What would you do if your Sergeant didn't know how to load a magazine?

That is a good idea.

LOL. It would make us look bad.

SSG (Join to see), what would you do if you were the RSO and saw one of your range personnel operating a smart phone when he's supposed to making sure that the firing line is ready?

1LT William Clardy, excellent question. I was wondering if someone would notice that aspect of it. I would approach the Safety and inquire what is going on. I would react appropriately depending on the circumstances and his answer. Regarding this particular situation, I would have pulled the SGT (still NOT calling her an NCO) off the line, verbally counseled her and sent her to remedial training. I would also inform the Safety his phone needs to be put away and not used since his duties as a Safety are critical to the safe operation of a range. I would also thank him for being diligent and assertive in dealing with the clearly untrained SGT. Thoughts?

I would have shushed both of them off the firing line, her to get some overdue training in loading techniques and him to get a one-on-one rebriefing on what his duties and priorities are supposed to be while he is on my firing line. If I knew him well enough to judge that this was an out-of-character lapse, I'd send him back to the firing line after (1) suggesting he practice the "mutual respect" aspect of communicating with a peer a little better, (2) reminding him that preserving safety and training quality is even more critical when dealing with untrained personnel, (3) instructing him to deposit his phone with my range NCOIC (to be reissued only after the range had gone cold for the day) and (4) having him pick up some stripper-clip guides from the ammo point to distribute along the firing line. If I didn't have reason to believe he already knew better than to whip out that phone, I'd pull him off the line, confiscate his phone and inform him that he could fetch it back from his first sergeant after I got back to the cantonment area. Harsher than your suggestion, but I think reasonably so. Your thoughts?

As to not calling the firer an NCO, well, she is one whether you think she should be or not. I learned that lesson as a corporal when I didn't manage to keep a grimace-free face while I was at battalion headquarters (1-501 INF, not some support unit) as a master sergeant pontificated about how all this marksmanship stuff was a waste of time because he never once aimed his rifle during the firefights he was in (in Vietnam). As I recall, the battalion CSM and my first sergeant both agreed with the master sergeant that a corporal should always show proper respect to a senior NCO (although I do vaguely remember somebody rephrasing it later on as "he's an E-8 first and an idiot second" along with some caustic comments about foul moods caused by getting stuck with having to endorse an idiot -- I learned more than one lesson that day).

1LT William Clardy, I can agree with your COA although IMVSO I think it is a little harsh. Regardless of my feelings and personal COA though, if it was you (as the OIC) approaching both Soldiers then I (as either the RSO or NCOIC) would definitely support and back you up.

Regarding the NCO bit, I stand by my assessment of the SGT. Yes, she is in technical essence an NCO but I would NOT call her that since she has failed to act and behave as a Noncommissioned Officer, which is to be the immediate leadership of and set the example for the junior enlisted. ANY Service-member who does not know the very basics of BRM should definitely NOT be in the NCO or Petty Officer ranks. I am not saying they need to be experts in Marksmanship let alone with military grade firearms but they should know the very basics which many learn for the first time in basic training. A person may "hold" the rank of SGT, or SSG, or SFC, etc (or the equivalent in sister branches) but that does NOT mean they are NCOs by any means especially when they don't know the basics.