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Gunsmith shop gets new name, command

  • Published
  • By James Coburn
  • 37th Training Wing Public Affairs
After 48 years of operations at Lackland under the Air Training or Air Education and Training Command, the U.S. Air Force Gunsmith Shop is getting a new name and realigning under the Air Force Materiel Command.

The 11-member unit is now the U.S. Air Force Gunsmith Integrated Product Team, and it's remaining in secure bunker facilities at Lackland Training Annex.

The realignment makes sense, since AFMC has been the shop's approving authority for more than 30 years. The team now is under the 542nd Armament Sustainment Group, Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins Air Force Base, Ga., but they do Air Force-wide weapons projects.

For example, the first project among 14 listed on a chalk board beside the team superintendent's desk is from the Air Force Space Command for a modification so that M-4 and M-16A2 rifles cannot fire a live round when they are supposed to be firing blank rounds.

Master Sgt. Ruben Lucio, the superintendent, said this team is one-of-a-kind. "We have repair, modification, development and technical skills that no other Air Force unit has."
Sergeant Lucio said the Gunsmith IPT's new mission statement is: "Provide weapons sustainment and technical solutions for ground-fired small arms supporting the U.S. Air Force Small Arms Program through rapid response." He said the arms include rifles, pistols, grenade launchers, shotguns and machine guns.

Joel Layton, a contractor brought on board by the AFMC as logistics manager to work the unit's transition from AETC, said Gen. Curtis LeMay established the U.S. Air Force Marksmanship Center at Lackland in early 1958 following incidents in Korea which showed a need for all Air Force personnel to undergo small arms training.

Mr. Layton, who retired last summer as a senior master sergeant and the Air Force Combat Arms Program manager at Headquarters Air Force Security Forces Center here, said the Marksmanship Center was the start of the combat arms and gunsmith career fields. The shop was in its peak in the early 1960s when it had 64 competitive gunsmiths to work on all the shooting teams' weapons, said Bill Moore, now the Gunsmith IPT's only certified gunsmith. He said the Air Force had 20- to 30-man teams for rifle, pistol and shotgun competitions. Competitors had their own Air Force Specialty Code, he said, and their only job was to practice shooting and compete.

"In their heyday, the early to late 1960s, nobody could beat the Air Force Shooting Team," Mr. Moore said. "They were rock solid, some of the best shots anywhere. In Olympic competition, the Air Force was always there. They set records the Air Force still holds today."

Those days are long gone, he said, since an AFSC change required shooters to man a job and competitive shooting became an extracurricular activity.

Mr. Moore still does work on guns for various Air Force teams when they need his expertise, including making aluminum stocks for the international .22-caliber rifle shooters, working on AR-15s for the high-power rifle teams and doing all the .45-caliber work for the pistol teams.

In the larger shop area, Staff Sgt. Brendan McGloin was sanding a wooden stock he was making for a Remington .308-caliber rifle for training purposes. The gun could be used for competition or by a sniper, he said.

Sergeant McGloin said he was working on cutting vibration of the barrel by bedding it in the stock with a compound that seals itself around the barrel and keeps it from moving.
"This is getting into the physics of it," the combat arms specialist said, "but any barrel that fires, when it shoots, it whips. So what this does, by bedding it, it makes sure that every time that barrel shoots a round, it always returns to the exact same spot. So when you shoot, it's more accurate."

In another area of the shop, Staff Sgt. Kevin Payne, a machinist, was working on an M240B machine gun feed tray. A piece of metal is being added to the tray, making it smaller, so that it accepts only blank cartridges, which are shorter than the live rounds.

The modification was requested by the Expeditionary Operations School at McGuire AFB, N.J. Only prototypes have been made so far, and they will be test-fired to see which prototype feeds the blanks the best before production begins, Mr. Layton said. Training units and technical schools Air Force-wide will probably request the improvement, he said.

Back in the vault area, Staff Sgt. Timothy Nesbitt, a combat arms specialist, explained an unrelated project involving the M240B. After several incidents throughout the Air Force with M240Bs experiencing serious failure, procedures were developed to inspect the guns. Sergeant Nesbitt is responsible for validating those results. The Air Force stopped using the M240Bs that didn't pass the new standards. The Air Force is awaiting the Army's final decision of whether they will replace the "defective weapons" or develop new measurement criteria. The Army is redesigning the buffer system, which was the cause of the failures.

The team also supports the U.S. Air Force General Officers 9 mm Personal Defense Program, in which retiring generals purchase pistols blued and polished to a high sheen. Recently retired Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper autographed a picture of him and his 9 mm Beretta with wooden grips handmade by the team, saying: "To the USAF Gunsmith Shop with thanks for all you do for our great Air Force."