Range Control Technician, William Blakeslee, works the Fire Desk May 27, where he monitors active live-fire rifle and ordnance ranges, as well as the airspace above to ensure no accidents, or incidents occur across Fort Leonard Wood’s ranges and training areas. According to Range Control officials, Fort Leonard Wood contains about 63,000 acres of land and with more than 30 ranges and 200 training areas, maintaining the land outside the cantonment area is a Herculean task.

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Many are familiar with the important role drill sergeants have when it comes to training the nation’s newest Soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood, but there is a lesser-known entity just as essential to the Army’s readiness — Range Control.

“It's kind of a hidden organization, I would like to say most folks who work at the garrison or up at the cantonment area don’t even know that we are out here and what we are doing out here day to day,” said Chad Burrow, range officer for Range Control.

Consisting of 39 employees and located at Bldg. 5260 off FLW 38, Range Control, is a part of the U.S. Army Garrison’s Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security. The team is responsible for the day-to-day operations that control all the ranges and training areas on Fort Leonard Wood, Burrows said.

According to Burrows, Fort Leonard Wood contains about 63,000 acres of land and with more than 30 ranges and 200 training areas, maintaining the land outside of the cantonment area is a Herculean task.

“Range operations is a very, very active proponent. We are always on the move,” Burrows said. “Right now we do 24-hour operations to make sure the job gets done.

And that job involves regular day-to-day operations and maintenance that includes running a program called the Range Facility Support System, which is a laydown of all the training schedules across post, and the Fire Desk, Burrows said.

For Range Control Technician William Blakeslee, the Range Facility Support System is a key function for the team.

“RFSS controls all the training areas and ranges and lets us know where everybody is and what they are doing,” he said. “It’s about accountability and safety”

Another role that focuses on safety and accountability is running the Fire Desk.

“We also have our Fire Desk folks out here that control all of the calling in and calling out on the ranges going hot or cold and ensuring that the safety aspects are being followed across all of our ranges and training areas,” Burrows said. “This allows us to know when a range is occupied, when there is live fire and when a range is being unoccupied. It’s really all about safety and the Fire Desk is how we track that.”

Range Control can also provide installation maps to units on post. These maps can be of a specific area, or of the entire post.

“We take a bunch of orders weekly, (units) come in and they order maps they need for land navigation or a field training exercise that is coming up,” Burrows said.

Burrows said another major component of Range Control is maintenance, which includes mowing, building maintenance, building new ranges and maintaining vehicle and foot maneuverability.

“If you let the training lands get all grown up, folks can’t go out and train,” Burrows said. “When you shoot as many bullets as we shoot down range, you have damage, the bullets chew up the dirt and cause erosion.”

The Range Control team, according to Burrows, maintains all of those things “to ensure that we get the best possible training to the Soldiers that come through.”

When it comes to the ranges and training areas, the units and Soldiers do not have to worry about anything except for showing up to train, according to Blakeslee.

“If I am not doing my job then that means that the units can’t do their training,” Blakeslee said.

For Burrows, at the end of the day, it all comes down to readiness and training.

“This is what we do in the Army, we train and we train to fight,” Burrows said.