Service Members Participate in Winter Quick Shot 2012

AZUSA, Calif. (NNS) -- Service members from the Navy, Air Force, and Army participated in Winter Quick Shot 2012 from Feb. 12-24, a semiannual field exercise designed to train combat camera personnel to operate in a combat environment.

The two-week exercise trains military photographers to perform their duties while serving as a member of a tactical combat team. Students in the course attend weapons training and high-risk tactics classes. They are required to produce photos and edited videos each day during the second week of training.

Combat camermen from Fleet Combat Camera Group Pacific (FLTCOMBATCAMGRUPAC), one of the Navy's two dedicated combat camera units, also participated in a simulated assualt on a mock-terrorist campsite.

After rigorous days in the field, students were required to meet their daily imagery and video deadlines in about an hour and a half.

Chief Mass Communication Specialist (EXW/SW) Keith Jones served as Quick Shot's lead training facilitator for the fourth time. Jones, an Iraq war veteran, said he thinks Quick Shot is equal parts execution, test and testament. He said that the rapid pace of the training and the limited amount of time given to complete assignments tests a student's character.

"Nobody knows what a person's true character is until they're under some form of stress," said Jones. "When people start getting stressed [the question is] behind do they find something inside to keep them going, and actually continue to learn, or do they just go on auto-pilot and continue to coast at the same speed and just abuse themselves physically by loosing sleep."

Mass Communication Specialist 1st class (PJ) Michelle Turner, who will transfer to FLTCOMBATCAMGRUPAC, participated in Quick Shot. Turner said the she feels more prepared to assume her new role as a result of the training.

"It has definitely been beneficial to for me to attend Quick Shot and before coming to the command; it gives me a little taste of what I'm going to experience when I get there," said Turner. "It is really fast-paced with lots of intensive firearms techniques, learning to move and communicate as a team, mixed in with photography and video. I've been told its pretty close to real world."

Quick Shot is a Navy-led exercise but a few seats are reserved for other military branches' combat cameramen. Turner said the information sharing between services led to increased learning.

"Other branches who have brought their deployment experience to the table; that has been invaluable," said Turner. "When the different branches come together for something like this, we all end up learning more."

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Marcus Quarterman, assigned to 982nd Combat Camera Company, attended his first Quick Shot. Quarterman has spent six of the last 10 years deployed to combat zones around the world. No stranger to the sound of gunfire, Quarterman said he thinks that the most valuable portion of the training is exactly that.

"You are actually moving and you have targets that you have to engage," said Quarterman. "You are going to hear those gunshots going off and just hearing that, you aren't going to be surprised when you get down range. You are automatically going to know to take a knee, and assess what's going on around you."

Quarterman said that a cameraman's confidence with a with tactical movements and weapons handling will help them get access to jobs on deployment.

"When units see that you know that stuff, and that you aren't lost, they're going to be more willing to take you out with them," said Quarterman. "It helps out our entire community to have all branches know how to do basic movement techniques."

Tactical Firearms Training Team (TFTT) Director Max Joseph said he is confident that combat cameramen who graduate from TFTT's High Risk Tactics Training and Quick Shot are prepared to effectively deploy to combat zones.

"The tactics that we are teaching are time proven," said Joseph. "We work a lot with units that are down range on a regular basis. The feedback that we get continuously is that what we are teaching is spot on in helping these guys be effective and safe operators."

For more news from Fleet Combat Camera Group Pacific, visit www.navy.mil/local/fccgp/.