The Riverine Range at Fort Knox became the mounted automatic weapons training facility for the Coast Guard 9th District in preference to an earlier site in the Great Lakes, and it has become crucial to the mission readiness of mounted automatic weapons carriage training requirements. A chill breeze blew through the Kentucky hills as the last rays of sunlight cast their golden rays over the Fort Knox small arms range and faded into darkness. The landscape stood silent other than the occasional coyote sniffing through the underbrush or the hoot of an owl on a far away ridge.