which was a world class screw up on the part of the Weapons Training Battalion CO.
Most people think that the Nationals are where the Army and Marines square of and compete and they do but the Nationals are not all about that.
The big thing few realize is that it's about recruiting. Many states send Junior teams and the junior team clinics are traditionally run by the Marine Shooting Team.
This year CMP had to cobble some kind of junior clinic together at the last minute as the team was a no-show.
The Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU) runs the Small Arms Firing school (SAFS) and the Marines run the Junior Clinic traditionally.
The AMU is under the Recruiting Command and the Marine team is under Training. Needless to say recruiting isn't a priority of the Weapons Training Battalion.
FWIW among shooters the general consensus it's a given the AMU will beat the Marine team. That's because the AMU is a dedicated full time unit. The Marine team is a group pulled from the Marine Fleetwide matches. The various winners of the fleet match are sent to Quantico and cobbled into a team. After the shooting season most are sent back to their units. The part that is pretty surprising is how close the Marine teams come to winning.
A big part of what happens at Perry is that an awful lot of young people get exposed to a lot of servicemen. While the Navy and Air Force are underrepresented, the AMU and Marine team are fairly numerous. They interact with the young people constantly.
The really sweet part of it is that these kids are generally in the 23% of youngsters eligible for military service without a waiver! They are fairly smart, generally in good physical shape and have no drug habit or criminal record or they would not be on a state team to begin with.
It's a recruiter's paradise!
The AMU houses their people off post, the ever so frugal Marines house their people in the barracks on post where they are generally available to answer questions and interact with the young people. It's a pretty good idea and over the years I've watched any number of friendships between Marines and youngsters develop. The Marines at Perry are pretty slick. They mentor a lot of these kids because they know where the next generation of Marines.
It was common to see a Marine post match helping out one of the young people that had shooting related questions. It should also be noted that these are not run of the mill Marines. They have been chosen not only based on their ability to shoot, but their ability to represent their organization.
One year I asked a Master Gunnery Sergeant what the requirements were to be on the team and he replied, Squared away Marine is a given. He said they'd rather lose the whole shebang than have some idiot get up on stage and embarrass them. In short the team has served as ambassadors of goodwill and as a result gotten any number of young people through the doors of recruiters.
Another year I saw a Gunny that was mentoring one of the youngsters. The kid was like a shadow to the Gunny, who had a family and kids of his own. Dollars to doughnuts the kid headed straight to his recruiter and enlisted the day after he finished high school.
THE all time slickest trick I ever saw the Marines pull was the youngster that was already on contract with the Corps that attended the Junior Clinic. A few days afterwards he shipped. He went through boot camp, his MOS school and shot in the fleet matches where he was picked up for the team.
The following year he returned to the same clinic he had attended only this time as an instructor! Needless to say, every youngster on post knew about that situation instantly, even if they didn't attend the clinic!
If the team picked him up based on his high shooting scores only then the numbers are responsible. If they picked him up with putting on as a clinic instructor it was a stroke of genius on someone's part.
I'm sure the Corps got an inordinate number of enlistees shortly after that clinic was over!
I dug around and asked people why the team didn't go to Perry this year and got two stories, one is that the WTB was being petty toward the team because they didn't accept a dinner offer from him.
The other reason is because the Corps is changing from the Old School known distance (KD) type of shooting to a more practical type.
Frankly I think it's a combination of the two. My best guess is the team simply wanted to go home and begged off and the CO got offended and used the excuse of the Corps changing shooting styles to dissolve the team. I could be 100% wrong, though.
That's based on taking the two biggest stories and combining them. It's been my experience that it comes closest to the truth although I have certainly been wrong before.
While I was at Perry word spread that the WTBCO had just either been relieved or retired. (Rumor control is FAST!)
Another thing I heard from an NCO is that the basic KD shooting is now only taught at the Officer's Basic School (TBS) and at boot camp.
If so, they should not replace it as the KD course at boot camp or the TBS because it teaches the basics that create a solid foundation for all other types of practical shooting.
Personally I'm good with using it only at TBS and boot camp because it lays a solid foundation for other types of shooting.
As far as the team goes I think the Corps made a mistake this year and that possibly the team be placed under the auspices of recruiting instead of under teaching and training in the future.
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