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MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII - Marines with Combat Marksmanship Coaches Course 4-15 were the first cycle of coaches in training to fire on the newly revised tables of fire at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. The coaches trained in how to aid shooters using the new streamlined shooting scenarios, Tables 2 through 6, replacing Tables 2 through 4d. Coaches practiced using the new tables on April 13, 2015 at the Kaneohe Bay Range Training Facility.
A table of fire is a shooting scenario, which determines a Marine’s ability to engage targets accurately from known and unknown distances during day and night shoots.
According to Marine Administrative Message 132/15, the new tables of fire are scheduled to replace Tables 2 through 4d by Jan. 1, 2016. The streamlined tables serve to “maximize the progression of skill sets within the combat rifle program.” The new course of fire will be a requirement for entry level and annual rifle training.
“Marines are not required to begin shooting the new tables of fire until the next calendar year,” said Staff Sgt. Benjamin James Lacasse, staff noncommissioned officer of the marksmanship training unit. “Units can start shooting this right now as long as they have the targets they need.
It’s annual rifle training, (and) every Marine is responsible (for completing) this every year. The range hosts and provides (tables 1 through 2), but tables 3 through 6 are unit run, and every Marine is required to do it every year.”
Marines firing on Table 2 conduct static drills and engage stationary and kinetic targets from the 25 and 100-yard lines, respectively. Tables 3 through 4d are more advanced, and require Marines to engage targets at known and unknown distances while executing pivoting, progressive and lateral movements. Night shooting requires Marines to don night vision goggles and a target pointer, which is an infrared light attached to the barrel of their rifle.
According to Cpl. Michael Jepsen, a Marine with Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and a combat marksmanship trainer candidate, the redesigned tables of fire are more linear due to the absence of pivoting maneuvers that were standard for the old table of fire.
“The old Tables 3 and 4 had the 90- and 180-degree pivots, which, when you’re on the line close to (other shooters, can get chaotic),” Jepsen said, a Marion, Ill., native. (We had) Marines doing the pivots and flagging people (with their rifles), and that’s a big thing I saw when I was coaching Tables 3 and 4, so the pivots being taken out was a good idea.”
Jepsen said the new course of fire is a positive change for Marines because it is now mandatory.
“It being required now (is good for) Marines who are not (infantryman), because every Marine is a rifleman, whether you’re a cook or (in) Combat Camera,” Jepsen said. “If you take contact, you’re going to shoot. It gives the Marines the training they need if they’re ever put in that situation.”
| Date Taken: | 04.16.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.16.2015 22:40 |
| Story ID: | 160296 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 96 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Marksmanship coaches in training fire on newly implemented course of fire, by Cpl Adam Korolev, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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