Recruits get familiar with military ways early
Local military recruits are getting a head start on their future careers thanks to the Duke Museum of Military History, recruiters, and manufacturers.
The special training is designed to ready the privates for basic training, and their May session saw them learn the ins and outs of handling guns.
The museum — in Rome at 110 E. 8th Ave. — houses genuine war relics and still-functioning items. With everything from uniforms to weapons found inside, the building offers a quality setting for training.
“The whole museum here is run by Mr. Wesley Duke,” Sergeant First Class Keith Doucette said. “He’s an old army vet himself, so it’s a non-profit museum. Came in here and just had a group meeting about a month or two ago with some future soldiers. Everything in here from civil war to the current times is functioning or was actually off the battlefield.”
Doucette, interested in the location, got permission from Duke and began hosting meet-ups and training sessions with recruits. After writing a statement of understanding, businesses began offering supplies for firsthand experience.
“I personally donated some things from my service, so we started talking,” Doucette mentioned. “We agreed to it, so I wrote up a statement of understanding, and we started sending it off to manufacturers, to companies that supply arms and equipment. Basically, with us working together, we’ve been able to get some companies to join in- obviously nonprofit.”
The M-4 gun was the recruit’s first challenge of the day. Avoiding injuring oneself and others takes a solid understanding of gun control, so the recruiters wasted no time teaching the group how to do safety checks.
“We’re going to go down the list of basic things to do on the M-4 itself,” Doucette said. “How to tell if its safe, functions checks, how to attach and detach the bayonet, how to get a proper sight picture, how to zero your weapon.”
Learning the ins and outs of the M-4 is just one step in the overall training, however.
“We’re going to rotate programs,” Doucette said. “We start with the M-4, rotate up to the machine guns, and practice maintaining and performing checks on vehicles, so when they actually show up, they’re a step ahead.”
Many recruits had a solid understanding of gun control initially, but none left without learning something new. Those interested in learning more about the military or being recruited can contact Doucette via email at keith.e.doucette.mil@mail.mil, by office at (706) 235-0025, or by fax at (706) 235-0052.