3RD BN PATRIOT 43RD ADA RGMT AAR OPN DES SHIELD

File: 970924_aug97_decls1_0014.txt
Page: 0014
Total Pages: 24

Subject = 3RD BN PATRIOT 43RD ADA RGMT AAR OPN DES SHIELD

Parent Organization = CENTCOM

Unit = ARCENT

Folder Title = 3-43D ADA AAR OPERATION DESERT SHIELD

Document Number = 1

Box ID = BX000545

19. ISSUE: Battalion conducted numerous weapons qualification/zero ranges during
the pre-deployment period.

DISCUSSION: Standard for weapons qualification is 90% of personnel qualified
at any given time. The large number of unqualified personnel at the time of alert
indicated that the scheduled frequency of ranges was not sufficient to maintain a 90%
proficiency. An additional difficulty was the large number of personnel who had
zeroed their weapons, but did not have a record of their zero either on their weapons
or in the battery's training records- That shortcoming resulted in unnecessary range
training for those personnel. Crew-gerved weapons test had even lower qualification
statistics.

LESSON LEARNED! Qualifying soldiers on their individual weapons prior to
deployment became a much bigger task than initially expected. The commitment of time
and resources to ranges during pre-deployment would have been better spent on collec-
tive training or actual deployment tasks.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Ranges for zeroing newly arrived soldiers must be conduct-
ed monthly as part of the inprocessing. Normal qualification ranges should be sched-
uled on a quarterly basis, with high soldier turnover accelerating the schedule to a
monthly basis. Ensure that a soldier's zero is properly recorded, both on the weapon
and in battery training records. Stress qualification statistics at quarterly train-
ing briefings.

20. ISSUE: Fort Bliss Directorate of Logistics fielded a weapon technical ingpee-
tion and repair team to assist units during pre-deployment. However, many repairs
invalidated weapon zeros and required additional range time for the weapon's owner to
re-zero.

DISCUSSION: The DOC team performed an excellent service with its repair of
individual and crew-gerved weapons at maintenance levels above Direct Support.
However, their schedule was set up to service those units departing first.- Since 3-
43 ADA did not fall into the early deployeeg, we scheduled numerous ranges to prepare
for deployment. Unfortunately, once we did receive DOL support, we discovered that
many of the repairs now required re-zeroing by that weapon's owner. Some soldiers
thus had to visit the range twice in close succession.

LESSON LEARNED: Attempt to schedule GS-level support on weapons very early in
the process. During our pre-deployme.nt process, we really had no choice other than
to send soldiers to the range again.

RECOMMEND ACTION: Schedule DOL support before the first range. Have a DOL
contact team present at the ranges, if possible. Be more aggressive in PMCS on
weapons, identifying al-I echelons of deficiencies on a regular basis and thus reduc-
ing the number of jobs surfaced during pre-deployment.

Document 24 f:/Week-32/BX000545/3-43D ADA AAR OPERATION DESERT SHIELD/3rd bn patriot 43rd ada rgmt aar opn des shield:09229712012712
Control Fields 17
File Room = aug97_declassified
File Cabinet = Week-32
Box ID = BX000545
Unit = ARCENT
Parent Organization = CENTCOM
Folder Title = 3-43D ADA AAR OPERATION DESERT SHIELD
Folder Seq # = 36
Subject = 3RD BN PATRIOT 43RD ADA RGMT AAR OPN DES SHIELD
Document Seq # = 1
Document Date =
Scan Date = 11-AUG-1997
Queued for Declassification = 18-AUG-1997
Short Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Long Term Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Permanent Referral = 01-JAN-1980
Non-Health Related Document = 01-JAN-1980
Declassified = 22-SEP-1997