Photo By Staff Sgt. Keegan Costello | Sgt. Michael A. Davis, 110th Composite Truck Company, 10th Mountain Division, attends...... read more read more
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The sound of gunfire is altered for Soldiers wearing ear-protection; most Soldiers experience this for the first time at a M4 zeroing range. The rifle retort becomes muffled and Soldiers begin to hear their own breathing and heart-beat. Team and squad leaders watch over fledgling Soldiers as they are introduced to this new concept of quiet focus, where the only thing that matters is the Soldier's rifle and the target in front of them.
The 10th Mountain Division Light Fighters School at Fort Drum provides the Air Assault Course, Pre-Ranger Course and a Mountain Warfare Training Course for the entire division, they also provide the Rifle Marksmanship Instructor Course. This two-week class trains the trainers, allowing small-group leaders to return to their units as experts that can teach the basics of marksmanship as well as advanced techniques.
“The biggest misconception about the course is that it’s a shooting course and not an instructor course,” said Staff Sgt. Kevin Tonak, the non-commissioned officer in-charge of the RMIC at LFS. “Commanders will send their Soldiers that are having trouble qualifying, thinking that’s what this course is for. Whereas, it’s actually to train the trainer so that they can teach those Soldiers how to shoot better at their units versus sending them here.”
The course begins with classroom discussions. Re-introducing the basics of marksmanship with slides and demonstrations by the classroom cadre. From there the participants learn how to coach each other while they zero their weapons on the rifle range.
“This course has opened my eyes to what we are missing out on when it comes to the proper ways of grouping, zeroing and using known distance ranges to confirm our zeroing for our rifles,” said Staff Sgt. Cesar Fernandez, a section leader with Berserker Company, 2nd Battalion, 113th Infantry Regiment, New Jersey National Guard.
“Doing all of that is a huge factor in becoming more proficient as a shooter so that we no longer take the training value away from our lower enlisted Soldiers," said Fernandez. "Allowing them to understand the importance of the process will keep their motivation up and their willingness to want to go to the range. This whole course is an abundance of knowledge that more leaders should go through.”
In addition to active-duty Soldiers, the LFS courses are also available to reserve forces and other branches of the military who come to the northeast’s premiere training center to participate in training they normally wouldn’t have access to, like the RMIC.
Train the trainer courses allow reserve leaders to stay current on changes in standards and teach those changes to their subordinates, so they remain operationally relevant.
“We rely on Soldiers that graduate from these courses to keep us combat ready and have our training as close to par with active-duty Soldiers,” said Fernandez.
Courses like these enable Soldiers to stay at the fore-front of weapon techniques, for that reason, the course has started teaching the new four-position M4 qualification table that will be implemented October 1st of this year.
According to the LFS cadre, the new qualification is better suited for the modern Army because it forces the shooter to acquire and eliminate targets quicker and with more precision. It makes Soldiers practice magazine changes at different positions creating a better overall marksman on the battlefield.
“The Army as a whole struggles with marksmanship,” said Tonak. “This course is 10th Mountain being proactive in trying to fix those marksmanship problems at home station rather than running into an issue later down the line.”
| Date Taken: | 09.27.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 09.27.2018 11:47 |
| Story ID: | 294609 |
| Location: | FORT DRUM, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 2,394 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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