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380AEW Article

380th ESFS members perfect aim in mobile range

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Amanda Savannah
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  When it comes to hitting a target, aiming is everything.

Staff Sgt. Richard Mulford, 380th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron Combat Arms Training and Maintenance NCO in charge, ensures security forces members here have the proper aim to hit a target, should the need arise.

Proper aim is achieved when a weapon is "zeroed," meaning its sights are set specifically to the shooter so the shooter can actively and precisely engage a target, said Mulford, who is deployed from Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., and is also a Grand Forks native.

Security forces members are issued weapons upon arrival here, meaning the Airmen must zero them.

"If their weapons aren't zeroed in, they're not going to hit their target, which means their targets are going to hit them," Mulford said. "You might as well give them a slingshot."

To zero their weapons, security forces members here use a mobile training range. Mulford said the mobile range provides the squadron a three-lane, automated, enclosed, temperature-controlled space that is self contained and ready at a moment's notice.

"In (Southwest Asia), we're limited to where we are as far as land goes," he said. "If we set up a bare base, we can drop (the range) in there and zero people who need to have their weapons zeroed.

"If we move out, we can pack it up and ship it right out. It hooks right up to an 18-wheeler."

To prevent rounds from penetrating the unit, the sides and back end are lined with compressed rubber approximately 10 to 12 inches thick, said Michael Ezell, 380th ESFS CATM armory manager, an Albuquerque, N.M., native who has been assigned here for nearly three years. He said the back end also has a steel back plate, and the front end contains sound-deadening foam.

Senior Airman Andre McCoo, 380th ESFS member, enjoyed his first experience zeroing his weapon in a mobile range here.

"It was a perfect process for zeroing," said McCoo, a Mobile, Ala., native who is deployed from Eglin AFB, Fla. "In a regular range you're so worried about hitting a target at so many meters. With this you're just trying to get that perfect aim."