A day at the range

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Michael Washburn
  • 355th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  Select Airmen and members of the Office of Special Investigations met at the combat arms training and maintenance range at D-M to participate in shooting exercises Dec. 18.

Each Airman was partnered with a member of OSI and was able to participate in the four different exercises. The weapons of choice for the day's event were the SIG Sauer M11 handgun and the Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun.

"This event was an orientation to different weapons and shooting tactics," said Col. Tony Franzese, 12th Air Force Air Forces Southern director of intelligence.

The first exercise had the Airmen using the M11 to fire two shots to the chest of a paper target and one to the head. The following exercise had the Airmen doing the same as the first, but they had to take a few side-steps and shoot a metal target further down the range for their last shot.

A shooting and moving exercise was next for the Airmen. They had to shoot two rounds into a paper target and then move down to the same target. From there, two more rounds were shot into another paper target. They moved down one more time, where they shot a single round into a metal target near the end of the range before starting the process again in reverse.

The fourth and final exercise had the Airmen firing off 13 rounds before moving to a different station where they fired the MP5 in full automatic.

"The most fun by far was pulling the trigger of the MP5 and firing 15 rounds in about a half a second," Franzese said.

For some of the Airmen involved, the action of moving and shooting was something they haven't had the opportunity to experience.

"Normally when you come out to the range you don't move with the weapon," Franzese said. "We did some drills where we walked down the range with the weapon and fire, and it was a little different than standard shooting."

From the wide smiles on the faces of the Airmen, it was evident that fun times were had by all.

"I would definitely want to do something like this again," Franzese said. "It was a phenomenal opportunity to get exposure to the different types of weapons and shooting techniques."