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NSW Hosts Its First Joint Range Safety Intermediate Course

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS101222-12
12/22/2010

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class (SW/AW) Sarah E. Bitter, Naval Special Warfare Command public affairs

IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (NNS) -- The Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Command hosted its first ever intermediate inter-service range safety course (IRSC) at Silver Strand Training Complex (SSTC) Dec. 13-17.

"The current IRSC was developed in 2003, and this is the first time that it has ever been hosted aboard a Navy installation," said Douglas Willets, instructor and senior military training specialist.

Typically, Navy ranges involve a single danger zone (SDZ). However, NSW frequently trains with multiple types of weapons, firing rockets, mortars, various small arms, and employing vehicle mounted weapons systems; therefore, more comprehensive training for NSW personnel is required.

Ten courses are provided annually throughout the U.S. and abroad, and Sailor billets are hard to come by.

"We are normally allotted one or two billets per class conducted at an Army or Marine Corps installation," said Chuck Chaldekas, NSW range operations manager. "But in this class, Navy personnel made up more than half of the students."

The command saved approximately $20,000 in TAD funding by hosting the course, another "plus," according to Chaldekas, due to the limited funding available for NSW ranges.

Twenty-four service members and civilians from the Navy, Army and Marine Corps attended the course. The four Army and Marine Corps instructors, with more than 70 collective years of training experience, interactively demonstrated and guided the students through the process of drawing SDZs for various weapons on ranges.

Most of the course was devoted to drawing SDZs on paper and transferring them to maps of several military installations with live fire ranges.

After students learned the process by hand, they were introduced to interactive computer-driven SDZ development. Course organizers concluded that computers significantly reduce time and effort in development of safe training venues for training forces, but there are still many venues where computer assistance is not available. To cover all bases, students received daily quizzes on traditional and computer-based development methods.

Lectures, homework assignments and written tests also provided students with policy guidance and familiarized them with guiding documents.

When commanders and elements engaging in live fire training understand the process of SDZ development, most ranges and training areas provide endless options. According to Chaldekas, by learning about SDZs, a range manager or commander may provide his force or facility safe operating at any military live fire-range.

"I'm sitting here with Army, civilians and Marines with a wide variety of jobs, who all have the same mission, provide safety at live fire ranges," said Lt. Joshua Freeze, Fleet Area Control and Surveillance Facility Det., assistant officer-in-charge.

Freeze is charged with managing the San Clemente Island and other Navy offshore ranges in and near Southern California. San Clemente is the only multi-purpose live fire range available to the Navy for naval gunfire, air-delivered munitions and weapons, artillery and small arms.

Being responsible for coordinating all the action on a multi-purpose exercise venue, Freeze and other attendees were able to draw from the experience of others, regardless of service affiliation.

"By attending this course, I received many different perspectives, yet a foundation on how to understand how each branch conducts their business at their range."

NSW has a tentative agreement with the IRSC instructor staff to host another course in December 2011.