MPs practice advanced marksmanship

  • Published
  • By Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert Barnett
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaka --  With all the deployments and permanent changes of station, service members have to regularly conduct training to ensure the mission can continue. In the case of the Army 164th Military Police Company, more than half of their Soldiers needed to qualify on the M-4 Carbine.

"We had about 60 out of 80 people qualifying for the first time here," said Army Capt. Matthew Porter, 164th MP commander. "It was all our Soldiers who are assigned an M-4 weapons system."

To keep things safe, the training had to build up to firing live rounds.

"We start with dry fire," said Sgt. 1st Class Vincent Vetterkind, 3rd Platoon Sgt., 164th MP. "That's basically a rehearsal of what we're going to be doing with the live fire. It's a little bit higher risk with running, turning and other moves while firing live rounds. We rehearse a lot so that when we shoot live rounds, its second nature.

"We want to work out any little kinks, problems or issues before we start using real ammunition," he continued. "Once we finish the dry fire, we go through the blank rounds.
 
It adds a little more realism because you get a lot of misfires with blank rounds, magazine changes, and you've got the buffer that's another way to work out any little kinks."

In many cases, firing on a range means aiming at paper targets roughly 300 meters away. The MP Soldiers were preparing to put live rounds into similar targets at a much closer range.

"We have a lot of guys that haven't done this sort of range before," said the platoon sergeant from Wausau, Wis.

"We have some new Soldiers out here; they got here about six months ago, maybe earlier," Vetterkind said.

This training is to prepare them for much of what they would be doing and encountering in today's combat zone.

"This is advanced rifle marksmanship," Vetterkind said. "What we're doing right now is the short-range marksmanship, that's specifically geared towards closer-range combat. We're building skills that will help them go through buildings with urban operations. It's a little bit closer to them; it's not your 300-meter target. A lot of the movements are what they see on TV; your high-speed, hooah Army stuff. Soldiers have a lot of fun with it."
Whenever live rounds are used, safety is paramount.

"We have about eight new Soldiers on the range right now," Vetterkind said. "We have a lot of our NCOs out here helping to coach. With the use of live rounds, the need for safety is much higher. Right now our 1st Platoon is out here doing this now; my platoon was doing this yesterday. I think out of their 12 Soldiers today, seven or eight of them are new. Yesterday I had 10 of my guys go through. I think 12 will go through today."

Operating in Alaska's environment provides some unique challenges.

"We're getting used to the way things work in the colder weather here," said Sgt. 1st Class Brian Landis, 164th MP, platoon sergeant, whose hometown is Romney, W. Va. "Stuff takes a little longer; it takes a little longer to hook up a trailer, or do anything in Alaska because of the weather, everything being frozen."

"We try to shoot at the range at least once a month," Porter said. "Sometimes more than that; we're at about a 50/50 mix between those that got back from a deployment and new people."

For some, opportunities like this are why they joined the Army.

"It's giving them what they might have pictured when they joined the Army," Vetterkind said. "The recruiters showed them those cool videos; the 'Call of Duty' stuff. That might be why these guys joined the Army. There's a little bit more to it than just lying on the ground with the rifle."