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BAUMHOLDER, Germany — It took the Bundeswehr soldiers from the German Joint Support Command nearly three hours to drive from their home station in Cologne, Germany, to the American weapons range, but they said the drive was well worth it.
Upon arriving at the Baumholder indoor marksmanship range Oct. 20, the 40 German soldiers tested their skills on two different U.S. weapon systems.
Soldiers from the 21st Theater Sustainment Command trained and certified their German allies on the U.S. Army’s M9 pistol and the M16 rifle. The Bundeswehr soldiers fired the pistol from the standing and kneeling positions. For the M16 rifle, they used the foxhole and kneeling positions.
Master Sgt. Danny Griffith, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the 21st TSC’s material readiness branch, talked about the significance of planning and sponsoring a partnership range.
“The benefit to the 21st TSC is that this range shows that we are not only able to do logistics but Soldiers skills also. This partnership shows other foreign armies that we do more than one thing; we can multitask,” he said.
The history of conducting partnership ranges between the 21st TSC and the German Joint Support Command dates back to 1996.
“We are very happy to be able to have the opportunity to train on American weapons – to be able to talk to each other and to understand one another a little bit more. In this case, we compare the procedures when shooting different weapons. It’s helpful to our partnership with the 21st TSC,” said Lt. Col. Jürgen Thiel, the commander of the staff quarter for the German Joint Support Command.
The 40 Bundeswehr soldiers were awarded U.S. Army marksmanship badges at the end of the training for their successful completion of the partnership range.
The German soldiers said they enjoyed training with the 21st TSC and hope to participate in more events with their partnership unit in the future.
