Story and photos by Spc. Hector Corea, 366th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.
HUTCHINSON, Kan – The 451st Expeditionary Sustainment Command held a Marksmanship Proficiency Training Exercise in Hutchinson, Kan., Nov. 12 to 16, 2012.
The marksmanship event was a training initiative that gathered nearly 89 competitors, 15 units and 100 personnel from various units belonging to the 451st ESC.
Story and photos by Spc. Hector Corea, 366th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
HUTCHINSON, Kansas – No matter what job specialty, assignment or mission, each and every soldier in the Army Reserves may one day be placed in a position to fire a weapon in a combat zone.
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Command Sgt. Maj. Michael D. Schultz, the 11th Command Sergeant Major of the U.S. Army Reserve, and Sgt. Maj. James Mauer, USAR Army Reserve Careers Division and Marksmanship Program.
The US Army Reserves has been a staunch supporter of organized marksmanship events throughout the force. Regulation supports competition shooting at all levels, starting at the unit level with the annual USAR Postal Match (http://armyreservemarksman.info/postal-match/) all the way up to Federally required marksmanship events (under Title 36, Section 40725 of the U.S. Code) represented by the US Army Reserve Marksmanship Program.
In light of this continued support, SGM James Mauer of the Army Reserve Careers Division and Marksmanship Program presents the official head gear worn by all USAR Marksmanship Program members to CSM Michael Schultz for continued support.
The All-Army Small Arms Championships is an annual marksmanship competition that brings the best shooters in the US Army together to compete. The importance of this event has been acknowledged by top senior leadership.
http://www.dvidshub.net/news/86583/continuing-service#.T4YMEtk7uSq
Events that keep soldiers so motivated that they’ll travel to foreign countries to pursue activities useful to the force, it makes sense to continue with the programs that encourage them to stay.
Why do people join the Army Reserve and what makes them want to stay? The answers are unique to every serving Reservist. Career Counselors are tasked with retaining personnel and can offer powerful incentives to stay, but soldiers don’t typically leave because the benefits aren’t good enough (they are!) soldiers often stay because of the Army-sponsored programs they participate in and the camaraderie built. The Army Reserve Shooting Team is a prime example.
This past year Reservists were asked to attend invitation-only shooting events in foreign countries. Merely being invited to International-level competition is prestigious and a positive mark for all Reservists.
The World Long Range Championships are held every four years and the United States has been represented strongly. International Long Range shooting has a long history and the World Long Range Championships are an outgrowth of the United States Palma Matches originally fired at the Creedmoor New York Range in 1876. The Palma Team Match is still the center piece for the World Long Range Rifle Championships. Palma competition dates from 1876 between US and Irish teams. The events feature long-range rifle shooting out to 1000 yards and is recognized in various nations today.
The last International Long-range Target Rifle Match for the PALMA trophy as held at the Belmont Shooting Complex, Queensland, near Brisbane, Australia. Bringing out the best of the world’s long range riflemen and women, the bragging rights are huge. Team USA put together a talented Long Range Rifle Team to send to to compete with other countries for World Championship honors, which included four Army Reservists.
The road to the Palma for these Reservists started at Camp Perry. All four Palma shooters from USAR Team that were selected for Team USA (Maj. David Cloft, Master Sgt. Norman Anderson, Sgt. 1st Class Russ Theurer , Sgt. Eric Smith) finished in the top 10 of competitors in the Palma class at Camp Perry. Anderson also coached the National Championship Team (USA Palma) on which Theurer was a firing member.
Both Theurer and Cloft won their relays and made the shoot off for the Andrus and Aiken National Trophies. Anderson was the coach and Theurer was a firing member of the U.S. National Team. Along with an active component Army Marksmanship Unit shooter, a Marine Reserve shooter and a civilian, this team won the Herrick National Trophy. This had great training value before going to the World Championships. In addition, all four USAR Palma shooters finished in the top 10 of competitors in the Palma aggregate over the four days of individual competition.
Firing at the World Long Range Championships took take place over 15 days starting off with National Rifle Association of Australia’s President’s Match fired from 300, 500, 600, 900 and 1,000 yards over two days. Competitions continued over the long range course culminating with two days of firing of the Palma Match shot at distances of 800, 900, and 1,000 yards.
Sgt. 1st Class Chris Gervasio has been using this long range experience to good effect. Assisting TACOM with the M14-based Enhanced Battle Rifle, he has been improving this weapons platform that is currently in service in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as teaching classes and developing an AAR recommendations on improving the weapons system for increased lethality to the warfighter. “We have guys showing up with rifle in the box from the factory having never seen one before. Getting them up and running out to 800 meters is a motivator for me to keep serving.”
“I can thank my mother and father for the chance to do this, for without my father shooting indoor .22 gallery in the little town of Flasher, N.D., in the middle of winter I may have never even thought about shooting,” says Theurer. “It’s great to realized how far back this International Competition goes, starting around 1874 as a means to teach rifleman how to shoot. Being able to take that and pass it on to other Soldiers is a major reason why I’m doing this.”
Looking at a newer discipline, Reservists have been active in practical shooting as well. The United States Practical Shooting Association, or USPSA, is a non-profit membership organization that serves as the U.S. Region of the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC). With 350 affiliated clubs, USPSA is the dominant competitive pistol shooting organization in the United States and the largest Region within IPSC.
IPSC was formed in 1976 at a meeting in Columbia, Mo. Lead by the late Jeff Cooper, the sport of Practical Shooting was formally established after years of independent efforts around the country to build upon the handgun skills and training for self defense. The early days of the sport can be traced back to the 1950’s and the quick draw “leather slap” competitions that grew out of America’s love affair with the TV westerns of that era.
Reservist Master Sgt. Mark Quinn was part of the official USPSA roster of shooters that represented the United States as Team USA at IPSC World Shoot XVI held in Rhodes, Greece. “This is without a doubt one of our strongest national teams we’ve ever fielded to compete in the World Shoot” said USPSA President, Michael Voigt.
Quinn competed in the IPSC Standard Division, which is very similar to USPSA Limited Division, and uses a tuned 1911-style high-capacity handgun with iron sights and no compensator that must fit inside an approved box. He is the first Army Reserve shooter to be selected for a USPSA US National Team. When asked about his reasons for competing and how it helps the Army Reserve, MSG Quinn said, “Action Shooting is in same category as Biathlon competitors when it comes to fitness level. This has real value for soldiers and it’s why I keep doing it.”
All four of the Service Rifle shooters competing in Australia were funded by USARC and Quinn’s attendance was funded by HRC as he is in the IRR. When soldiers are so motivated that they’ll travel to foreign countries to pursue activities useful to the force it makes sense to continue with the programs that encourage them to stay.
http://www.dvidshub.net/news/86584/us-army-reserve-shooting-team-trains-82nd-airborne#.T4YMENk7uSq
“Guard and Reserves have been involved in combat operations for very long period of time. We are going to come up with a readiness model that will keep them at a little bit higher level than they have been in the past.”
– Gen. Ray Odierno
FORT BRAGG, N.C. – The Pentagon’s decision to cut the size of the Army by 80,000 soldiers will force the military to rely more on the National Guard and Reserves. Increased use of the reserve components was a factor in Force XXI doctrine, which requires heavy reserve augmentation to the active component.
In “Integrating Active and Reserve Component Training” by MAJ John Knight, a graduate paper written at the Army Logistics Management College’s Logistics Executive Development Course, it was noted that, “Integrated Active Component and Reserve Component training increase the force-projection capabilities of the Total Army. Combined training must be integrated into every single training opportunity and at all levels of training, individual and collective. … Similarly, every time a unit conducts marksmanship training, it should offer slots to its counterparts to take advantage of the opportunity and save money. Such events foster increased understanding by both AC and RC soldiers of the other’s role. Overall unit readiness would improve on both sides if such partnership units took full advantage of each other’s training opportunities.”
Following in line with this doctrine, members of the US Army Reserve Shooting Team were asked to conduct Designated Marksman training on the M14EBR-RI Enhanced Battle Rifle for deploying members of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. The USAR Shooting Team was established as a powerful force multiplier that enhances readiness. The active component requested this training from Reservists because of noted, consistent successes of these shooter-instructors.
Organized shooting is a proven, objective approach for sorting out your best talent, which is why it is directed by published regulation. Taking this talent pool and employing them as instructors is an effective force multiplier. “We don’t merely train better shooters. We build marksmanship instructors,” states two-time President’s Hundred winner and four-time Mountain Man trophy winner MSG Norman Anderson. Put a champion shooter on the ground and he is another rifle. Put him in a position to train others and he can raise the skills thousands. Also important, USAR shooting-instructors put in charge of small arms training have been credited with documented savings of millions of rounds of ammo over non-shooting team range personnel due to their heightened skills and expertise.
The M14 Resurrected
The 82nd also requested the USAR Shooting Team because of their expertise on the Enhanced Battle Rifle. In fact, two of the Reserve team members have built EBRs at Rock Island. This rifle is a modernized M14 Battle Rifle with an aluminum billet stock that bears a resemblance to the T25 prototype that the original M14 is based. The stock, manufactured by Sage International (sageinternationalltd.com), includes an M16-type pistol grip, cantilever mount, Picatinny rails. The barreled actions from M14s are set into the new stock and tweaked for accuracy. A quality adjustable power optic from Leopold or Nightforce is included. Picatinny rails are set above the receiver and around the forend, allowing modular capability. A variety of day/night optics, lasers, vertical hand grips, bipods and other accessories can be added. As a squad-level rifle the EBR can be handled effectively at close distances but is intended for long range precision work. Properly tweaked, EBRs routinely shoot M118LR ammunition at one MOA, the same accuracy standard as the M24 and M110.
As an M14-based rifle the EBR is chambered for the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge and is semi-automatic. The effective range is out to 800 yards, similar to the M24. EBRs are beefy, weighing in at just under fifteen pounds unloaded, almost 3.5 pounds heavier than a standard issue M14, with an overall length of 35 inches. EBRs affords infantry squads the volume of fire of a self loader with the range and accuracy of a sniper rifle.
Training the 82nd
As per the Field Manual, training was broken down into five phases including position evaluation, dry fire, range estimation, and field fire qualification. The end goal was to teach the new Designated Marksmen how to train themselves. “In the beginning of it, we are training them. As we progress, we are actually teaching them how to train themselves and how to sustain their training so when we go away they can still keep confidence and competence to keep a sustained force,” noted SSG John Arcularius, a former USMC Rifle Team member, current non-commissioned officer in charge of the Army Reserve Service Pistol Team and gunsmith for the FBI. “The best thing we can give them is confidence in their weapon’s ability to hit at those extended ranges we expect it to hit,” he said.
Following a full classroom overview, a zero phase was conducted at 100 and 300 meters with iron sights and optics. Each student had a coach watching them shoot, to help improve fundamental skills, and additional coaching through spotting scopes to observe trace, or the bullet’s flight to the target. Shooters were given full feedback of every fired shot and plotting the results in a databook to record Data Of Previous Engagements, or dope.
With initial no-wind zeroes established, the designated marksman than shot across the course, getting data on each yard line from 100 back to 500. This helped confirm no-wind zeroes, establish elevation zero for distance and allowed feedback in varying conditions. This culminated in qualification, with shooting at 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 meters. The course was shot first with the students adjusting their sights for each string and it was repeated with students required to hold off for every shot based on conditions.
This prescribed Army Squad Designated Marksman qualification was originally intended for issue M16-series rifles, so this proved easy for EBR-armed DMs. Rock Island has been averaging 0.89 MOA accuracy with the EBR and we had numerous perfect scores going out to 500. Time to up the challenge.
Taking the class out to a machine gun range, with RETS “pop up” targets out to 800 meters, the instructors created a course of fire beginning at 600. Students first confirmed zeroes on target out to 800 with instructors spotting the trace, and then engaged for record. As before, the Reserve instructor-shooters led their students with a 100 percent qualification.
Staff Sgt. Joshua Tyree, a squad leader in 2nd Platoon, Alpha Company, 2nd/504th PIR, said the training provided “very good teaching points,” and that the Reserve instructors “… really relate the training to how we are going to use it when we get down range.” Tyree, who deployed to Iraq twice, said the training was definitely a confidence builder for him and his fellow airborne soldiers. “Hands down, this is some of the best training I’ve had in the last couple of years,” he said.
http://www.dvidshub.net/news/86581/us-army-reserve-shooting-team-serving-force#.T4YJaNk7uSp
The USAR Shooting Team is a powerful force multiplier that enhances readiness and saves money while improving training and earning positive publicity.
You’d be surprised how many people view the shooting teams as a good old boys club. They have no idea of the benefit and skill these soldier-shooters are bringing to the Army Reserve. It’s like accusing an NFL team of being nothing more than a group of drinking buddies that play catch on Sunday afternoon. Outsiders to US Army Reserve Shooting Team fail to understand why such a team exists. Unless one has been involved in small arms training or higher level shooting activity, marksmanship experience is typically limited to basic qualification. Just as retaking the same elementary arithmetic test will never teach Calculus, marksmen need to evolve to gain proficiency. Shooting teams were established in enact this and provide other benefits as well.
History
Through the 1960s the USAR Marksmanship Program consisted only of an ad hoc Service Rifle and Service Pistol Team that would be constituted as the Battalion, Brigade, ARCOM, and Army Area Matches were conducted. The All-USAR Teams would then compete in the National Rifle and Pistol Championships at Camp Perry and then disband. MG William Sutton, then Chief, Army Reserve, was a Distinguished Rifleman and strongly believed in marksmanship. During World War II he had to deploy cooks, supply personnel, truck drivers and other support personnel to defend his unit. He learned that it was important for all soldiers to know how to shoot well. MG Sutton and later CAR’s supported the USAR Marksmanship Program very well into the late 1980′s.
Lt. Col. Joseph B. Berry joined the Office of the Chief, Army Reserve in 1967 after a career as an Infantry officer, serving in the 10th Mountain Division during World War II and the Korean War. LTC Berry had shot on the All-Army Service Rifle Teams in 1955-57, was a Distinguished Rifleman and had served as the Executive Officer, National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice (NBPRP). When MAJ Bruce Meredith, the OIC of the USAMU International Rifle Section, left Active Duty in late 1968 Berry asked that he start an International Division for the USAR Marksmanship Program. MAJ Meredith championed the concept of year-round training and competition. The teams reaped the benefits and eventually a small nucleus of the top shooters were kept more active throughout the year and the USAR Marksmanship Program was a force to be reckoned with. After 1985 there was a major push towards training the USAR troop units, but the various USAR teams and individuals still continued winning their share. Politics and budget cuts finally took their toll. While only Service Rifle, Service Pistol and the Combat Team are currently being supported, and with no Army Area Matches to help bring new talent in, but the USAR Marksmanship program is still acquiring solid talent.
Matches Are Training
Marksmanship programs were not invented as mere sporting pursuits. Following the Civil War, Gen. George Wingate and others held shooting events to learn the best methods of small arms use, striving to promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis. Wingate would publish his findings in Manual for Rifle Practice, which became the US Army’s first marksmanship text. More recently, in addressing participants following an All Army events, AMU commander LTC Dave Liwanag would explain the intent was to host a high level training event cleverly disguised as competition. The learning tool GEN Wingate first used still works today.
This is spelled out in official doctrine as the best approach. Quoting from FM 3-22.9, “Instructor-trainer training courses and marksmanship certification programs must be established to ensure that instructor-trainer skills are developed.” Army Regulation 350-66 directs the sort of training authorized to enact this: “Army personnel should be provided opportunities to prepare for and participate in small arms marksmanship competition. These preparations, which include those for international competitions, are classified as training.”
Organized shooting is a proven, objective approach for sorting out your best talent, which is why it is directed by published regulation. Taking this talent pool and employing them as instructors is an effective force multiplier. “We aren’t merely training better shooters. We’re building marksmanship instructors,” states two time President’s Hundred winner Norman Anderson. Put a champion shooter on the ground and he is another rifle. Put him in a position to train others and he can raise the skills thousands.
As an example, when demands for instructors exceeded the capacity of current USAR Shooting Team members, First Army funded the Small Arms Instructor Academy at Camp Bullis. Course attendees had recently returned from deployment and were selected by their commanders. Despite many of them arriving already performing at Army “expert” qualification levels the average class improvement rate stood at 60 percent with three days of range training. Some individuals tripled their day one scores! The bulk of the SAIA cadre consisted of USAR Shooting Team personnel.
Of course, funding the marksmanship training and learning events known as shooting competition does cost money, but this is a routine, on-going training expense. Every Soldier attends Initial Entry Training and MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) courses for each slot they hold during their career. Some fields require additional skill identifiers and attendant training requirements. Every Reservist will be placed on orders for Annual Training each year. As soldiers earn rank and are put in charge of subordinates they will attend multiple levels of leadership courses, such as Warrior Leadership Course, Advanced Leader Course-Common Core and Senior Leaders Course. Each of these levels are further broken down into multiple phases. On-going attendance at training events is a normal part of every soldier’s career and is no different for personnel assigned as shooter-instructors.
What’s more, the real benefit gleaned from the shooting teams for the Army is the fact that members conduct much of their training at their own expense. Prior to competition, these Soldiers are expected to spend considerable time preparing on their own and they are glad to do it. Additionally, most participate in civilian events outside of Army-funded competition. It’s like getting an entire company-sized element to attend extra Battle Assemblies for free!
Saving Money
Heightened skills are nice but every organization must address the bottom line. Like it or not, progress and function is driven by the dollar. In light of budgetary concerns it is a common folly to sacrifice shooting team activities but this is false economy. The small investment in maintaining a cadre of top-tier marksmen outweighs the cost. Would you spend a dollar today if you knew it would save five dollars tomorrow? Of course! Investments in the USAR Shooting Team has saved millions of dollars by preventing wasted ammunition and time on the range.
While in charge of a small arms training team at Fort McCoy Sgt. Maj. Steven Slee tracked all training aspects, including ammunition use. During initial mobilization efforts through 2004 the team successfully qualified all assigned automatic rifle and crew-served machine gun personnel, as verified by the local Garrison Support Unit, and did so while averaging 29 percent less ammunition than that allocated by DA PAM 350-38 (STRAC), saving about 30,000 rounds per brigade in machine gun and automatic rifle training alone. Jerry Hale, Fort McCoy’s Ammunition Supply Point manager noted that prior to this units were sometimes burning through three to four times times their STRAC allocations and achieving less than 20 percent qualification rates. These shooter-instructors were yielding a savings in excess of $50,000 per brigade in machine gun training before even considering rifle qualification.
This type of savings was common with training elements at Power Projection Platforms staffed with shooting team members. While serving as Deputy Chief of Staff for Fifth Army Col. Alfred Dochnal documented that within 200 training days on the ground these shooter-instructors raised weapons qualification rates of mobilizing soldiers at Fifth Army PPPs from the previous 48 percent to 98 percent and that their “expertise has saved about one million rounds of ball ammo alone,” thus directly raising the survivability level of the soldier deploying from there. At $0.27 per round, one million rounds of ball ammunition equates to $270,000 saved in a single fiscal year.
Publicity and Retention
Marketing is defined as activities, institutions, and processes for creating and communicating offerings that have value for clients, partners, and society at large. Maintaining a force of 205,000 personnel requires effort and incentives to get and keep soldiers in uniform. Yes, recruiting and retention is a form of marketing, “selling” the benefits of serving. Traditional advertising is one strategy and sponsoring events is another. The Army has employed these over the years with a recent example involving sponsorship of NASCAR and NHRA racing events. Ryan Newman, the Army-sponsored NASCAR driver claims these efforts have lead to 46,000 leads for recruiters. Sponsoring racing is a good advertising strategy, one outline in The NASCAR Way by Robert Hagstrom, and remains a good fit for Army recruiting.
As with any big organization reaching out to large numbers of people, no single strategy will appeal to everyone. NASCAR sponsorship is popular and known to be a powerful publicity tool, but not with every current or potential soldier. Shooting teams are another, more obvious strategy. While national-level marksmanship competition doesn’t enjoy the draw that racing does, the return is similar in terms of dollars spent. In CPM, or cost per mille, terms the combined Army NASCAR and NHRA racing team budget of $16.6 million per year costs $360,896. No word on how many actual contracts this has created.
“My involvement in shooting events with the USAR Shooting Team lead to six signed contracts in one year”, states Staff Sgt. John Arcularius, a Career Counselor with the Army Reserve Careers Division. “Those same events put in me in contact with hundreds of serving personnel from all branches and even more civilian marksmen.” Using shooting teams as a recruiting and retention tool has already been employed by the active component, such as when the Army Marksmanship Unit was reorganized under US Army Accessions Command (USAAC). Putting your best talent in front of others is a solid way to communicate activities and institutions of value. What’s more, unlike sponsored race teams, shooting team activity is an additional duty for actual soldiers currently serving in the Army Reserve. This puts real soldiers talented in marksmanship in front of others and able to communicate the values of the Army Reserve.
Each benefit showcased here demonstrates the return on investment the USAR Shooting Team brings to the Army Reserve. Winning matches on behalf of reservists is merely a pleasant bonus. When taken together, the force multiplying training value, money savings and publicity benefits reveal a cost-effective element offering an exchange in abundance for the entire Army Reserve.
MSG Russell Moore, USAR Shooting Team, just seized his fourth All Army (US Army Small Arms Championships) victory.
http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_eventAward.cgi?matchID=8145&eventID=28&awardID=1
Story by Timothy Hale
FORT BRAGG, N.C. – Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, based here, gathered on the bleachers and listened intently to the instructor.
“Were you able to see, through the scope mounted on your rifle, why we were telling you what to do?” asked Master Sgt. Norman Anderson, a member of the Army Reserve Marksmanship team.
“Hooah!” came the response from the soldiers.
“When you did the practice yourself, you were able to implement and have success. Yes or no?” he asked.
“Yes!” was the unanimous response from the group.
The question and answer session was a small part of the training for soldiers from the 2nd/504th PIR on the Enhanced Battle Rifle – an individual weapon system that will be used by the unit’s squad designated marksmen during their deployment to Afghanistan.
The Army Reserve Marksmanship team was contacted by 2nd/504th PIR leadership to conduct squad designated marksmanship training on the EBR, according to Master Sgt. Richard R. Kalina II, who was in charge of the training event.
“Any time we have a chance to enhance the skill of the warfighter directly … that’s a privilege,” Kalina said. “You can’t place a value on that type of experience.”
Kalina said that many of the trainers have been with the team for many years and have valuable experience to share.
“Being able to impart the knowledge that we have to our next generation, that is going to firmly implant on their minds,” he said. “In turn, when they make the option to either stay with the Army or go to the Army Reserve or National Guard, they’re going to think back to the training they have received right now and they’re going to do the same for the next generation.”
The EBR itself is not completely new but a modification of the M14 service rifle, said Staff Sgt. John Arcularius, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the Army Reserve Service Pistol Team.
“The best thing we can give them is confidence in their weapon’s ability to hit at those extended ranges we expect it to hit,” he said.
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