FORT STEWART, GA -- Military Police Soldiers of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Brigade 3rd Special Troops Battalion, conducted the first Armored Security Vehicle Gunnery on Fort Stewart, Friday. It is the second ASV gunnery, Army-wide.
"There are a lot of things we are identifying now so we can do better in the future, but we are doing very well right now," said Sgt. 1st Class Marcus Nunn, HHC 1-3 BSTB platoon sergeant. "We are planning future gunneries, both ASV, wheeled vehicles and a combination of the two."
The gunnery entailed five firing positions that tested each crewmember's ability, especially the gunner, who had to qualify on both the .50 caliber and the Mark 19 in both day and night fire exercises.
"Today we're doing a day qualification for the Mark 19 on the Armored Security Vehicle," said Nunn, "Later on we'll be transferring over to the Nuclear Biological Chemical qualification, then night fire."
Captain Melissa Blondin, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1-3 Brigade Special Troops Battalion commander, was pleased with how the gunnery was going and adamant about the use of ASVs for MPs.
"We have three crews in HHC that have to go through and qualify," she said noting MPs do a lot of escort missions for explosive ordnance disposal, and guest that travel throughout the area.
"When we deploy, the ASV is a great vehicle for MPs to have," Blondin said.
However, even though this is their first gunnery, the Soldiers qualified in each section.
"Being the first ASV gunnery on Fort Stewart there's a lot of learning curves that we have to deal with, but all-in-all they (Soldiers) are doing great," Nunn said. "Our last crew got a perfect score, 8/8."
Specialist Demetrius McGill, the team leader of that last crew was stoic about the perfect score.
"Our gunnery went wonderful," he said, "We had a few mess-ups but we found our deficiencies and brought it up to standard. Gunnery overall is easy as long as you have a team that works together."
Although the crews had been out in the field for a few nights, they remained motivated in their drive to succeed.
"Last night was a long night," Nunn said. "But the Soldiers are staying motivated, and all three teams have qualified. Sometimes Murphy likes to get in there, but you adapt, overcome and continue with the mission. (Referring to Murphy's Law - If anything can go wrong, it will.)
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