Shoot, move, communicate: MCT Marines participate in fire, movement range

Photo By Sgt. Shawn Valosin | Students with Kilo Company, Marine Combat Training Battalion, load magazines with ammunition prior to starting a fire and movement range aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C., March 24, 2015. During the range, Marines were issued 30 rounds of ammunition and advanced across a field in teams, while engaging targets from unknown distances, providing suppressive fire for their peers. (U. S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Shawn Valosin)  

CAMP LEJEUNE, NC, UNITED STATES

03.24.2015

Story by Cpl. Shawn Valosin 

II Marine Expeditionary Force   

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - More than 300 Marines with Kilo Company, Marine Combat Training Battalion completed a fire and movement live-fire exercise aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, March 24, 2015.

The range was used as a building block to prepare the Marines for the Basic Skills Retention Exercise, a three-day training event that allows junior Marines attending MCT to apply the skills they learned throughout the training cycle, and ultimately for unit deployments, where they will operate in fire teams and squads and need to shoot, move and communicate effectively within the Fleet Marine Force.

“This is the first time these Marines participated in this kind of range,” said Sgt. Timothy Brig, a combat instructor with Kilo Company. “They were firing [at targets], moving, putting their weapons on safe, making sure they didn’t ‘flag’ other Marines [with their rifles], ensuring their buddies were set and firing before they moved, and that they were in a proper firing position.”

Each Marine was equipped with an M16-A4 service rifle and a magazine of 30 5.56 rounds, for a total of almost 11,000 rounds being fired over the course of the day. Combat instructors walked behind the Marines to ensure the safety of all participants and to issue instructions as they advanced across the field.

While conducting this type of range for the first time can seem formidable to new Marines, it builds confidence in them and their peers.

“I think everyone is more confident after this exercise,” said Pfc. Anthony Cortese, a student at MCT and a Massena, New York, native. “The fact that it is combat simulated and you’re moving around your peers with live ammunition makes everyone rely on one another and makes you feel more confident in yourself.”

The fire and movement live-fire range is required of all Marines before joining the Fleet Marine Force, as the tactics taught may be necessary to suppress combatants during a deployment.

• Date Taken: 03.24.2015
• Date Posted: 03.26.2015 09:42
• Story ID: 158154
• Location: CAMP LEJEUNE, NC, US
• Hometown: MASSENA, NY, US