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CATM construction shoots for completion by August

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Tabatha Zarrella
  • 20th FIghter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  The combat arms shooting range is currently under re-construction and is forecasted to be completed by August 2015.

"The structure you see today dates back to 1998," said Tech. Sgt. Gary Chapin, 20th Security Forces Squadron CATM, NCO in charge of. "The work of the structure involved building concrete walls as on the side and installing the savage passive bullet trap (bullet recovery system)."

Recently, through a standardized test via the Environmental Engineering flight, lead exposure for the CATM instructors were higher than allowed in accordance with Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

"Due to the change with the rifle/carbine qualification course in 2011 from a standard 100 round course of fire to 196 round course of fire, the amount of lead exposure to the instructors was increased by 100 percent," said Chapin.

The once outdoor range will now be a completely enclosed range.

"The current firing range will be fully enclosed with a shell to ensure a single direction of air flow through the use of forced fresh air and an exhaust system to remove the lead particles in the air," said Chapin.

While the range is under construction, the classroom portion of the training will still be conducted in the classroom and then participants will be transported to Manchester State Forestry Firing range for live fire qualifications.

"This hasn't necessarily impacted the training or operation procedures," said Tech. Sgt. Ross Richwine, 20th SFS CATM assistant NCO in charge. "It's longer days, but as far as getting people trained, they get to where they need to be in order to relocate or deploy."

Through the process of re-construction of the CATM range, the health of those training and the instructors will no longer be affected keeping Team Shaw mission ready.