FORT CARSON, Colo. — In what has turned out to be one of the warmest autumns on record, the weather finally turned on a day when most Soldiers would frown on being outside.
It’s a “range” day on the steppes of Colorado’s largest military post south of Colorado Springs and it’s cold. Temps hover in the low teens early in the morning and it feels as if it’s getting colder as the day progresses.
Soldiers of 1st Space Brigade’s 1st Space Battalion, 4th and 18th Space Companies are here to qualify on the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or “SAW” for short – the standard light machine gun of the Army. It’s a fair assessment to say most Soldiers in Army Space units aren’t all that familiar with the SAW, and the ones that are came from previous units that utilized them.
“It’s a weapon used in infantry units more so than anything else,” says Staff Sgt. Arend Aldrich, 4th Space Company, Detachment 5, noncommissioned officer in charge. “But we train on it because at the end of the day, we are all Soldiers and need to be trained up on a weapon like the M249.”
Aldrich comes from an artillery background in the Army. He recently reclassified into Space and brings a lot of experience to his unit when it comes to crew-served weapons. He hopes his Soldiers will build confidence in using the SAW.
“Understanding how the weapon works and building that knowledge base is why we are here today,” Aldrich says. “Once they familiarize themselves with it, it’s just like any other weapon in the Army.”
The wind begins to pick up as the sun rises higher. The forecast calls for highs in the 40s, but it will be wrong. Most of the Soldiers here are dressed for warmer weather due to this. They “zero” their weapons then dart back to utility vans in the parking lot to warm up between firing iterations.
Pfc. Brandon Flores, a signals collector analyst of 18th Space Co., comes off the firing line looking a little cold, but optimistic surrounding his shooting performance.
“I think it went alright,” he says of his zeroing the weapon. “I never get to shoot this, so it’s always good to get out and do something new in the Army. It’s good to know how just in case you ever might have to use it.”
Introduced in 1984, the M249 provides squads of Soldiers a high rate of fire with the accuracy and portability of a rifle. Soldiers must engage popup targets ranging from 100 to 800 meters during qualification, although the Space Soldiers on today’s range did not engage the 800 meter targets as they did not have the optics to do so. Qualifying on the SAW is not a mandatory Army requirement in non-infantry units.
“I’m not worried about every Soldier out here qualifying,” said Capt. Kyle Berry, 4th Space Co., Det. 5 commander. “The benefits of doing this today are getting new Soldiers, who literally haven’t touched one of these weapons, confident on a new weapons system, because at the end of the day, we’re all still Soldiers.”
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