• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Armorers supporting missions all over Quantico

US Marine Corps News

4/10/2009 By Lance Cpl. Meloney R. Moses, Marine Corps Base Quantico

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va —Some of the most important components in battle are the weapons. If those weapons are broken or have missing parts, we might as well be fighting with sticks and stones.

Because Marine Corps Base Quantico is home to operational support units for every mission in the Marine Corps, we have a vast array of weapons to be accounted for and maintained.

“We support all of Quantico … providing weapons, optics and miscellaneous gear such as radios and compasses,” said Pfc. Michael Briscoe, a small arms repair technician at the Headquarters and Service Battalion armory.”

Nine armories are dispersed throughout the base -- Marine Security Group, Marine Corps Air Facility, The Basic School, Security Battalion, Marine Corps University, Weapons Training Battalion, Officer Candidate School, Headquarters and Service Battalion and the Ordnance Maintenance Section.

Armorers work hard to maintain the high quality, useful conditions of every weapon stored in their armory.

“My job is to repair, maintain, issue and receive weapons,” said Briscoe.

Along with issuing weapons for training, armors are responsible for daily inventory checks to ensure all weapons are accounted for.

The HQSVCBn armory currently has 1,050 M16A2 Service Rifles, 249 M249 Squad Automatic Weapons, 15 M240 Bravo’s, 501 M9 Service Pistols, 22 M14 Rifles and 1,369 Bayonets on hand.

Spread out over the course of one day is weapons inspections, repairs and maintenance checks.

“We do preventive maintenance checks and services, making sure weapons match what is written in their respective handbooks,” said Briscoe who graduated from his nearly three month Military Occupational Specialty School at Aberdeen Proving Ground. “We also do limited technical inspections, detailed technical inspections and pre-fire inspections.”

Although there are no MOS-unique training requirements for the small arms repair technicians, the hands-on instruction they receive helps them in annual training events such as rifle and pistol qualifications.

When armorers are firing we know what we’re doing and if something were to mess up we’d have an idea of what it is and how to fix it, explained Briscoe. Having this knowledge of weapons systems helps eliminate weapon malfunctions and permits timely repairs.

Although the armorers do not physically attend to support training events on the ranges, you can be assured they are back in the armory getting their hands dirty and making sure every weapon issued is clean, properly functioning and will do what it is designed to do.