of the soldiers had qualified,” Ryan said.
Sgt. 1st Class Edward Anderson, one of Delta Company’s drill sergeants, also said he has seen improvement in safety.
“The last (training) cycle, we didn’t have any (accidental) discharges,” Anderson said. “We usually have two or three, but two or three is still not acceptable.”
Posted on Tue, May. 31, 2005
Army wants soldiers to get used to guns
Fort Jackson recruits now are given guns much earlier in basic training and carry them almost 24/7
By CHUCK CRUMBO
Staff Writer
On his third day of basic training at Fort Jackson, Pvt. William Banks got his gun — an M16A2 rifle.
Less than an hour later, the 23-year-old soldier from Colorado Springs, Colo., already had taken the gun apart, cleaned it and put it back together.
Then, Banks and other soldiers in Company D, 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment slung the weapons over their shoulders and marched off to chow.
Giving recruits a gun so early in boot camp and expecting them to carry it almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week marks a radical change in how the Army trains its soldiers.
The training program is called “weapons immersion,” and its aim is twofold, Army leaders said.
First, the Army wants to instill discipline and the “warrior ethos” in troops. Soldiers in Iraq must have their weapons handy 24/7, so recruits should get used to that.
“I think it definitely adds a little more realism to it,” Banks said. “Now you’re responsible for an issued weapon.”
Second, increased familiarity with their weapons should help recruits become more safety conscious, preventing accidents.
“They learn real quick to respect their weapon and understand what it can do,” said Lt. Col. Mel Hull, who is credited with implementing the weapons program at Fort Jackson.
Since Oct. 1, 2002, 24 soldiers, including 16 in combat zones, have been killed by accidental discharges, according to the Army Safety Center.
The Naval Safety Center reported four Marine deaths during the same period resulting from negligent discharges.
‘SECOND NATURE’
It used to be that recruits did not get their weapons until they went to the firing range, which came almost halfway into their nine-week basic training course.
At the time, Army regulations allowed guns to be issued to recruits for only short periods of time. That’s because commanders feared the weapons, which cost about $600 apiece, could be lost or stolen.
Lt. Col. Hull said the new program was launched after veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars returned to Fort Jackson to help train soldiers.
In a combat zone, soldiers live with their weapons all the time, said Hull, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment. “What better way to help prepare them for their units than to start doing that here at basic training.”
About half of the drill sergeants and training officers at Fort Jackson are Iraq or Afghanistan veterans, officials said. Those veterans include Delta Company commander Capt. Tony Brown, who was with the 14th Engineer Battalion near Tikrit, Iraq, from April 2003 to April 2004.
Learning the correct way to handle a weapon — checking the safety and keeping your finger off the trigger unless you’re ready to fire — should become so ingrained during training that soldiers will do it the right way despite fatigue or complacency, Brown said. “Second nature will make you do it the right way.”
Fort Jackson tested a pilot program in August and launched the new policy in February, Hull said. The training program also has been adopted at the Army’s four other basic training sites — Fort Knox, Ky.; Fort Sill, Okla.; Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; and Fort Benning, Ga.
Saying the troops carry their weapons 24/7 is only a slight exaggeration. At night, the guns are locked in a rack at the front of a barracks’ sleeping bays. Otherwise, the recruits carry their guns everywhere except to church.
To add even more realism to the training, by the fifth week of training — after recruits have passed qualification tests with their weapons — the new soldiers carry rifles loaded with blanks.
When they leave the barracks, the soldiers load a blank into the firing chamber as if they were going to patrol off base in Iraq. When they return to the barracks, the recruits take the rifle’s magazines out, clear the blank from the rifle’s firing chamber, then point the muzzle into a sand-filled barrel and pull the trigger, ensuring the weapon is not loaded. It is the same procedure the soldiers would follow when returning to a base in Iraq, Brown said.
SEEING IMPROVEMENTS
The new policy seems to be improving soldiers’ proficiency on the firing range, as well as safety, commanders said.
Only about 60 percent of recruits initially qualified as proficient in firing their weapons the first time that Lt. Col. Michael Ryan’s training battalion went through the pilot program. That was much lower that the usual 70 percent to 75 percent.
Ryan, who commands the 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, attributed the lower first-time qualification rate to new requirements that the recruits wear body armor and shoot from a kneeling position. Once the soldiers became more comfortable with the gear, scores went up, he said.
“What we consider most important is that, at the end of the day, 100 percent of the soldiers had qualified,” Ryan said.
Sgt. 1st Class Edward Anderson, one of Delta Company’s drill sergeants, also said he has seen improvement in safety.
“The last (training) cycle, we didn’t have any (accidental) discharges,” Anderson said. “We usually have two or three, but two or three is still not acceptable.”
if the arms room isn't already open when you ask.
