On a make-shift firing range in the desolate desert, soldiers continue training to keep their skills sharp.

12:51 PM EDT on Friday, May 13, 2005

BY JOEL RAWSON
Executive Editor

SAMARRA, Iraq -- The Thursday sky is dull gray and the wind rips as the five soldiers of Team 3 fire their weapons into a huge pit bulldozed out of the Iraqi desert.

Journal photo / John Freidah

Members of the Rhode Island National Guard 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment, from left, Sgt. Chet Crowell, 35, of Cranston, Spc. Douglas Leon, 24, of Providence, and Spc. Christopher Neuenfeldt, 21, of Newport, practice using their weapons yesterday at a base near Samarra, Iraq.

Even in the middle of a war, the men of the Rhode Island National Guard train.

Sgt. Robert Carrigg, of Merrimack, N.H., runs the drill.

"Who goes first?" Carrigg says.

"I'll go first," says Specialist Douglas Leon, of Providence.

"You need two, six-round magazines," Carrigg says.

Carrigg, Leon and Specialist David Santos, of Kearny, N.J., kneel in the dirt and shuck the 30 bullets out of full magazines and reload them with only six.

Leon is armed with a light version of the old M-16 rifle with a shorter barrel and a better sight. It's easier to carry in a vehicle, better in tight places like inside houses because you can swing it faster, and if you're walking, light is right. It fires a 5.56mm bullet, a relatively small cartridge but with a high impact. The bullets, too, were designed to be light.

"You want me to go?" Leon asks.

"Yeah."

He starts at a standing position, fires two shots, runs, kneels, fires again, runs, stands, fires two shots. His rifle is empty. He reloads by swapping the empty magazine for another with six rounds, runs, kneels and fires again.

Inside the rifle sight, which looks like a small telescope, there is a red dot of light. The bullets hit where the shooter puts the dot. Some of the weapons have scopes that work with infrared at night.

Each time Leon gets a hit, there is a clang. The targets are yard- square sheets of steel that the team propped up at the far end of the pit.

Santos goes next. He is armed with a SAW, which is short for Squad Automatic Weapon. It is a light machine gun that fires 5.56mm ammunition linked in a belt and fed from a drum on the gun.

He does the same drill as Leon, firing two bursts at each stop. If he holds the trigger down too long, the strike of the bullets will go off target, rising and going to the right, so the bursts are short.

Dust kicks up around the targets.

The men of the 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment are dressed in their helmets and body armor, with web gear worn over the armor. The web gear holds ammunition pouches and other equipment the men need to keep on their body. When they run, it's more of a fast shuffle than a sprint.

The clouds and wind keep the temperature at a reasonable level but the desert is still hot, the earth a dead gray-brown and the patches of grass a dry yellow. To the west, constant traffic moves along a main supply route: big trucks in convoys guarded by small Humvees, single trucks, an occasional car.

Carrigg runs the drill, followed by Sgt. Chet Crowell, of Cranston. The last to go is Sgt. Wayne Lynch, of Tewksbury, Mass.

One of the weapons they carry is a combination of a rifle and a grenade launcher. The grenade launcher's projectiles are 40mm, bigger than a golf ball, smaller than a tennis ball.

The launcher fires out to 250 to 300 meters and the explosives have a five-meter burst radius.

The grenades come in different types, such as high explosive, smoke, and illumination. Smoke grenades mark targets or blind the enemy; illumination grenades are used for light at night. The grenades are painted different colors for quick identification. Practice rounds are painted blue.

Carrigg carries grenades in a belt around his waist, which makes him look like a gun slinger with huge bullets.

Each man runs the firing drill several times.

Two UH-60 helicopters come in low from the east and everybody yells to "cease fire" until the helicopters pass.

Carrigg is called on his Humvee's radio. He has to go back for a team leaders' meeting.

LYNCH TAKES OVER and sets up for the next drill, called the "glass house." Two plywood target boards, with two-by-fours laid on the ground, are used to create the rough approximation of a small room with a door. The plywood boards are already shot to pieces.

Four of the men line up, hugging the outside "wall" of the house.

Lynch goes to the door and counts off by raising his fingers -- one, two, three -- and kicks in an imaginary door. The others rush in, peeling off right and left. The kicker follows them in.

The first time they do it, they go in pointing their fingers like kids playing guns, yelling "Bang. Bang." The next time, they run it with unloaded weapons pointed in front of them. They do it over and over with unloaded weapons.

If they do it for real, there is no telling who will be on the other side of the door. It might be a farmer's family of frightened women and children. Or it might be a Jihadist with an AK-47 assault rifle.

"The big thing," Crowell says, is "weapons discipline."

"Everybody comfortable?" Lynch asks. He is getting ready for live fire.

"Everybody got that? No matter which way you come in, you're going to shoot straight." He means straight down the range.

When he thinks they are ready, Lynch asks again if they are comfortable. The next time they go in, they shoot. They fire at sandbags.

The air briefly smells of gunpowder until the wind blows it away.

They line up again outside the "door."

Sgt. Josh Heywood, of Johnston, goes on leave in a few days.

Specialist Christopher Neuenfeldt, of Newport, needles him, saying something about booking a wedding chapel.

Sergeants outrank specialists and Heywood orders Neuenfeldt to do flutter kicks. As he lies on his back in the dirt kicking, Neuenfeldt laughs and says, "It was worth it. It was worth it."

CARRIGG RETURNS from the team leaders' meeting and the drill immediately tightens up.

"It's going to be a lot more dynamic," Carrigg tells them. "There won't be time to set. As soon as you go through the door, gun up."

He demonstrates, going straight at the door with his rifle already tucked to his shoulder. He has them run it. He calls for criticism. He points out faults. He has them run it again and again.

Sgt. Justin Hunt, of Troy, N.Y., leader of Team 2, calls his people over. Earlier in the day yesterday, there were reports of a highway bombing and of a 3rd Infantry Division soldier being gravely wounded.

Hunt says the wounded soldier was a turret gunner on an up-armored Humvee, like the ones driven by the 173rd. From now on, he tells his people, the orders are for the gunners to sit low inside the hull while traveling on the highways. Out in the desert, it's OK to ride standing with your head up, but on the highways where the threat is high, ride inside.

Better to be safe, Carrigg says.

The bombers' war, the terrorists' war, puts the soldiers on the defensive. All the training is in hopes of taking the initiative and going after them.

Digital Extra: Find reports and photos from Iraq by Journal executive editor Joel Rawson and staff photographer John Freidah, on assignment with the 173rd Long Range Surveillance Detachment of the Rhode Island National Guard, at:

http://projo.com/extra/2005/iraq/rawson/