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Three Marines are Proud to Keep Guns Shooting Straight

by Lance Cpl. Bryan Eberly

When Marines are in a jam, Regimental Combat Team 5's armorers are proud to provide an answer.

Cpl. Angelo M. Stango, a 21-year-old armory chief with Headquarters Company, Regimental Combat Team 5, from Waterbury, Conn., finishes assembling a shotgun. The armors work all day everyday to ensure RCT 5's weapons are clean and functional. Most of the problems the armors see are caused by lack of cleanliness. (photo by Lance Cpl. Bryan Eberly)

The three armors with Headquarters Company, RCT 5, are in charge of the maintenance, cleanliness and ordinance of all weapons in the company. They also manage training for the company's Marines in weapons upkeep and use as well and introduce new weaponry.

"Whatever the company needs, we'll do what we can," said Cpl. Angelo M. Stango, a 21-year-old armory chief from Waterbury, Conn.

The armorers' main responsibility is to fix any weapon problems Marines bring them. They've seen a diverse amount of problems, and are rarely surprised anymore, Stango said.

"We once had a Marine who chambered a round backwards, and got it stuck in the barrel," he said. "Another time we had a machine gun melt and fuse into itself."

Even if the problem is as simple as a dirty weapon, the armors will never turn away a possibly dangerous weapon, Stango said.

"I'll never tell you to go away if I can possibly save your life or another Marine's life," he said. "Weapons care is a very serious thing."

"Most problems we see come down to cleanliness," said Cpl. Daniel W. Rains, a 25-year-old armorer from Thorndale, Texas. "I'd say 90 percent of the time it's a dirty weapon."

The armorers don't just work out of their shop on Camp Fallujah. They also go out on missions with the company in order to take care of problems on the spot, Stango said.

When the armors fix a problem, they teach the Marine involved exactly what they did, Stango added.

"We want them to learn so they don't break it again," Rains said.

That practice allows Marines to become less dependent on the weapons experts. They can fix their own problems.

"It allows the company to grow more independent from needing an armorer around, and only need us for serious trouble," Stango said.

Teaching Marines about weapons is a source of pure motivation for the armorers, Stango said.

"If I can teach Marines of all age, all gender, all race and all rank something they didn't know, or something new, I couldn't feel more fulfilled as a Marine," he said.

In the armory office, work can be hectic. At least one Marine mans the armory 24 hours a day in order to handle problems whenever they come up, Rains said.

"Sometimes nothing will happen all day," Stango said. "But when something comes up, usually everything comes up at once. It's like a cluster bomb."

"Several Marines will come in with problems, then the phone will ring and we'll have to go on a mission," Rains said.

"Two of us can be called onto a mission, while one of us stays at the office to deal with the problems in the armory," Stango said. "We never want to leave the armory unmanned, or else we'll need to close, and someone won't be helped."

On top of ensuring all weapons are clean, fixed and accounted for, the armorers also continuously prepare for redeployment and transfer of weapons to new units, Stango said.

"We don't want to leave this place an unorganized mess for the next regiment," he explained. "We want to be able to tell the new guys what they have, what they need, and where they can get help. We're not going to leave them in the dark."

"Fortunately, many of the problems have been dying down," Rains said. "We've seen less and less of the same problems since we started here."

The armors are glad to do their job, and are even gladder to help Marines out of a jam.

"We have a lot of pride in helping our fellow Marines, and we get praise for how much we help," Rains said. "Once we had an Army lieutenant say she was recommended our help by several Marines."

"I remember she said to us, 'Apparently, you guys rock,'" Stango added. "So, I guess we're doing a good job, and we'll happily keep working our hardest."