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Shooting experts eye multi-gun training

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — A Marine’s rifle jams during combat. Rather than waste precious time, he throws it down, pulling out the pistol from his drop holster. When that’s out of ammo, he scans the ground, picks up an AK47 from a slain Taliban, and uses that to fire on the enemy.

This combat scenario is not far-fetched. It could happen to you. But are you ready for it?

Experts from Weapons Training Battalion at Marine Corps Base Quantico believe a new trend in shooting competition, termed multi-gun, could be the key to better prepping Marines for combat. The battalion is looking to push this training far and wide across the Corps, to a base near you.

Multi-gun exercises combine marksmanship with a fast-paced obstacle course. Picture rushing through a range, shooting at various targets and using multiple weapons — a rifle, pistol and shotgun, for example. To heighten the realism and boost difficulty, you may be weighed down in full combat gear.

No multi-gun stage is identical to the next. All must be performed as fast as possible, but also as accurately as possible. With the belief that competition breeds excellence, Marines are pitted against one another to see who can earn the best time. Go too slow, and you waste precious seconds. Go too fast, and you could risk missing targets and being docked additional time anyway.

These exercises can improve a Marine’s speed, accuracy and decision-making skills, battalion officials say. But what’s key is that this training is also fun, said battalion Sgt. Maj. David Devaney.

“I think people don’t like to associate training with fun,” Devaney said. “But you can have both.”

The battalion’s goal is to improve marksmanship across the service, battalion commander Col. Tim Armstrong said, and multi-gun training and competition can do just that.

“Anytime you’ve got a Marine focusing on increasing his speed and increasing his accuracy with a weapon system, it applies to combat,” Armstrong said. “Having a Marine proficient with his service rifle, or pistol, or a shotgun, on the battlefield is going to mean good things.”

Early next year, Weapons Battalion Training along with Training and Education Command are planning to host a symposium to discuss future plans for Marine Corps marksmanship. The program was criticized recently in a report released by the Operations Analysis Division of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, which claimed that the marksmanship program had inadequate oversight and ranges and insufficient training. Officials at Weapons Training Battalion have disputed many of the study’s findings.

Recent efforts to expand multi-gun training are not connected to the marksmanship study. However, both have reinvigorated discussions on how to improve marksmanship in the Corps.

Gaining support

The battalion’s plan for multi-gun training starts with increasing awareness, Armstrong said.

“The short-term goal is getting this out to the operating forces — having them see it for what it is, which I think is something that will energize Marines on marksmanship, on combat shooting, on competitive shooting events, and [something that] will keep people interested in what they’re doing with their service weapons,” Armstrong said.

Members of the battalion’s combat shooting team brought the multi-gun challenge to Camp Lejeune, N.C., in late October, meeting about 40 Marines, mostly senior leaders, said Capt. Caleb Wells, officer in charge of the battalion’s shooting teams. Participating units included 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Logistics Group and the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.

During two daylong clinics, shooting team members provided tips for operating the M16 rifle, M9 pistol and M1014 shotgun before putting participants to the test with four multi-gun stages.

In one stage, Marines rushed down a hallway with shotguns firing at targets on both the left and right. Encountering a mock casualty, the participants had to drag the dummy outside the kill zone and then continue to shoot. Switching to a rifle, the Marines navigated barriers and took out targets at a variety of distances and from a variety of shooting positions. The stage wrapped with the pistol.

“It was a success on our part,” Wells said of the Lejeune trip. “Before we left the clinic we had units saying, ‘We’d like to look at training our Marines with this type of shooting.’ ”

Though dates are not set, the battalion is working to schedule similar clinics at Camp Pendleton, Calif., Wells said. Even a trip to Japan is a possibility, Armstrong said.

With senior leaders’ support, Wells said, they hope to return to Lejeune in the spring or summer for a multi-gun tournament.

Weapons Training Battalion formed a combat shooting team about three years ago after recognizing the multi-gun trend emerging in the civilian world and its applications to combat training.

Staff Sgt. Ysac Perez, the team’s staff noncommissioned officer in charge, describes multi-gun as a “building block” they can offer to Marines.

Perez, an infantry unit leader, deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2007 with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines. While clearing houses there, Perez preferred to use his pistol instead of his rifle because, he said, it was easier to clear his weapon if it jammed.

“The click of your rifle is a lot louder than the bullets coming downrange,” he said.

At the time, Perez said, he wasn’t confident enough to use his rifle and then drop it and reach for the pistol. But now, through multi-gun training, he sees the life-saving benefits of being able to switch weapons — without hesitation — during combat, he said. He now seeks to teach that same lesson to fellow Marines.

Another team member, Sgt. James Gill, said any Marine who has been to combat will look at multi-gun stages and say, “Yes, this is reality.”

Gill deployed as a rifleman to Afghanistan in 2004-05 and Iraq in 2006. On his second deployment he lost his lower right leg and his left eye after an IED blast in a stairwell.

Performing a three-gun stage in early October at Quantico, Gill swiftly used a pistol, rifle and shotgun to dispatch a slew of targets, running from a telephone booth to a car and finally a makeshift McDonald’s overrun with “Taliban” targets.

“I felt like I was in it!” Gill said with a grin after completing the stage.

“The best part of our training is simulated realism in a high-stress environment,” he said.

Devaney compares competing with the pistol, rifle and shotgun to another subject area near and dear to many Marines’ hearts: mixed martial arts.

“You’ve got boxers and you’ve got wrestlers and you’ve got jujitsu guys,” Devaney said. “But what do you get when you get into MMA? You’ve got to know it all.”

Another draw for Marines is the use of foreign weapons. Past stages performed by the battalion have included use of the AK47. At Lejeune, there was “definite interest” in giving Marines hands-on experience with the enemy’s weapons of choice, Wells said.

Target audience

Before multi-gun can be introduced across the Corps, it needs widespread support from Marine leaders, Armstrong said.

“It all goes back to buy-in, and I think it’s there,” he said. “Once people get exposed to this, see what we’re presenting in a competitive, engaging shooting event, I think it will be off and running.”

Armstrong can already envision long-range plans.

“If there is a desire ... and the operating force sees it as a value-added event, then it is something that will probably grow in the Competition-in-Arms Program, which all culminates with division matches, Far East matches and Marine Corps matches.”

Further, Marines could be selected to join teams at Quantico and shoot at the interservice and national levels, and then return to the operating force, Armstrong said.

A common concern at the Lejeune clinics, however, was that units were reluctant at the thought of sending their Marines away from their unit, Wells said.

“The resounding response was, ‘We’d like you to send Marines to our unit and train Marines,’ ” Wells said.

This is one option, Wells said, with the program adapting a “train the trainer” approach. A select group of Marines could be taught in a reasonable amount of time, Wells said, dependent on the level of teaching required.

“We would look at training NCOs, platoon sergeants, probably staff NCOs and senior sergeants who are able to be in charge of ranges and run training,” he said.

Another concern expressed at the Lejeune clinic was whether multi-gun training could begin to hinder marksmanship fundamentals and affect Marines’ muscle memory, Wells said.

Marines are taught to take cover while reloading, for example. But during multi-gun exercises it would be easy for a rushing Marine to reload on the move, without taking the precautions required in a real war zone, Wells said. To prevent this, a rule could be implemented in the program. If the range officer sees a Marine fail to take cover while reloading during a multi-gun competition, he would be given a time penalty.

Trying to incorporate multi-gun in already busy schedules could pose another significant challenge, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Wesley Turner, Marine gunner at Weapons Training Battalion Camp Lejeune.

Marksmanship in general has become increasingly less of a priority in the midst of a high-operational tempo and ever-increasing training demands, Turner said.

“One of the main things we have to do as Marines is to be able to hit where we’re shooting at consistently, and we’re not doing that well,” he said.

Multi-gun training could help with this mission, Turner added.

“If we can get people interested in wanting to make their Marines good [marksmen] by a different course of fire, or a different approach, there’s nothing wrong with it,” he said.

Ultimately, multi-gun is an add-on to marksmanship qualifications, which remain critical to building a Marine’s muscle memory and shooting techniques, Armstrong said.

“It’s taking the repetition of range training and putting it into a competition scenario, which I think Marines will look forward to participating in,” Armstrong said. “Just throwing the competition into it has Marines trying to reach for different ways to better themselves in a shooting environment.”