COB ADDER, Iraq – The sergeant strides back and forth on the dirt mound, his eyes watching the shooters around him. He adjusts a body position here, makes a suggestion there, pushes in an elbow.
Sgt. 1st Class Jason Guinn, 30, the operations sergeant for Task Force Diablo, puts his years of experience to work when helping Soldiers qualify with their M16, M4 or M9 personal weapons.
During the two days in November that “E” Company, 1st Battalion, 104th Aviation Regiment ran the marksmanship qualification range on Contingency Operating Base Adder, Guinn was on the job.
He served for four years on active duty as a Marine before joining the Army National Guard.
“We don’t spend enough time on PMI (Preliminary Marksmanship Instruction),” said Guinn. “In the Marines we moved out to the range for two weeks every year. We would spend a full week just practicing different firing positions.”
Guinn serves full-time in the Army National Guard and plans to work as a readiness sergeant in the 28th Combat Aviation Brigade after this deployment. At the moment, he serves the additional duties of master weapons and master marksmanship instructor for the 28th CAB.
During his service with the Marines from 1997 to 2000 Guinn was a master marksmanship instructor.
“In the Marines, marksmanship can be a primary duty. In the Army, it is always an additional duty,” said the Enola, Pa., native.
In addition to weapons training in the Marines, Guinn received six months of advanced weapons instruction from several Army schools, including the five-phase Master Weapons Instructor School, which he completed in 2004.
Guinn is currently on his third deployment. He went to East Timor with the Marines in 1998 and Kosovo with “B” Company, 1st Battalion, 104th AR from 2005 to 2006 before his current tour with TF Diablo, part of TF Keystone.
“Practice makes perfect” in marksmanship as in many areas of life, Guinn said.
He has earned the “Governor’s Twenty” tab for marksmanship and competed in international events, and is especially proud of being a member of the team that beat the highly rated Italian Special Forces team.
