Training Camp of Ravenna
(Gallery by Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer)
By James Ewinger, The Plain Dealer on March 09, 2013 at 9:00 PM
CAMP RAVENNA, Ohio -- Without changing boundaries, the Ohio National Guard’s Camp Ravenna continued to expand its mission Saturday, as it opened a rifle range and a counter-improvised explosive device course.
The former Ravenna Arsenal is on the same 20,000-acre military reservation it has occupied for over 70 years. But it has been adding training facilities to live up to its designation as a Joint Military Training Center.
Put more simply, the complex that covers six communities in two counties used to produce ammunition. Now it teaches American troops how to expend ordnance and avoid getting wounded.
And it still has lots of room to grow. After dedication of the newest range and course, a bus carrying local dignitaries and members of the media passed open fields and dense woodlands. A lot of the original manufacturing buildings have been razed, though 694 concrete-and-earth storage buildings punctuate the landscape.
They were meant for storage of large artillery rounds and bombs and were spaced so a single explosion would not turn into a destructive chain reaction. Now they are mostly empty, said Sgt. Sarah Thompson, a public-affairs specialist at Camp Ravenna.
Pockets of soldiers could be seen maneuvering. Two deer visited the hand-grenade range that was not in use at the time, while a bold file of turkeys crossed the road in front of the bus.
The first event Saturday was dedication of the range. After a brief address, Brig. Gen John Harris led two other soldiers onto the range to christen it with the first shots. One of them was Command Sgt. Maj. Rodger Jones, the highest-ranking enlisted man in the Ohio National Guard.
Each squeezed off several rounds from M4 5.56 mm rifles, retrieved their targets and returned to where everyone else watched. They shot at what is called a known-distance range because soldiers need to qualify each year by hitting targets at
The Ohio National Guard's Camp Ravenna, a former ammunition producer, now helps to shape soldiers into more effective warriors.
Ohio National Guard upgrades training rangesBrigadier Gen. John C. Harris Jr., assistant adjutant general of the Ohio National Guard talks about the new rifle range and counter improvised explosive device range at the old Ravenna Arsenal in Portage County.Watch video specified distances.
Harris, assistant adjutant general of the Ohio National Guard, was asked how he did.
“Not as well as the sergeant major,” he said.
The range is the product of in-house construction that began last year, said Harris, who was born in Cleveland and has spent the last 31 years with the Oho National Guard. ÂÂ
He said the camp is open to other military personnel, as well as local, state and federal law enforcement and other safety forces.
Training opportunities include a structural collapsed simulator, that would be useful to civilian first responders as well as for Army’s combat engineers — anyone who might have to look for casualties amid rubble. The course is composed of lots of large stone and concrete fragments and some steel structures.
Harris said the camp allows for “Ohioans to train in Ohio.” It is, in fact, the largest training area in the Guard’s inventory.
Next stop was the counter-improvised explosive device course. A convoy of three High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles could be seen heading up a road toward the mass of military and civilian observers. But then blasts, followed by smoke, indicated the vehicles had come upon explosives.
The course is designed to train troops how to cope with improvised explosives. “The killing radius of a 155 mm round is 50 meters (162 feet),” said Lt. Col. Ed Meade, the camp commander. (2009 story)
The observers also milled around the beginnings of a small village, made of interconnected Connex storage boxes that can be hoisted on and off of truck and ships. It is not meant to represent a particular locale and allows soldiers to experience an urban environment both indoors and out.
(Gallery by Thomas Ondrey, The Plain Dealer)
By James Ewinger, The Plain Dealer on March 09, 2013 at 9:00 PM
CAMP RAVENNA, Ohio -- Without changing boundaries, the Ohio National Guard’s Camp Ravenna continued to expand its mission Saturday, as it opened a rifle range and a counter-improvised explosive device course.
The former Ravenna Arsenal is on the same 20,000-acre military reservation it has occupied for over 70 years. But it has been adding training facilities to live up to its designation as a Joint Military Training Center.
Put more simply, the complex that covers six communities in two counties used to produce ammunition. Now it teaches American troops how to expend ordnance and avoid getting wounded.
And it still has lots of room to grow. After dedication of the newest range and course, a bus carrying local dignitaries and members of the media passed open fields and dense woodlands. A lot of the original manufacturing buildings have been razed, though 694 concrete-and-earth storage buildings punctuate the landscape.
They were meant for storage of large artillery rounds and bombs and were spaced so a single explosion would not turn into a destructive chain reaction. Now they are mostly empty, said Sgt. Sarah Thompson, a public-affairs specialist at Camp Ravenna.
Pockets of soldiers could be seen maneuvering. Two deer visited the hand-grenade range that was not in use at the time, while a bold file of turkeys crossed the road in front of the bus.
The first event Saturday was dedication of the range. After a brief address, Brig. Gen John Harris led two other soldiers onto the range to christen it with the first shots. One of them was Command Sgt. Maj. Rodger Jones, the highest-ranking enlisted man in the Ohio National Guard.
Each squeezed off several rounds from M4 5.56 mm rifles, retrieved their targets and returned to where everyone else watched. They shot at what is called a known-distance range because soldiers need to qualify each year by hitting targets at
The Ohio National Guard's Camp Ravenna, a former ammunition producer, now helps to shape soldiers into more effective warriors.
Ohio National Guard upgrades training rangesBrigadier Gen. John C. Harris Jr., assistant adjutant general of the Ohio National Guard talks about the new rifle range and counter improvised explosive device range at the old Ravenna Arsenal in Portage County.Watch video specified distances.
Harris, assistant adjutant general of the Ohio National Guard, was asked how he did.
“Not as well as the sergeant major,” he said.
The range is the product of in-house construction that began last year, said Harris, who was born in Cleveland and has spent the last 31 years with the Oho National Guard. ÂÂ
He said the camp is open to other military personnel, as well as local, state and federal law enforcement and other safety forces.
Training opportunities include a structural collapsed simulator, that would be useful to civilian first responders as well as for Army’s combat engineers — anyone who might have to look for casualties amid rubble. The course is composed of lots of large stone and concrete fragments and some steel structures.
Harris said the camp allows for “Ohioans to train in Ohio.” It is, in fact, the largest training area in the Guard’s inventory.
Next stop was the counter-improvised explosive device course. A convoy of three High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles could be seen heading up a road toward the mass of military and civilian observers. But then blasts, followed by smoke, indicated the vehicles had come upon explosives.
The course is designed to train troops how to cope with improvised explosives. “The killing radius of a 155 mm round is 50 meters (162 feet),” said Lt. Col. Ed Meade, the camp commander. (2009 story)
The observers also milled around the beginnings of a small village, made of interconnected Connex storage boxes that can be hoisted on and off of truck and ships. It is not meant to represent a particular locale and allows soldiers to experience an urban environment both indoors and out.