Re: Shows history repeats itself
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: kraigWY</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Had the same problem in the WWI yards.
Rifle qualification on the average was 5% expert, 10% Sharpshooter, 15% Marksman, the remainder failed to qualify.
Gen Pershing Placed Colonel Macnab in charge of rifle traing with a plan he had developed and pushed.
After Macnab's plan was implamented, the Average went to: 25% Expert, 40% sharpshooter, 30% Marksman and 5% unqualified.
What's sad is the method used by Col. Macnab is still being used to day by the CMP, and its rather cheap (cost per shooter), but not taught to ALL of our soldiers, but to any civilian who wants it.
Macnab's method is nothing more then the Small Arms Firing Schools put on at Camp Perry, and the Eastern & Westrn CMP games.
The problem isn't cost, the problem is the SAFS is too much like High Power Rifle...........can't have that. It's not Tacticool. Matters not that it teaches Marksmanship Fundamentals.</div></div>
I've seen Drill Sergeants who, not having a thorough grasp of marksmanship, were not much help to Soldiers trying to qualify with their rifle. An example may be of a Soldier who is shooting vertical groups at 25 meters. These vertical strings can be the result of inconsistent perception for a center of mass hold, bringing the head to the stock rather than stock to head, and/or an inconsistent stock weld. What it is not is anything to do with breathing. Nevertheless, the Drill Sergeant will tell the Soldier to watch his breathing. Now, the Soldier becomes aware of breathing, which was not the issue, and it becomes an issue, along with the unanswered correction to the vertical stringing. This Soldier will not likely qualify as highly as would have been possible if there were a highly trained coach on site to help when shooter/target error is beyond the knowledge of the Drill Sergeant.