LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. –
"I'm in the Air Force; I didn't join to fire a weapon."
"I joined the Air Force to receive an education."
"I joined the Air Force in order to travel."
Whether people joined the Air Force to receive educational benefits, travel the world, or because they thought it was the safest option, times have changed.
In this day in age, the Air Force is more and more involved in securing its own assets, said Master Sgt. Richard Thompson, 1st Security Forces Squadron Combat Arms NCO in charge. Anyone that goes down range needs to know how to handle a weapon, whether it's an M-16A2 assault rifle or a 9 mm pistol.
"Airmen who normally wouldn't have seen combat are now being placed in harm's way," he said. "They are driving in convoys, doing building sweeps and disarming improvised exploding devices."
In 2007, 1st SFS Combat Arms performed refresher or pre-deployment training for about 6,000 personnel. Because the training schedule is so packed, unit deployment managers need to schedule weapons training for their troops as soon as the requirement is made known to them.
"It's important for the UDM to know when to schedule troops for weapons training," said Sergeant Thompson. "All Air Force personnel must qualify with career field or duty-specified weapons within 90 days of a deployment - not at 100 days out or one week out - with the exception of short-notice deployments."
To attend combat arms training, personnel must be in BDUs or ABUs. If possible, students are asked to bring a flak vest, Kevlar helmet, gas mask and chemical gloves; these items can be checked out from the Mobility Bags shop. If equipment is unavailable through Mobags, combat arms instructors have equipment for students to borrow for qualification training.
For all students, combat arms will provide the weapons; however, if personnel would like to bring the rifle or pistol with which they will be deploying, they may do so.
When someone is qualifying with a rifle, they should expect to be at combat arms all day, whereas pistol training will only be half a day, said Sergeant Thompson.
Before personnel fire an M-16A2 or a 9 mm, the combat arms instructors provide approximately four hours of classroom instruction to refresh their memory on weapon safety, clearing the weapon and the hand position to use when firing, said Sergeant Thompson.
Once the students complete classroom training, they don their equipment, and the instructors take them out to the shooting range to fire their weapons.
Each student will fire 100 shots, of which 50 are practice and 50 are for qualification. In order to qualify, each student has to display their ability to fire in five positions: prone supported, gas mask supported, prone unsupported, kneeling over a barricade, gas mask supported and then fire while wearing a gas mask, Kevlar helmet, flak vest and chemical gloves, said Tom Wilkinson, combat arms weapons instructor. Of those 50 shots to qualify they have to hit the target at least 19 times.
"Each student qualifying with the M-16A2 will shoot 100 rounds, of which 50 will be practice shots and 50 shots to qualify," said Sergeant Thompson. "Of those 50 shots to qualify, the bullet has to hit the target at least 19 times; to qualify with the 9 mm, they must hit the target 35 out of 45 shots."
In order to qualify, each student has to display their ability to fire in five positions: prone supported, gas mask supported, prone unsupported, kneeling over a barricade, gas mask supported and then fire while wearing a gas mask and chemical gloves, said Tom Wilkinson, combat arms weapons instructor.
"The majority of the people that come to qualify haven't fired a weapon since basic training, said Mr. Wilkinson. "One of the problems for this group of people is applying the fundamentals, which are aiming, breathing and squeezing the trigger. They anticipate the recoil before they have squeezed the trigger, which causes the bullet to miss the target and the student to not qualify.
If a student fails, they will have to retake the course before they can deploy, said Sergeant Thompson.
"Personnel from career fields other than security forces are coming in direct contact with the enemy," he said. "If someone doesn't know how to handle their weapon, and the enemy begins crossing the fence, they will be in pretty poor shape."
For more information or to schedule an appointment with 1st SFS Combat Arms, call 764-4785.