Examination And Smell Of Gunpowder In The ‘Snow Desert’

The military training ground and shooting range in Dóc have turned from sand desert to ’snow desert’ overnight. At least this is what the soldiers tell us when we run into them at the military training base near the small village in Csongrád county. During his last attack, General Winter has covered the vast plain with a blanket of snow some 10 centimetres thick, even though one day ago birds were twittering when the soldiers arrived, and there were already a few opening snowdrops among the thorny shrubs…

But life does not stop in the shooting range because of the winter weather that is unusual in the middle of March. Although with minor modifications, but every training task that has been set can be performed – we are told by Brigadier General Dr. Gábor Böröndi, the commander of the Debrecen corps, who has come today to check the work of his ’sons’ and ’daughters’.

For we can say that during these days almost every soldier of the Bocskai brigade is either on the training ground or the firing range of the corps. Only those troops have stayed behind in Kossuth barracks in Debrecen and Zrínyi barracks in Hódmezõvásárhely who are essential to the maintenance of daily life and performance of duties. The others have been given tasks in the shooting range in Hajdúhadház or the one in Dóc.

At a rough estimate there are hundreds of soldiers on the Dóc shooting range the nickname of which is sand desert on ordinary days. What the reporter sees is a bit chaotic for the outsider but naturally, here everything is done according to plans agreed in advance, clear scenarios, in a well-organized way. The troops are moving in formation from one training place to the other, we hear gunshots in the distance, and up there the warriors are standing round the combat vehicles with rubber tyres…

The brigade has several very important tasks in 2010 – tells us Gen. Böröndi after he has listened to the report of the infantry battalion commanders in the field. – One of these tasks is the so-called NATO CREVAL inspection of battalion combat groups based on infantry battalions No. 1 of Debrecen and No. 5/62 dislocated in Hódmezõvásárhely. The combat teams have started the preparations for the inspection in the first days of January, together with the CIMIC-PSYOPS (Civil-Military Cooperation and Psychological Operations), HUMINT (human intelligence in the battlefield), reconnaissance, engineering, chemical protection and anti-aircraft moduls. CREVAL stands for Combat Readiness Evaluation of Land Headquarters and Units, which means the survey and evaluation system of the deployment readiness of battalion-level land units offered and selected for allied operations led by the NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe – says the commander, who also tells us that last year there was already a national CREVAL inspection at the 1st battalion. One of the deficiencies the inspection has revealed is that on a few occasions, the turret gunners of the BTR combat vehicle crew did not use their weapons properly. Therefore the command of the brigade has ordered a specialist training for the troops.

This special preparation began on the first day of February at the brigade – we are told by Major János Gacsal, the leader of the training division of the 1st infantry battalion – and every soldier who is a member of the combat vehicle crews or plans to join them in the near future has to participate. The objective is to teach the personnel everything about the professional operation of weapons on BTR–80 and BTR–80/A combat vehicles in daylight and – with the help of night vision devices – at night.

Seventy soldiers have started the training back in Hajdúhadház. During the first week they were refreshing what they had learned in theory about BTR–80s, which was followed by combat vehicle target shooting with the 14.5 mm KPVT and 7.62 mm PKT machine guns on the vehicle. On the third week, the personnel did the same with BTR–80/A combat vehicles and 14.5 mm machine guns. Since the shooting range in Hajdúhadház is not suitable for firing 30 mm 2A72 turret cannons, in the last week of the preparation they have moved to Dóc.

– In the sand desert there were two target practices awaiting the personnel – Major Gacsal tells us – turret gunners had stationary target practice and and they also had to fight the target groups with so-called short stops in daylight and at night. The preparation ends with an exam, where soldiers have to demonstrate what they have learned in theory and practice and they have to do it before a strict board of examiners. The commander of the brigade has come to see this exam.

– The target shooting in Dóc will be followed by the deployment of troops in Táborfalva in the last week of March and the first week of April, where the most important tasks will be team building in squads and platoons, target shooting for the services, antitank and mortar units – says Gen. Böröndi. For the 5/62 battalion, this will be the ’home straight’ of the CREVAL inspection, for on April 26 they will start redeployment to the ’zero point’ shooting range near Veszprém. The ’final countdown’ for the inspection between May 17 and 19 will also start on that day.

Everything almost coincides with exercise Clever Ferret 2010, the most important training event of the Hungarian Defence Forces this year, where the battalion stationed in Hódmezõvásárhely will also have a role, but following the international exercise, there will be more tasks. Gen. Böröndi tells us that the personnel of the unit will be ‘divided’ and they will prepare for missions. The 5/62 will provide the basis of the ninth rotation of the Hungarian Provincial Reconstruction Team (HDF PRT) and the majority of staff officers who will travel to Afghanistan will be selected from the Vásárhely unit. The preparation of the PRT is already in progress under the command of Colonel Péter Lippai, the chief of staff of Bocskai brigade, who will be the commander of the rotation according to the plans.

The infantry company and the special operations team as well as the water purification and CIMIC units offered for the fifteenth rotation of the NRF (NATO Response Force) will start their preparations in the same period. The infantry company is also based on the 5/62 battalion and the commander of the rotation will be the ’first man’ of the unit, Major Balázs Szloszjár…

At the moment the personnel of the PRT and the NRF are practicing special, so-called peacekeeping target shooting together here in the firing range of Dóc – says Major Szloszjár. He also tells us that as opposed to traditional target shooting, this training has a different objective. The aim of the troops is – by causing non-lethal injuries – to disable those who are facing them in a live situation.

During these target practices they use anatomical targets. There are various colours for the body parts on the target figures schematising the human body, and during peacekeeping target shooting the troops can hit only the limbs, the colour of which is blue. Those who fire at the red head or trunk will fail.

The personnel have to carry out these tasks with their regular pistols and automatic rifles as well – the major tells us – moreover, machine gunners and marksmen have their own special tasks. The former have to fire at targets imitating an approaching vehicle but they must hit nothing else but the wheels in order not to cause lethal injuries to the passengers sitting inside. The task of the marksmen is to identify the most aggressive people in a crowd and disable them. In their case, the anatomical targets are placed among traditional metal plates and they also have to aim at the limbs. This is not always an easy task…

In the shooting range there are soldiers who are not preparing for the Afghanistan mission or the NATO Response Force. They are the non-infantry units of the battalion who also practice target shooting. The troops of the logistic company and the support company – even though in a live situation they have other duties – have to be familiar with this activity as well, therefore they must also practice target shooting – says Major Szloszjár, who accompanies us to the firing point and explains us what it is exactly that we see.

– Naturally, the battalion combat group based on the 1st infantry battalion is also preparing for the CREVAL inspection which will begin in September in their case. Following that, the preparation of the tenth PRT rotation and the fourth KFOR rotation, based on the core of the unit, will begin – says Brigadier General Böröndi, who is also watching the squad-level target shooting practice of the troops of the support company. Upon hearing the orders of the squad commander, the troops open fire at the targets that are hundreds of metres away.

The sound of the automatic rifles are bursting our eardrums. The air is thick with the ‘scent of the shooting range’, that is the smell of gunpowder that cannot be mistaken for anything else. And it is still snowing…