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Improving Army marksmanship: regaining the initiative in the infantryman's hale kilometer
Infantry Magazine, July-August, 2006 by David Liwanag
KD shooting instruction cannot be given at some posts, as the TRADOC Army Training Support Center has declared KD ranges obsolete and dropped them from 2004 edition of TC 25-8, Training Ranges. Many infantry and armor division posts no longer have serviceable KD ranges.
KD combat marksmanship training and competition can produce competent instructors and advanced-skills riflemen relatively quickly. Resources are precious but available.
Marksmanship training experience in the U.S. Marine Corps is centralized at brigade level. A warrant officer "gunner" is responsible for marksmanship-sustainment instruction, competition, and ranges, and his duties are akin to armor and Bradley master gunners. In the 1st Special Forces Group, a designated experienced master gunner and instructor group teaches close-quarters battle (CQB) marksmanship, advanced urban combat marksmanship, and group-level sniper training. The U.S. Army should consider assigning a small arms "gunner" to each infantry brigade headquarters.
"Shoot, move, and communicate" are core Soldier battlefield competencies. Our doctrinal infantry marksmanship yardstick once stated, "If you can see it, you can hit it. If you can hit it, you can kill it." Trainfire trains large numbers of Soldiers quickly and cheaply. KD and competition produces precision riflemen. The Army's leadership identified the benefits and need for both systems in 1958. The 2006 Army must invest in precision marksmanship training and competition to re-establish the experience base of our NCO corps and make our riflemen effective in the infantryman's half kilometer. Training-the-trainer experience has proven we can develop confident and competent NCO and Soldier shooters who can decisively engage and kill enemy targets from seven to 600 yards with our service rifles and carbines.
Technical advances in aiming and sighting devices derived from the USSOCOM SOPMOD (now the Army Modular Weapon System) allow the Soldier to acquire, identify, and engage targets faster, farther, and in the dark or with thermal sights. We are the world's premier night-fighting force, and we should dominate the battlefield to the maximum effective ranges of our weapons and enabling technology.
Chief of Staff of the Army General Peter J. Schoomaker emphasized the absolute need for marksmanship competency and Warrior focus in his speech at the 2003 Association of the United States Army Convention in Washington, D.C. We must build on that direction to make the U.S. Soldier the most lethal and effective man on the battlefield.
For more information on KD and combat shooting competition, contact the United States Army Marksmanship Unit, 7031 Bill Street, Fort Benning, GA 31905, (706) 545-1272; or the National Guard Marksmanship Training Center, Camp J. T. Robinson, North Little Rock, AR 72199-9600, (501) 212-4504.
Formal Army Recognition of Individual Marksmanship Achievement
In 2003 the Army republished AR 350-66, Army-wide Small Arms Competitive Marksmanship, which dictates procedures and guidelines for service and interservice marksmanship competition and training.
