Page 14 - The Dispatch May 2019

TEXAS MILITARY DEPARTMENT

VIDEO

TRIGGER TIME FOR TEXAS AIRMEN

Story and Video By Staff Sgt. Augustin Salazar tance provides them with an extensive training facili-
149th Fighter Wing Public Affairs ty in El Paso. Fort Bliss, home to the 203rd hosts the
EL PASO - As gun fire rings through the desert the second largest training site in the Army and comes
rhythmic plink, plink, plink of 9mm bullets hitting their with tools not normally available to Airmen.
target signals success for the Air National Guard’s
203rd Ground Combat Training Squadron. The 30 Instructors use steel and reactionary targets to facili-
person team is charged with teaching firearm tactics tate the training, an upgrade according to Westmeyer
to Air National Guardsmen and their active duty and
reserve counterparts. “At most Air Force ranges you can’t shoot steel tar-
gets, you can’t shoot targets that fall down when you
To carry out this mission, the instruction staff must hit them” said Westmeyer. “on Air Force installations
stay proficient with fundamental combat shooting, you shoot paper targets, punch holes in them from
a task that Lt. Col. Jason Westmeyer, Commander of behind barricades and that’s the extent of the train-
the 203rd Ground Combat Training Squadron knows ing.”
his staff can succeed in.
With an eye to future combat the members of the
“We’re working on threat discrimination, speed and 203rd are poised to add to the mission of keeping the
accuracy, their ability to engage targets in confidence Texas National Guard a force of proficient and lethal
and building their moral” said Westmeyer. Airmen. -D

(Above) A Texas Air National Guard Instructor with the 203rd Ground
As a geographically separated unit of the 149th Fight- Combat Training Squadron fires a 9mm pistol during a training exer-
er Wing the 203rd may be far from home but that dis- cise in firearm utilization for Airmen from the National Guard, Active
Air Force and Air Force Reserve at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas March 23,
2019 (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Augustin Salazar)
14 TheDISPATCH May 2019