July 19, 2007

 

Sgt. Jessika Malott

Sgt. 1st Class James Goff dons his protective mask before starting the
NBC fire iteration.

Soldiers get ready, aim, simulate on EST 2000

Sgt. Jessika Malott
11th ADA Public Affairs

As the shooters approached their lanes and knelt down to ready their fighting positions, all they could hear was, “Gas! Gas! Gas!”

An element of Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, took marksmanship training indoors at the Fort Bliss Marksmanship Center and McGregor Range Facility Friday.

The Soldiers were qualifying on the Engagement Skills Trainer 2000, or EST 2000, for nuclear, biological, chemical (NBC) firing and night fire qualifications.

“We wanted to get this set up for all of the Soldiers to come through,” said Sgt. Joseph Peters, training noncommissioned officer, HHB, 11th ADA Bde. “We want to continue this initiative until all of the Soldiers in the unit are proficient. Using this facility prevents heat casualties, because it is indoors, and all of the resources and costs that go into a day at the range.”

The Soldiers first fired their weapons with their protective masks on and, with the assistance of the training instructors, were able to qualify on the range.

Once all the Soldiers went through the range, they moved into the night firing portion of the training.

“This is the first unit to use the advanced night fire program,” said Nathan Buckley, a Fort Bliss Marksmanship Center training instructor. “We just set up the advanced night fire program last week.”

Many Soldiers appreciated the rapid feedback they received after firing and the technology used to make the training as realistic as possible.

“This was the first time that I got to do this,” said Pfc. Ronald Farr-Galloway, an 11th ADA Bde. Soldier. “This is the future of training Soldiers and this is a lot better than the Weaponeer.”