I have been rather surprised at the paucity of attention being paid by both firearms enthusiasts and military scholars to the importance of marksmanship in the present conflict. Lieutenant Colonel David Liwanag has an excellent article in Infantry summarizing the present state of marksmanship training in the US Army. This article has important implications for the Director of Civilian Marksmanship, and is the first explicit condemnation by a subject matter expert (active duty) that I have seen of the disinvestment in the DCM that occurred in the 1990s. I hope this article will have wide dissemination among scholars concerned with the firearms debate. The author "Lietentant Colonel David Liwanag commanded the U.S. Army Markmanship Unit at Fort Benning, Ga., from June 2003 until June 2006. He is currently assigned to the J3, Special Operations Command - Joint Forces Command at Norfolk, Va. Other previous assignments include commanding the U.S. Army Parachute Team and serving with the 1st Battalion with the 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group." The following are a few excerpts, but they cannot do justice to this very important article. I have a pdf version of the article and will gladly forward it to anyone who would like to read the full article. Please e-mail me off-list and I will send it to you. Dr. Richard Griffiths Improving Army Marksmanship, David Liwanag, Infantry, July/August 2006, Vol. 95, Issue 4, p 26-32. "Combat experience in the mountains of Afghanistan, two wars in the Iraqi desert, and current fighting in cities reinforces the need for effective rifle and carbine training to shoot and kill enemy soldiers at all ranges. We have no doctrinal training sources for close combat (7 to 200 meters) nor for extended range (300 to 500 meters) M16/M4 precision shooting." ... "The U.S. Army infantrymen is supported by incredibly sophisticated all-weather weapons and arms notable for their precision, effectiveness, and lethality at extended ranges--yet he must close to within 300-200 meters to engage enemy soldiers with a rifle effective to 500-550 meters. This fight is in 'the infantrymen's half-kilometer,' the difference between the 200-300 meter range of the average infantryman's training and the 500-550 meter maximum point-effective range of an expert armed with an M16/M4." ... "Our current marksmanship program do not give Soldiers the confidence to control the infantrymen's half-kilometer. Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier interviews with Soldiers in Iraq found, 'In the desert there were times when Soldiers needed to assault a building that might be 500-plus meters distance across open terrain. They did not feel the M4 provided effective fire at this range. The 82nd Airborne Soldiers wished they had deployed with M14s at the squad level as the 101st did.' Even had they done so, do the Soldiers know how to effectively use them at that range?" .... "The qualification score card in FM 3-22.9, ...shows to qualify a recruit does not have to hit all 200-meter targets, and can qualify while hitting no targets beyond 200 meters...Nearly all serving Army senior leadership personnel (generals and command sergeants major) have been trained to shoot to a maximum range of only 300 meters." ... "Trainfire's lack of precision downrange feedback, declining numbers of advance-trained shooters and coaches, and the collective inability of our NCO corps to analyze and correct shooting errors began to have a cumulative detrimental effect. By the the end of the 1980s, most KD-trained NCOs and officers had attrited from service and Army-wide marksmanship competition was dying. We lost our experienced unit and institutional Army marksmanship training base" ... "The problems identified by the Army Research Institute (ARI) in Basic Rifle Marksmanship Training in 1977 have remained: Too few competent instructors, Limited basic rifle markmanship (BRM) knowledge. Limited diagnostic skills, and Inability to conduct effective remediation." ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.
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