kBob
Member
I would like to discuss military Basic Rifle Marksmanship.
I do not wish t discuss the importance to strategy of BRM or whether or not time and tax payer money should be spent on it, but what it is, was, and might be.
I will say that for me non military marksmanship training began before starting public school and involved a Daisy BB gun and empty Lucky Strikes ciggerette packs with their big round circle on the side.
This was followed with in weeks by a Daisy Targeter BB pistol and the same target.
Fast forward two years and there was a .22 rifle. I am reluctant to include the shotguns BUT they did make it easier to use a military sight free system later.
By the time I was 14 I was sure I was a dead eye shot with the rifle.
Then I received my first military training courtesy of JROTC in the public schools.
The people who taught me had been light weapons Infantrymen and wore the Combat Infantry badge earned in places like North Africa, Italy, a beach in Normandy and across Europe to the German home land, and places encircled by the Pacific Ocean, a Peninsula some called Chosen and even a little strip of coastal land leading up to mountains called Vietnam.
Interestingly they all thought or at least indicated to us that the ability to shoot and hit what was shot at was the cornerstone of being an Infantryman.
We spent hours learning about sight alignment and sight picture, BRASS, positions and trigger control and then finally went to the range. Every Cadet fired about 120 rounds in training under fairly close supervision and then fired a Quarter course 50 foot three position for score.
The improvement of every cadets shooting was noticeable. The Instructors had allowed us to bring in our .22 rifles very early on and all could see we had done much better with the Remington 513T rifles than we had with our whatevers and most could shoot their whatevers better after the training.
We later did dry firing with M-1s and later M-14s and a very few of us actually fired those rifles. Eventually a few M-16A1 were provided and all got to handle the rifles and dry fire and learn the mechanics of those.
By the time I got to Basic training as an enlisted man I have to admit I actually had a decent handle on rifle marksmanship.
I was already a worshiper at the alter of the Front Sight and the Covinent of Sueeze'm Off when I was hearded into a big wooden hanger affair and told to sit at a table with Uncles M-16A1 upon it.
It was pretty much a repeat of high School, but with an M-16A1 instead of a 513T. I got my very first thwack with a cleaning rod with in minutes of entering the room. The Instructor on stage was speaking of how we were to today learn the parts of the M-16A1 and how to disassemble and reassemble it. It was at this point that the Assistant Instructor walking our table row noted my rifle fully broken down and laid out properly for parts inspection.
Being a quick learner and noting those cleaning rods sting mightily across the shoulders I decided I would actually pay attention to what was going on.
What I saw is what I still think can be the MOST effective method of teaching and though called other things basically the Boy Scouts EDGE system that all scouts learn today.
They Explained what they were going to teach us. They Demonstrated how the tasks were to be done. They Guided us through the steps and they allowed us to Experience doing the task correctly and practice it until we mastered it.
This mechanical training made us each very comfortable with the rifle. We carried the rifles every where even though we were not yet using them for anything but mechanical training.
One day we were told to draw weapons and fall in with full field gear. We road march a couple of miles and soon arrived at an area we were told to set up our tents in. After lunch we were directed to bleachers.
We received a new Instructor who explained to us we would be learning to shoot from a supported prone position so that we might soon be able to zero our rifles. There followed some demonstrations and illustrations and then a humorous skit involving one of our Hispanic instructors making an appearance apparently drunk to staggering, wearing his Sunday suit loking as though it was slept in with **** tails out and buttons done wrong and his Drill Baby Campaign hat. Actually he did some amazing shooting, but he also demonstrated what our rifles could do to Helmets, concrete blocks, and ammo cans full of water. This last served to make us all acutely aware that these rifles were not toys and to be darned careful.
We spent the net three days on NOTHING but Basic Rifle Marksmanship. We would do additions range days over the remaining weeks, where we got to try shooting from the fighting positions (in the form of a concrete pipe we stood in with te top level with the ground and a few sand bags for support) and supported kneel from telephone poles. We spent a few hours shooting with out sights taped over so we had to learn to look over the rifle and point shoot from seven to 25 yards (and a few shots like that while walking were part of the qualification) and we learned to fire the rifle in short bursts from the prone with a bipod or just over a sand bag, sometimes with a protective mask on and once at night at targets 25 and 50 meters away.
Near the end of our eight weeks of Basic Training which every soldier, even cooks and clerks and mechanics and tankers went through we went to "Combat Valley" where a buddy team of two guys at a time advanced up the valley supporting one another with live fire on targets appear from 25 to 200 meters away.
So at the end of eight weeks every guy, regardless of whether he might never pick up a rifle again had learned to shoot and hit what he aimed at. Every one passed out of Basic training having displayed the ability to hit half the targets, plus one, that appeared from seven to 300 meters away with three seconds per target exposure.
Remember their are folks on THR that insist that by the end of the VN war that marksmanship was not important. This was then.
Those of us that got sent out to earn a blue shoulder rope to qualify for a place at the pointy end would get additional training, mainly more of the same but also more full auto fire, more un aided night fire, night fire under flares, the use of Night vision scopes, and live fire in up to platoon operations (where I got to see my second military gunshot wound, first having been acciedental self inflicted by a guy talking to me through his foot, what an idiot).
I would go through BRM again in 1976 when I managed to get into college ROTC introduction Camp another eight weeks that included over a week of marksmanship in one form or another.
In 1980 I went through ROTC advanced Camp and found that not all colleges had put the emphasis my own had on marksmanship (my school took the Marksmanship ribbon BTW) but still several days were devoted to Marksmanship training and this for Officer that would be Medical Corp personel, Finance, and what have you in addition to the combat arms folks.
I will say that in 1981 that the Officer Basic Course for Field Artillery spent little time on rifle marksmanship, about a day and a half refresher basically, as they expected everyone to have competed BRM the year before.
Even when I was assigned to the Ash and Trash Battery aka HHB Divarty, made up of cooks, mechanics, clerks and jerks we did annual retraining, fam fire and zeroing and shot a short qualifier course on targets from 25 to 300 meters and if one could not hit that magical half plus one, one was not promotable.
So what were your experiences with military marksmanship?
Other times other services and other countries are all invited.
During the early to mid 1970s the German unit we were partnered with a Mech Infantry out fit (PzGrd) fired their G3 rifles semi auto eight to sixteen rounds per week at a single range on a square range. This constant weekly firing amounted to more than most US troops over a year at the time and only a little less than out own unit that required a qualification every six months, Fam fire/zero every quarter Fam fire and zero within 30 days if going on CAS and annual training.
Sorry for the length.
-kBob
I do not wish t discuss the importance to strategy of BRM or whether or not time and tax payer money should be spent on it, but what it is, was, and might be.
I will say that for me non military marksmanship training began before starting public school and involved a Daisy BB gun and empty Lucky Strikes ciggerette packs with their big round circle on the side.
This was followed with in weeks by a Daisy Targeter BB pistol and the same target.
Fast forward two years and there was a .22 rifle. I am reluctant to include the shotguns BUT they did make it easier to use a military sight free system later.
By the time I was 14 I was sure I was a dead eye shot with the rifle.
Then I received my first military training courtesy of JROTC in the public schools.
The people who taught me had been light weapons Infantrymen and wore the Combat Infantry badge earned in places like North Africa, Italy, a beach in Normandy and across Europe to the German home land, and places encircled by the Pacific Ocean, a Peninsula some called Chosen and even a little strip of coastal land leading up to mountains called Vietnam.
Interestingly they all thought or at least indicated to us that the ability to shoot and hit what was shot at was the cornerstone of being an Infantryman.
We spent hours learning about sight alignment and sight picture, BRASS, positions and trigger control and then finally went to the range. Every Cadet fired about 120 rounds in training under fairly close supervision and then fired a Quarter course 50 foot three position for score.
The improvement of every cadets shooting was noticeable. The Instructors had allowed us to bring in our .22 rifles very early on and all could see we had done much better with the Remington 513T rifles than we had with our whatevers and most could shoot their whatevers better after the training.
We later did dry firing with M-1s and later M-14s and a very few of us actually fired those rifles. Eventually a few M-16A1 were provided and all got to handle the rifles and dry fire and learn the mechanics of those.
By the time I got to Basic training as an enlisted man I have to admit I actually had a decent handle on rifle marksmanship.
I was already a worshiper at the alter of the Front Sight and the Covinent of Sueeze'm Off when I was hearded into a big wooden hanger affair and told to sit at a table with Uncles M-16A1 upon it.
It was pretty much a repeat of high School, but with an M-16A1 instead of a 513T. I got my very first thwack with a cleaning rod with in minutes of entering the room. The Instructor on stage was speaking of how we were to today learn the parts of the M-16A1 and how to disassemble and reassemble it. It was at this point that the Assistant Instructor walking our table row noted my rifle fully broken down and laid out properly for parts inspection.
Being a quick learner and noting those cleaning rods sting mightily across the shoulders I decided I would actually pay attention to what was going on.
What I saw is what I still think can be the MOST effective method of teaching and though called other things basically the Boy Scouts EDGE system that all scouts learn today.
They Explained what they were going to teach us. They Demonstrated how the tasks were to be done. They Guided us through the steps and they allowed us to Experience doing the task correctly and practice it until we mastered it.
This mechanical training made us each very comfortable with the rifle. We carried the rifles every where even though we were not yet using them for anything but mechanical training.
One day we were told to draw weapons and fall in with full field gear. We road march a couple of miles and soon arrived at an area we were told to set up our tents in. After lunch we were directed to bleachers.
We received a new Instructor who explained to us we would be learning to shoot from a supported prone position so that we might soon be able to zero our rifles. There followed some demonstrations and illustrations and then a humorous skit involving one of our Hispanic instructors making an appearance apparently drunk to staggering, wearing his Sunday suit loking as though it was slept in with **** tails out and buttons done wrong and his Drill Baby Campaign hat. Actually he did some amazing shooting, but he also demonstrated what our rifles could do to Helmets, concrete blocks, and ammo cans full of water. This last served to make us all acutely aware that these rifles were not toys and to be darned careful.
We spent the net three days on NOTHING but Basic Rifle Marksmanship. We would do additions range days over the remaining weeks, where we got to try shooting from the fighting positions (in the form of a concrete pipe we stood in with te top level with the ground and a few sand bags for support) and supported kneel from telephone poles. We spent a few hours shooting with out sights taped over so we had to learn to look over the rifle and point shoot from seven to 25 yards (and a few shots like that while walking were part of the qualification) and we learned to fire the rifle in short bursts from the prone with a bipod or just over a sand bag, sometimes with a protective mask on and once at night at targets 25 and 50 meters away.
Near the end of our eight weeks of Basic Training which every soldier, even cooks and clerks and mechanics and tankers went through we went to "Combat Valley" where a buddy team of two guys at a time advanced up the valley supporting one another with live fire on targets appear from 25 to 200 meters away.
So at the end of eight weeks every guy, regardless of whether he might never pick up a rifle again had learned to shoot and hit what he aimed at. Every one passed out of Basic training having displayed the ability to hit half the targets, plus one, that appeared from seven to 300 meters away with three seconds per target exposure.
Remember their are folks on THR that insist that by the end of the VN war that marksmanship was not important. This was then.
Those of us that got sent out to earn a blue shoulder rope to qualify for a place at the pointy end would get additional training, mainly more of the same but also more full auto fire, more un aided night fire, night fire under flares, the use of Night vision scopes, and live fire in up to platoon operations (where I got to see my second military gunshot wound, first having been acciedental self inflicted by a guy talking to me through his foot, what an idiot).
I would go through BRM again in 1976 when I managed to get into college ROTC introduction Camp another eight weeks that included over a week of marksmanship in one form or another.
In 1980 I went through ROTC advanced Camp and found that not all colleges had put the emphasis my own had on marksmanship (my school took the Marksmanship ribbon BTW) but still several days were devoted to Marksmanship training and this for Officer that would be Medical Corp personel, Finance, and what have you in addition to the combat arms folks.
I will say that in 1981 that the Officer Basic Course for Field Artillery spent little time on rifle marksmanship, about a day and a half refresher basically, as they expected everyone to have competed BRM the year before.
Even when I was assigned to the Ash and Trash Battery aka HHB Divarty, made up of cooks, mechanics, clerks and jerks we did annual retraining, fam fire and zeroing and shot a short qualifier course on targets from 25 to 300 meters and if one could not hit that magical half plus one, one was not promotable.
So what were your experiences with military marksmanship?
Other times other services and other countries are all invited.
During the early to mid 1970s the German unit we were partnered with a Mech Infantry out fit (PzGrd) fired their G3 rifles semi auto eight to sixteen rounds per week at a single range on a square range. This constant weekly firing amounted to more than most US troops over a year at the time and only a little less than out own unit that required a qualification every six months, Fam fire/zero every quarter Fam fire and zero within 30 days if going on CAS and annual training.
Sorry for the length.
-kBob
