Coastguardsmen hone marksmanship skills for future missions

Photo By Sgt. Nicholas Lubchenko | Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Paulo Cheng, a maritime enforcement specialist and student of the Precision Marksmanship School, shoots at known distance targets with an M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System during the Precision Marksmanship Course at the Spartan Ranch Tactical Training Center in Maysville, July 26. After completing the four week course, the coastguardsmen will be considered precision marksmen and take the skills they learned into their job field and apply them to the Coast Guard’s Mission. That mission may include firing upon drug laden vessels from a helicopter to disable the engine or providing information to an assault team prior to engaging a vessel carrying a high-valued target.  

UNITED STATES

07.26.2018

Story by Lance Cpl. Nicholas Lubchenko 

Marine Corps Installations East       

Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Paulo Cheng, a maritime enforcement specialist and student of the Precision Marksmanship School, shoots at known distance targets with an M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System during the Precision Marksmanship Course at the Spartan Ranch Tactical Training Center in Maysville, July 26. After completing the four week course, the coastguardsmen will be considered precision marksmen and take the skills they learned into their job field and apply them to the Coast Guard’s Mission.
“This is the Coasts Guard’s version of a sniper school,” said Chief Petty Officer James Hockler, maritime enforcement specialist and the school chief for the Precision Marksman School with the Special Missions Training Center. “It is a four-week-long marksmanship school. This is their first core course they need to go through before they go through their (job) specific school.”
The next two weeks of the course for the Coastguardsmen include unknown distance targets, moving targets, limited exposure targets and a night time fire qualification.

“This course is challenging,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Paulo Cheng, a maritime enforcement specialist and student of the PMC. “You are learning something new every day, and you have to be able to keep up with everything that is being thrown at you.”
The precision marksmen take their skills into their jobs and apply them to the Coast Guard’s Mission. That mission may include firing upon drug laden vessels from a helicopter to disable the engine or providing information to an assault team prior to engaging a vessel carrying a high-valued target.
“Without this course we wouldn’t be able to do the majority of our law enforcement missions,” said Hockler. “The aviation element wouldn’t be able to shoot out the engines in drug boats or provide observation for an assault team.”

• Date Taken: 07.26.2018
• Date Posted: 07.31.2018 13:48
• Story ID: 286513
• Location: US