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Police Soldiers light up targets
Story and photos by Staff Sgt. Jeff Lowry
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| Indiana National Guard Soldiers clear
their weapons before leaving a range at a Fort Dix, N.J.,
range Monday, March 24. The Soldiers are with the 38th
Military Police Company, headquartered in Danville, Ind. The
unit is scheduled to deploy to southwest Asia in support of
Operation Iraqi Freedom in May. Photo by SSG Jeff Lowry,
Indiana Army National Guard |
Indiana Guard
Soldiers with the 38th Military Police Company are taking small
steps in their journey to Iraq.
One small step was a live-fire exercise at
Fort Dix,
N.J., where the company is
mobilizing.
"This training is awesome," said Spc. Nicholas King, of Mitchell, Ind.
"They (First Army Soldiers) gave us good training and plenty of
rounds." First Army Soldiers observe and train the Hoosier Soldiers
at the more than 7,200-acre Army post.
Standing behind
dirt-concrete berms, or in Humvee turrets, or in makeshift wooden
towers, the Citizen-Soldiers fired their weapons toward targets
popping up on a dirt and sandy plain. Using M-4 assault rifles,
M-249 Squad Automatic Weapons, and M-2 .50 caliber machine guns, the
Soldiers shot thousands of rounds down range.
King will deploy
with his cousin, Spc. Brandon Johnson, also with the 38th, and a
Mitchell resident. Johnson,
who has been deployed to
Iraq
once before, agreed with his cousin about the training and said it
is building camaraderie among the troops.
“It’s similar to
how it’s going to be overseas,” he said. “We’re working as a team
and getting ready to go.”
Johnson said
deploying with his cousin is a mixed blessing. "It ain't going to be
stressful because my cousin is there with me," he said. "If either
one of us get hit, then it will be even more stressful."
That probable
stress can wait. For another Soldier, stress is not getting steel on
target.
"I love seeing
the targets go down," said Spc. Justin Spencer, of
Avon. He estimated he and his firing partner, Spc. Brian
Rayl, shot at least a thousand rounds.
They fired their
M-4 and M-249 from one of the towers. "I like it better," said Rayl
about shooting from a 20-foot tall tower. "It's a better vantage
point, and you have better visibility up here," said the Lafayette resident.
The timing of
the live fire exercise represents roughly the halfway point for the Danville unit. With one month down, the 38th
Soldiers have many more small steps to take before taking the big
one across the Atlantic Ocean.
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