Outdoors with West Point Range Operations

By Keith J. Hamel, WPAOG staff

Whenit comes to West Point’s outdoor resources, nobody knows them better than Range Operations. “Everybody here loves being outdoors at West Point,” says Alec Lazore, the Range Manager for West Point Range Operations. “You love the outdoors if you have this job, or you soon learn to love it.” And there are certainly a lot of outdoor resources at West Point to love!

West Point Range Operations is responsible for the 14,000-acre West Point training complex. That’s nearly 22 square miles of uninhabited terrain west of the United States Military Academy. The complex includes eight mountains (and several hills), four lakes (and even more ponds), and miles of craggy dirt roads and tortuous trails that meander through wooded areas on the way to or from West Point’s various ranges and training sites. The West Point training complex is generally bisected by New York State Route 293, a six-and-a-half-mile highway running from U.S. Route 9W on the east to U.S. Route 6 on the west.

For those who love the outdoors and nature, the West Point training complex is nirvana. Given the changes in elevation coming off the southwest side of Storm King Mountain and the number of rocks dotting the terrain, waterfalls are not uncommon (such as the one at the south side of the Little Bog Meadow Reservoir). The views around the complex, such as the one to the northwest from the Verdun CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) specialty course site or the one to the east from Range 13: Pork Chop Hill (the mortar range), are also quite impressive. And for those who enjoy spying wildlife in their natural habitats, the West Point training complex is home to a wide variety of small-game and big-game animals: wild turkey, coyotes, fox (red and gray), white-tailed deer, ring-necked pheasants, Canadian geese, and several species of duck. Black bears have also been seen during various seasons of the year. Conservation, protecting wildlife and natural resources, is something near and dear to Range Operations, which takes great care to steward the sensitive environmental factors of the great outdoors surrounding West Point. For example, Range Operations crews work hard to keep firing lanes vegetated to reduce erosion, they establish deer browsing study plots that must not be disturbed, and they control the cutting of all trees, including small saplings, to assure adequate species are preserved to form the future training area forest. They also work closely with West Point’s Natural Resources Department, which is tasked with monitoring all the wildlife (fish and game) and forests on post.

“It’s quite nice being outdoors at the ranges,” says Lazore. “Plus, unlike going through the gate to the Academy, I never have to fight for a parking spot out here.”

Yet Range Operations is more than just natural outdoor beauty: its primary job is ensuring that all ranges and training courses are safe and functional for all training iterations. And with 17 live-fire ranges, 14 specialty training courses, and vast swaths of light maneuver areas in operation around the complex, there’s plenty to occupy the 16-man Range Operations crew throughout the year.

A look at a recent job posting for a Range Operations Controller easily demonstrates the importance of safety on the range complex. The “responsibilities” list for the job is packed with accountabilities such as “determine compliance with applicable safety standards,” “provide safety briefings,” “promote safety campaigns,” “utilize safety instructions,” and

“communicate with installation safety office regarding safety training requirements.”

“Safety is our No. 1 priority,” says John Quicksell, the Maintenance Supervisor for West Point Range Operations.

“Before every summer we conduct maintenance on all ranges and training courses, inspecting and repairing all facilities.” Summer, of course, is Range Operations busiest season. Range personnel work from 7:00am to 7:00pm seven days a week (and occasional nighttime hours) during the summer as USCC uses West Point’s ranges to conduct Cadet Basic Training, Cadet Field Training, and Cadet Leader Development Training. At the apex of summer training, for example, there could be new cadets learning to zero their weapons at Range 4: Inchon; rising yearlings conducting field artillery training at Range 2: Buena Vista; and upperclass cadets performing platoon-level operations at Range 16: the Aachen MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain) site.

“After Cadet Summer Training is done, we do a complete makeover on all ranges and training courses,” says Quicksell, “rebuilding shot-up berms [hardened earth surfaces that minimize ricochet and stop bullets], replacing lumber, repairing roads, and prepping the complex for the winter months.”

Being a subset of U.S. Army Garrison West Point, itself part of the larger U.S. Army Installation Management Command, Range Operations also supports Army units other than cadets. “We support training for the National Guard, Army Reserve, Army CID, FBI, MEDDAC, and even some ROTC units,” says Lazore. “We also support any training required for external Army units that rotate through West Point to assist with summer training.” In 2018, for example, Range Operations supported Task Force Falcon when its soldiers fired 84 mm rounds from the M3 Multi-role Anti-armor Anti-tank Weapon System on Range 7: Saratoga, the first time such ammunition had ever been fired at West Point’s ranges. According to West Point Regulation 350-11 (2015), the West Point training complex is open to all

Department of Defense activities, U.S. government agencies, and state and local government organizations. “West Point’s MWR [Morale, Welfare and Recreation] program runs an event at which grads with personally owned weapons are allowed to use Range 5: Gettysburg,” says Lazore. On average, Range Operations supports nearly 4,000 training events per year.

No matter what tenant or non-tenant unit is using the ranges at the training complex, it needs to provide a certified officer in charge (OIC) and a range safety officer (RSO), both of whom must be familiar with the provisions of West Point Regulation 350-11 and AR/DA Pam 385-63. On the first and third of each month, Range Operations holds a class to certify these OICs and RSOs for their eventual duties on the range. In addition to being certified in the weapon system for which they’re responsible and always being present at the range, OICs and RSOs have multiple duties, including determining when it’s safe to fire, establishing and maintaining required communications, and ensuring that adequate medical support is available. They also need to account for all the ammunition fired during their training event. “We track everything that goes ‘boom,’ ‘bang,’ ‘pop,’ or ‘pew,’” says Lazore, which amounts to 3.1 million rounds annually!

The Range Operations Fire Desk is manned to support all military training events. The Fire Desk uses computer software to keep track of all training events in “real time” as they are happening on the ranges, particularly noting which ranges are “hot” (i.e., firing weapons) and which are “cold.” The Fire Desk also monitors weather conditions and announces severe and hourly weather updates to the ranges. “Automated ranges must be closed immediately if lightning is in the area,” notes Lazore. The Fire Desk and Range Control also monitor any training accidents on the ranges, and the Range Operations Scheduler coordinates airspace over range complex to ensure that no aircraft is threatened by ammunition fire.

If these local safety measures were not enough, Bill Lake, Safety Officer for West Point Range Operations, says, “Ranges and training courses are periodically inspected by OSHA-certified engineers for safety.” The Pine Ridge Rappelling site and the Marne Confidence Course, for example, are inspected and loadtested annually to ensure that equipment will not fail during cadet summer training.

While summer is Range Operations’ busy season, there is plenty of activity the rest of the year to keep Lazore and his team occupied. According to Quicksell, Range Operations’ fall maintenance schedule is “very intensive.” Tons of sand, soil, gravel, mulch, and lumber are delivered to the training complex to replace what’s needed after the active summer months.

“During the winter months automated firing ranges begin a detailed maintenance period where stationary infantry targets are tested and stored in preparation for spring activities,” says Joseph Middlebooks, Range Scheduler for West Point Range Operations. There are approximately 500 of these $3,500 to $3,800 targets on the ranges, so testing them and storing them is a laborious process. In the spring, Range Operations prepares for and supports the Sandhurst Competition, when dozens of USCC, ROTC, sister academy and international teams descend on the training reservation for the two-day event, often using several of the ranges. Range 11: Normandy, for example, one of the oldest ranges at West Point (dating back to 1902), is often used to test Sandhurst teams’ marksmanship. “Upgraded in 2007 and modified several times since then, Range 11, with its computerized scoring, is also the most modern range at West Point and probably the best Record Fire Small Arms range in the entire Army,” says Lazore.

Beyond conducting just seasonal maintenance, throughout the year Range Operations is continually responding to emergency service orders to have training equipment repaired, replacing damaged lumber for obstacles, or (in conjunction with West Point’s Department of Public Works) removing downed trees blocking roads. Also, throughout the year, Range Operations will support USCC as cadets conduct training on West Point’s ranges as part of classroom instruction or DCA club activities, such as the Combat Weapons Team or Skeet & Trap Team (Range 10: Bastogne is specifically for this latter team). “Like everyone at West Point, we exist to support the cadets,” says Lake. In the past few years, Range Operations has assisted cadets with various capstone-like projects, including work with drones and high energy lasers, hydrology tests, radiological soil testing, M4 recoil reductions, astronomy observations, and even sensors for frog calls. While such support is important, the way Range Operations introduces cadets to the way things work in the “Big Army” may be even more important.

“During all training events, we teach cadets how to operate on any range in the U.S. Army,” says Lake. Range Operations works with cadets in planning their mission, challenging them on what may be missing in their OPORDs and what their risk assessments might be. “Everything we do here is doctrinal,” says Lake. “We show cadets how training on an Army range is supposed to be conducted.” By doing so, the staff of Range Operations plays a vital role for the nation: they are preparing the Army’s future platoon leaders for the units they will ultimately lead. As Lake puts it, “We are not only supporting their training, but we’re also teaching them.” And outdoors at the West Point ranges is a great classroom for these lessons. 