MT2 Firing Range Services provides the full scale of outdoor/indoor firing range maintenance/construction services at over 2,500 ranges nationwide for Law Enforcement, Military and Commercial ranges in all 50 states. We have recently been supporting the National Guard firing ranges in their initiative to get the lead off of their armory ranges.
The National Guard has always held high standards for the combat readiness of their troops. While their primary directive is to assist with situations at home, over the last two decades they have increasingly pushed for more involvement in also making sure Guardsmen support the broader military mission abroad whenever the extra support is needed.
This has the leadership constantly exploring new ways to keep combat readiness at the highest possible levels, balanced with the ongoing mission of the National Guard to protect our shores, assist with domestic natural disaster areas, stage rescue operations, and the countless other tasks we depend on them for on a daily basis.
Raising the Bar for Combat Readiness
The National Guard insists on an incredibly high standard of combat readiness, and those standards continue to get higher. This is embodied in their new initiative, Army National Guard 4.0, which pushes for an all-encompassing overhaul of training and deployment techniques.
The 4.0 plan seeks to turn combat-ready Guardsmen into a force capable of being deployed anywhere in or out of the United States borders at a moment’s notice, to efficiently execute combat and rescue operations with plans fully in place for as many situations as possible. Previously, the National Guard required 18 months to train for any deployments outside of the U.S.
This has congress and the National Guard working together to push for new training facilities around the country so Guardsmen can properly train for and even fully simulate the many unique circumstances they are now responsible to respond to.
In a story out of Washington, DC on April 12, 2017 Oregon’s Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden led a group of ten Senators calling on Senate Appropriations Committee leaders to dedicate adequate funding to cleaning up National Guard sites across the U.S. that have been contaminated by dangerous amounts of lead dust.
Keeping Guardsmen Safe in New Indoor Training Locations
With combat readiness as a top priority for the 4.0 National Guard overhaul, new indoor shooting facilities as well as renovated unused facilities are in constant use. With a major increase in use of these types of facilities, government and military entities are keeping an ever closer eye on making sure these types of facilities are properly equipped to manage hazardous lead dust and keep our Guardsmen safe.
The 4.0 training regimen has more Guardsmen training at once, more intensively, over a shorter timespan. That means potentially higher volumes of lead dust in each of these facilities than they have ever seen. No wonder managing lead dust properly is of particular interest for politicians looking to support this new rapid response training style!
Guardsmen use only very best experts in the space to examine each indoor firing space. A standard HVAC system will not necessarily handle lead dust up to the safety standards required. And, most crucially, proper lead contamination procedures need to be devised for each space, from proper attire to establishing practices for changing clothes and showering on-site.
With proper lead dust management, our National Guard will have no issue increasing the intensity of their firearms training techniques, while keeping Guardsmen safe and healthy in the process.
MT2 Firing Range Services has been working on the largest National Guard Armories impacted with lead for over a year. Our model of complete range lead reclamation, maintenance and design/build has been recognized as a model of success.
Range Engineers at MT2 are available to answer questions and schedule armory facilities for a lead decontamination package. This package includes a lead assessment with a comprehensive site-specific service audit with a work-plan for complete lead reclamation and recycling as well as a timeline for ongoing monitoring to comply with the order. We are also GSA approved
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