FORT STEWART, Ga. - Sailors with Navy Special Boat Team 20, based out of Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, Va., participated in training at Fort Stewart, April 4-8.
On April 6, they participated in a training exercise in which they fired blank rounds from M-240 machine guns on two riverine patrol boat lights while their boats were on a river located in Stewart training grounds.
"Working in a tight space, firing to the shore, in support of land forces has always been a priority," said Lieutenant Zach Steinbock, with SBT 20, who was one of the coordinators of the training. "It's a means of affectively supporting troops on the ground."
He added that Fort Stewart was a different location for his Sailors to train and that different training areas provide good training.
The river was not set up as a range prior to the arrival of the unit. Petty Officer First Class Hauze had to figure out the maximum range of the ammunition, figure out if Fort Stewart would allow the ammunition to be fired and went through other standard protocols for firing a range, even one as unusual by Army standards, such as shooting on a river.
Petty Officer First Class Jesse Hauze, a naval special warfare combat crewman, coordinated the training for the Sailors in his unit as well. He was happy with the training saying the experience on the base has been phenomenal for his team.
"Fort Stewart has been nothing but accepting of us," he said. "And their willing to help us out with anything that we need."
The next day, the Sailors fired with live ammunition on the same river.
But the Sailors with this unit will be doing other kinds of training besides firing their weapons on the water.
Special Boat Team 20 will be training on patrolling, convoy operation training, immediate action drills, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and other drills to keep themselves combat ready should they need to deploy.
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