A citizen-solider with Georgia’s Counterdrug Task Force helped civilian law enforcement officers in late October become more proficient with the tools they use to "serve and protect."

Georgia Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Scott Carden was one of four firearms instructors who worked with 16 senior police officers from police departments across state who were looking for assistance through the Northwest Georgia Police Academy in Cave Spring. The training, which Carden touted as the first of its kind, was conducted at the Rome Police Training Center in Rome about 20 miles from the Academy. That’s because the academy, doesn’t have a firing range of its own, he said.

During the 5-day, 40-hour course, participants were instructed in the maintenance and cleaning of the M16 rifle, then moved on to basics of zeroing the rifle and precision marksmanship, Carden explained.

"From there, we took them through instruction how to keep their weapon secure while in close proximity to a suspect, how to fire while moving and from a stationary position," he continued. "They were also taught how to leave their patrol vehicles ready to fire should that situation ever present its self."

Carden said that, while the request for training had much to do with homeland security operations and today’s terrorist threat, it also had to with the shoot out a North Hollywood bank in Hollywood, Calif., in May 1997. It was during that incident that two well-armed robbery suspects wearing body armor took on Hollywood police that saw several officers and civilians wounded before the two men were brought down by police gunfire.