JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – About 40 potential military recruits were introduced to weapons handling, familiarization, zeroing and qualification Feb. 20 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
The possible service members came from recruiting stations in Tacoma, Spanaway, Auburn and Puyallup, as part of a partnership between JBLM’s Garrison Headquarters and Headquarters Company and Tacoma Recruiting Company, said Capt. Leyton Bellamy, JBLM’s Garrison HHC commander.
The recruits trained using the Army’s Engagement Skills Trainer (EST) at the Directorate of Plans, Training, Aviation, Mobilization and Security Mission Training Complex on base. The facilities “serve as a digital training range, supporting training events and mission execution by linking live, virtual and constructive (immersive) training environments and providing battlefield visualization,” according to JBLM’s website.
When Bellamy and his first sergeant came on board in June of 2024, one of the largest issues for potential service members was “the unknowns of military life,” he said. “What does my life look like when I join? It’s a really big gray area.”
So, HHC partnered with the Tacoma Recruiting Company and other recruiting companies to gain recruits access to certain facilities.
“They can see what they can do in their free time and just what the day in the life of a Soldier looks like,” Bellamy said. “And then more recently, over the last couple months, we've taken them to actual training facilities to get more of a hands-on experience.”
Part of that experience includes weapons training.
“I think it's daunting at first, because we don't just let them jump in there and grab a weapon and start shooting at a screen,” he said, explaining that the EST has “phenomenal instructors,” and the recruits go through preliminary marksmanship instruction with them and their cadre.
Bellamy sees the difference such training makes.
They learn “how to respect a weapon, how to aim down the sights, the basics of weapon safety and control measures, and how to exit and walk onto a range,” he said. “It lets them gain that confidence when they move into the simulator center and do it.”
The training can be visibly frustrating at first, as “maybe some of them have never held a weapon before,” Bellamy said. “But then … all of a sudden they're hitting their targets, they're aiming on the sight,” and building up their basic skills before a practice qualification test.
The biggest takeaway for the recruits should be “that this is a resource for them when they join the force,” he said. “It's a requirement before you go to the range, so they'll understand all these things when they're already in the uniform.”
“By the end, they're extremely confident – they're having a great time,” he said. “It goes from this completely wild concept to something that's very, very achievable with the right practice and work.”
Another part of some recruits’ experience has included using a vehicle-based combat simulator (VBC) at the MTC.
“They get to jump on a computer with the MTC instructors kind-of walking them through an actual mounted scenario,” Bellamy said. “Usually, it's on the Humvee simulator and they get to go through missions and learn how to communicate over the radio and drive vehicles in formation.”
The VBC is like “a large video game,” and the recruits “connect with it very quickly,” he said.
This recruiting event was the largest of those held so far, Bellamy said.
“I think sometimes that fear of the unknown is what prevents people from wanting to join,” he said. “Their hearts are really set on it, but just the fear of the unknown sometimes is enough to deter them from taking that final step. And so, any of that unknown and ambiguity we can take away from joining is just a great thing for them and allows them to feel even more confident that they know what their life can look like, and their future can look like.”
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